New Eating Disorders: Orthorexia

Respected publications like JAMA and Psychology Today are recognizing another new eating disorder ORTHOREXIA, an obsession with healthy eating. Orthorexia was first identified in 1997 by Colorado physician Steven Bratman, MD. Orthorexia is Latin for “correct eating.”  The focus isn’t on losing weight. Instead, sufferers increasingly restrict their diets to foods they consider pure, natural and healthful. Some researchers say that orthorexia may combine a touch of obsessive compulsive disorder with anxiety and warn that severely limited “healthy” diets may be a stepping stone to anorexia nervosa, the most severe - and potentially life-threatening - eating disorder. Neither adult picky eating disorder nor orthorexia is included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), the American Psychiatric Association’s “bible” of mental disorders.

Like kids, adult picky eaters limit themselves to an extremely narrow range of foods. Unlike those who suffer from anorexia nervosa or bulimia, adult picky eaters are seemingly not worried about calorie counts or body image. Researchers don’t know if adult picky eaters just haven’t outgrown childhood patterns or if their eating habits are a new twist on OCD.

Adult picky eaters food preferences tend to be bland, white or pale colored - plain pasta or cheese pizza are said to be common foods along with French fries and chicken fingers. Some picky eaters stick to foods with a common texture or taste. Orthorexics start by eliminating processed foods, anything with artificial colorings or flavorings as well as foods that have come into contact with pesticides. Beyond that, orthorexics may also shun caffeine, alcohol, sugar, salt, wheat and dairy foods. Some limit themselves to raw foods.

So as we all walk down the aisle at the grocery store and scrutinize food labels AND try to make healthy choices when we go out to dinner,I found a few apps for the phone. Check them out!

 Fooducate, which has more than 200,000 items in its product database, essentially puts a nutritionist in hand when you’re at the grocery store.

Restaurant Nutrition gives you the scoop on more than 115 restaurants and 19,000 menu items.

Publish Post

Looking for Eating Disorders Awareness Ideas?

Body Rocks promotes the idea of raising awareness. In February every year, NEDA host National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. I am posting this link in hopes all of you will find a way to promote awareness. This year, Body Rocks BREAKS THE SILENCE of Eating Disorders.

Join me and our community as we raise eating disorders awareness! For ideas see
http://www.normal-life.org/uploads/NEDAwareness_Ideas__Links___2___final_.pdf

A great video found http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qs5yooRPek&feature=related

Thanks for your support!

Among children younger than 12 with eating disorders, hospitalizations jumped 119 per cent between 1999 and 2006!

Eating disorders are sending more U.S. children to hospital and pediatricians should be on the lookout for patients suspected of having a problem, according to a new report by the American Academy of Pediatrics, November 29, 2010.

Among children younger than 12 with eating disorders, hospitalizations jumped 119 per cent between 1999 and 2006, says the clinical report in Monday's edition of the American Academy of Pediatrics. It is estimated 0.5 per cent of adolescent girls in the United States have anorexia nervosa (self-starvation), and one to two per cent meet criteria for bulimia nervosa (binging and purging).
Dr. David Rosen with the University of Michigan suggests Pediatricians become advocates for legislation and policies that ensure appropriate services for patients with eating disorders, including medical care, nutritional intervention, mental-health treatment and care co-ordination. With the increasing recognition of eating disorders in males, they now make up 10 per cent of all cases. The disorders are increasingly seen in children.

A 2001 study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that of 1,739 Ontario school girls aged 12 to 18:
-27% said they engaged in binging or purging.
-23% said they were dieting.
-8% reported self-induced vomiting.

What can doctors do to help? Doctors can help prevent eating disorders by stressing proper nutrition and exercise to avoid an unhealthy focus on weight and dieting, the report's authors said in outlining diagnostic criteria for disordered eating. Doctors and Pediatricians are encouraged to advocate for legislation and policies that ensure appropriate services for patients with eating disorders, including medical care, nutritional intervention, mental-health treatment and care co-ordination.

Dr. Leora Pinhas, psychiatric director of the eating disorder clinic at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children has seen kids who are stunted, kids who haven't grown in two years. Many of these kids are ONLY IN 2nd GRADE! They're still the same height they were in kindergarten. And if it's affecting their height, it's affecting everything inside their body, including their brain.

Ready for this?

November 29, 2010

Among children younger than 12 with eating disorders, hospitalizations jumped 119 per cent between 1999 and 2006, says the clinical report in Monday's edition of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

It is estimated 0.5 per cent of adolescent girls in the United States have anorexia nervosa (self-starvation), and 1-2% meet criteria for bulimia nervosa (binging and purging).

Now, with this percentage on the rise of the young kids and eating disorders, I think it is time we step back as parents, educators or advocates and realize the importance of awareness. This is why we have Body Rocks.