Too healthy lifestyle
Healthy food is maddening
British nutritionists believe that the obsession with proper nutrition poses a threat to the public health of the countryIrina Vlasova, GZT.ru
British nutritionists have expressed concern about the growing number of mental disorders and disorders associated with the cult of healthy eating. According to the British Dietetic Association (BDA), the number of residents of the country suffering from orthorexia nervosa (obsessive desire to consume only healthy foods) is steadily increasing, reports The Daily Telegraph.
According to Ursula Philpot, the head of the BDA mental health group, the increase in the number of people suffering from this disease poses a threat to the public health of the UK.
Orthorexia is a mania in which people, choosing a diet, are guided by extravagant ideas about healthy food: they do not use sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol, dairy products, wheat, corn, soy, yeast. Persuasion does not allow them to eat foods grown using pesticides, hormones, antibiotics and containing artificial additives (dyes, preservatives).
Obsession with diet leads to metabolic disorders associated with a lack of nutritious and biologically active compounds in the diet. Doctors say that middle-class people over the age of 30 are more likely to suffer from the disease.
In the modern international classification of diseases, there is no separate position for orthorexia nervosa – it is included in the group of other eating disorders, but doctors believe that this is the most common pathology.
"We also notice an increase in such dietary searches in our patients, these are real neuroses," Lyudmila Krasnova, a psychologist at a private family medical center in Moscow, told the Gazeta correspondent. – Such people plan their menu for several days in advance, even carry with them stocks of the right food. The main thing is that they despise those who eat incorrectly. And it is sad that on this basis not only family conflicts ripen, but also children who are forced to eat right suffer."
Swiss nutritionists of the Bern clinic L'Hopital de l'Isle, who also noted the growth of orthorexia in their country, consider the reason for the mass craze for healthy eating to be an excess of information in the media about the harm or benefits of certain products, which spurs neuroses.
Psychiatrists call the symptoms of orthorexia: a person thinks about proper nutrition for more than three hours a day; always plans tomorrow's menu; eats only what is useful, refusing delicious and favorite foods; is fond of cleansing or mono-diets, raw food, urine therapy, diets according to the color of products.
Also, this list includes the abuse of therapeutic fasting, the exhaustion of your body with sports training. An orthorexic is afraid of getting sick or getting better, he has a deficiency of essential substances in the body – a state of hidden hunger. This affects the work of the heart, causes a reduction in the amount of calcium in the body and premature wear of the joints. With these symptoms, the patient already needs the help of not only a nutritionist, but also a psychologist and a psychiatrist.
Experts believe that often the passion for proper nutrition is an attempt to simply fill life with meaning. But first of all, orthorexia is dangerous because it can develop into anorexia – a complete refusal of food. In about 70% of cases, insanity to a healthy lifestyle creates social difficulties for a person due to the refusal of joint leisure with friends, a decrease in working capacity.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru25.08.2009