Orthorexia: Healthy eating can become a disorder, here's what you should know about the condition

In this day and age, when obesity and mental disorders are at their peak, a healthy lifestyle is often suggested by almost all experts. But with this growing hype and culture around eating healthy food, not everything is as glittery as it may sound. Eating healthy food may lead to diseases. Sounds almost impossible, right? Yet, it is true. Let us dive a little deeper into what we have just sparked a conversation around.

Never in a million years could someone has imagined that eating healthy would lead to diseases, well, technically the food is not what is causing trouble here, it is indeed, as always, the mind. There are many such obsessive-compulsive disorders associated with eating habits, but the one we are discussing today is Orthorexia.

Orthorexia, also known as orthorexia nervosa, is a kind of eating disorder which is characterized by an excessive fixation with eating well. Unlike others, it is mostly concerned with food quality rather than the food’s quantity. People with this disordered aren’t usually too concerned about loosing wait as they are towards their meals and ingredients being of the purest quality.

How do we really know if a person has this disorder? The short answer is, there isn’t really an exact criterion that can accurately diagnose a disorder like this. Although, researchers and physicians have suggested symptoms which might result in a condition like this. These symptoms include reading ingredients lists and Nutrition Facts Labels compulsively, eliminating a growing number of items or food categories, displaying high degrees of anxiety when "healthy" foods aren't accessible, and obsessively following "healthy living" social media accounts and blogs. We must also understand here that, someone who follows a specific diet or tries to eat healthy does not always have orthorexia. However, when a habit becomes fixated or obsessive, it may become a cause for worry.

Yes, there can be complications, physical, mental, and even social. Malnutrition, anaemia, and an unusually slow heart rate can all be caused by a lack of necessary nutrients induced by restricted diet. Severe malnutrition can cause digestive issues, electrolyte and hormonal imbalances, metabolic acidosis, and bone health concerns. At the same time, one may face immense psychological effects, lack focus, lose interest in social scenarios and more.