Back in 2001, I wrote a story on orthorexia - an obsession with "healthy" eating - for The Chicago Tribune. I interviewed a "recovering orthorexic" named Kate Finn, then a 34-year-old Venice, Calif., yoga instructor,whose descent began as an experimentation with the raw foods lifestyle and led her a hospital psychiatric wards eating-disorder unit, where she as admitted at 5 foot 8 and 85 pounds.
Kate started out innocently enough, a moderately healthy vegan who ate no animal products, ample vegetables and lots of junk food. Following the advice of friends, who proselytized about the increased clarity and energy that come with eating only uncooked vegetables, fruits, nuts and whole grains, she became a raw-foodist. Though the stomach problems that had long plagued her relented, she began to lose weight.
Next, an acupuncturist diagnosed her with a "weak spleen" and suggested she eschew all raw foods in favor of cooked vegetables, soups and even meat. Talk about mixed messages. One man urged Finn to eat nothing but sprouted wheat. Another time, while working at a health food co-op, she asked one customer how she was doing. "She said, 'Not well. Yesterday I ate some cooked food.'"
Kate told me her "Aha!" moment came when she spotted an article on orthorexia in a yoga magazine. "I was like, 'Wow, that's what I have,'" she recalled.
Sadly, Kate is no longer with us. She died from complications of orthorexia. From her obsession with eating "too healthy."
Back in September, I introduced the concept of orthorexia here and asked if this was something you'd ever struggled with. The majority - 58% - said "There have been times when I became way too focused on eating only "good" foods, but it never got out of control." Which made me feel happy and relieved...and yet some of the comments were concerning.
One reader said, "I once invoked a sugar, wheat and dairy embargo, it started under the guise of an experiment for my health, but once the pounds starting dropping off my motivation changed rather swiftly...it made me a little crazy to be so deprived, I'd spend my evenings wandering the aisles of my local supermarket, gazing longingly at all the forbidden fruit, while feeling all smug and superior to those who didn't have my self control."
Another said of her strict control over everything that went into her body, "People would always tell me 'You are the healthiest eater I know!' and 'I wish I had your self-control!"' and 'I bet your intestines look like brushed steel!' But there are real costs, both physically, mentally and socially with orthorexia. Even though my weight never got freakishly low, I still lost my period and had severe vitamin deficiencies. I was tired all the time. Plus I couldn't eat cake at my kids' birthday parties! Who wants to live like that?"
I'm so glad she summed it up with that moment of clarity. When eating begins to interfere with your life, monopolize your time or dictate how "good" or "pure" you feel, there's a problem. You wanna go organic? Fine. Cutting out dairy and wheat? I understand. But when it gets to the point where you've cut out milk and wheat AND eggs, cheese, soy, corn, oats, bananas, avocados, broccoli, tuna, apples, butter, spinach, oregano, tomatoes and more (as did one patient of a doctor I interviewed on this topic for the Tribune), clearly you are not in a "healthy" place anymore.
I'll be posting my Today Show segment on this topic shortly - both myself and iVillage nutritionist Madelyn Fernstrom are being interviewed. Hope you tuned in and can join the discussion here!
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