Healthy Food Obsession Sparks New Eating Disorder

There is good reason to avoid or minimise lots of the things mentioned below...maybe if we had a healthier food environment/food systems, people would not a) be getting sensitive or sick, and intolerant to foods and b) worrying so much about what's going in their mouth!

Excerpt from full article @ The Guardian, 16 August 2009

'Eating disorder charities are reporting a rise in the number of people suffering from a serious psychological condition characterised by an obsession with healthy eating.The condition, orthorexia nervosa, affects equal numbers of men and women, but sufferers tend to be aged over 30, middle-class and well-educated.

...Orthorexics commonly have rigid rules around eating. Refusing to touch sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol, wheat, gluten, yeast, soya, corn and dairy foods is just the start of their diet restrictions. Any foods that have come into contact with pesticides, herbicides or contain artificial additives are also out. The obsession about which foods are "good" and which are "bad" means orthorexics can end up malnourished. Their dietary restrictions commonly cause sufferers to feel proud of their "virtuous" behaviour even if it means that eating becomes so stressful their personal relationships can come under pressure and they become socially isolated.'