Nowadays, there is an increase in popularity of a healthy lifestyle including healthy nutrition. It seems that this is a good tendency, however, it turns out that even that way of life can have disadvantages when a desire to eat healthy becomes harmful.
Such observation was made by Steven Bratman, who in 1997 introduced a concept of orthorexia nervosa. It is an eating disorder in which food quality has greater significance than its amount. Initially, person wants to improve health condition or cure a disease and for that reason they make dietary restrictions. They exclude food which is unhealthy, unclean or contain artificial additives from their diet. They are often vegetarians, vegans, raw foodists or fructarians. Over time the restrictions become more strict. Orthorectic also starts to worry too much about the materials and techniques used in food preparation. Social life is submitted to the diet. Person suffering from orthorexia sacrifices more and more time to plan and prepare meals, giving up meeting during which they would have to eat anything.
Finally, orthorectics refuse to consume any food because everything can contain unhealthy substances. Then, the disorder causes weight loss and cachexia similar to anorexia nervosa. The most adverse result is death due to extreme emaciation.
Currently, this disorder is classified neither in the DSM-V nor in the ICD-10. Diagnosis is based on a few available tests, of which the most popular are the BOT (Bratman Test for Orthorexia) and ORTHO-15. There is also no established treatment algorithm, however, it is assumed that cognitive behavioral therapy and drug therapy by selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors may be helpful.
Written by:: Anna Dittfeld, Katarzyna Gwizdek, Aneta Koszowska, Justyna Nowak
Source:
1. J Am Diet Assoc. 2005 Oct;105(10):1510-2. What is orthorexia? Mathieu J.
2. Park SW, Kim JY, Go GJ, Jeon ES, Pyo HJ, Kwon YJ.: Orthorexia nervosa with hyponatremia, subcutaneous emphysema, pneumomediastimum, pneumothorax, and pancytopenia. Electrolyte Blood Press. 2011; 9(1): 32-37.
3. Catalina Zamora ML, Bote Bonaechea B, García Sánchez F, Ríos Rial B.: [Orthorexia nervosa. A new eating behavior disorder?] Actas Esp Psiquiatr. 2005; 33(1): 66-68.
4. Dittfeld A, Koszowska A, Fizia K, Ziora K.: Ortoreksja – nowe zaburzenie odżywiania. Annales Academiae Medicae Silesiensis. 2013; 67(6): 393-399
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