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Orthorexia When one's own health becomes a constant compulsion
Organic, whole foods, special diets: More and more people pay close attention to what foods they eat. Although healthy food is in principle not wrong, some people are having problems with it. If they are obsessed with the supposedly correct diet, experts speak of the eating disorder "Orthorexia".
Healthy food is trendy
More and more consumers swear by green smoothies, which are often less healthy than expected due to their high sugar content. Others are increasingly relying on so-called "clean eating" without processed foods, on vegan foods or the Paelo diet, with which you can lose weight through eating stone. In general, the number of people who are intensively concerned with the question of what the right food is for them has increased. However, that's exactly what can get morbid - if the desire for healthy food is downright obsessed with those affected. Experts then talk about the eating disorder Orthorexia nervosa.
Image: monticellllo - fotolia "Consumption of healthy food only"
"Orthorexia is a fixation on the consumption of exclusively healthy food," said Friederike Barthels from the Institute for Experimental Psychology at the University of Dusseldorf, according to a message from the news agency dpa. However, there is a problem: "The definition of what is healthy is different. As a result, there is a risk that it is no longer healthy, but very one-sided and very extreme. "Affected show not only physical effects; According to experts, they also often get together because invitations to eat with friends are refused in order not to have to deviate from the nutrition plan. In addition, they sometimes tried to "proselytize" others, who therefore retire.
Helmut Schatz, former media spokesman of the German Society of Endocrinology, which deals with hormones and metabolism, addressed the danger of loneliness: "Affected often lose the social contacts, because a visit to a restaurant with friends and family is hardly possible for them," said the expert. According to Schatz, orthorexia is first of all an eating specialty. "But if there is a compulsion and the person suffers, then it becomes pathological."
Especially younger women are affected
Orthorexia is currently not a recognized disease in Germany. According to experts, but it is closely related to anorexia, so anorexia. "In both cases, sufferers select their diet very carefully and cut many foods from the diet," said the psychologist Barthels. "Basically, there are different facets of omitting food." Cora Weber, a specialist in psychosomatic medicine at the Berlin Charité, also sees this as a zeitgeist phenomenon that relates to a return to nature or even the food scandals of recent times has: "It is the desire for control and health."
The fact that health, even before freedom and success, has the highest importance for Germans, is also evident from the recently released index of values by trend researcher Peter Wippermann. However, Orthorexia is not a mass phenomenon in this country. According to Bartels tend in studies about one to three percent of participants to appropriate behavior, with one percent behave extremely. According to the information, especially younger women are affected.
Deficiency symptoms due to one-sided nutrition
A problem is often when sufferers are convinced of their behavior and do not want to change it. According to experts, those who have already become deficient due to a very one-sided diet are more likely to be ready for therapy. Not infrequently it comes to underweight. In addition, malnutrition on a physical level is often manifested by symptoms such as low blood pressure, slowed pulse, loss of appetite, diarrhea or nausea. The effects of malnutrition are generally recognizable by physical weakness, listlessness and tiredness. Not so easy is the answer to the question of what is actually healthy.
"A guideline is the recommendations of the German Nutrition Society," said Barthels. In addition to plant foods, the company mainly recommends abundant cereal products and potatoes as well as five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. "A piece of chocolate is not the end of the world. The weekly balance should be right, "said Barthels. (Ad)