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When an Extreme Healthy Diet Leads to an Obsession

When an Extreme Healthy Diet Leads to an Obsession

While there are many benefits to eating healthy, what happens when you take healthy eating to an extreme level? Learn how a healthy clean diet can turn into an obsession when taken to an extreme level.

clean eatingAccording to an article at abc2news.com, “When Healthy Eating Is Just Too Extreme”

“Making healthier food choices is something many of us aspire to do. Now, with calorie counts on menus and specialty aisles full of organic, GMO-free and other health conscious labels in grocery stores, it seems easier than ever. But, it can feel overwhelming at times.

“I think we’re just bombarded with it, about clean eating and eating healthy and making sure you’re making the right choices, every second of every day,” said Baltimore-based registered dietitian Amanda Gilley.

For people with orthorexia, “clean eating” is no longer a choice, it’s an obsession. They become pre-occupied with eating only very pure foods. They derive their self-esteem from sticking to clean eating and beat themselves up when they eat anything they consider un-clean.

“What ends up happening is the search for eating only pure foods becomes so limiting in what the individual allows themselves to eat, that they are eating less and less and their diet becomes more and more restrictive,” Gilley said.

Dr. Steven Crawford, co-director of the Center for Eating Disorders at Sheppard Pratt, said such restrictive eating can lead to significant nutritional deficiencies and low body weight. It’s often socially isolating, as Gilley has seen in her patients.

“They’ll actually not eat out because they’re not sure what was in a dish,” she said. “They’ll want to know every ingredient in a dish. They’ll start to even have trust issues. I’ve had patients who, they don’t trust anyone but themselves and their mother essentially to cook for them because they think they’ll add something into the dish that’s not clean.”

Gilley said it’s about having complete control over the quality of food they eat. People prone to obsessive compulsive behavior are especially susceptible to developing orthorexia. Though it often starts as an innocent desire to eat healthier, it can evolve to be anything but.” To read the entire article click here.

Tired of the diet restrictions and the yo-yo dieting? Learn how intuitive eating teaches one to have a healthy relationship with food. For more information contact Barbara Cox at 775-329-0505 or visit ABCNutritionServices.com.

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