Looking forward to a Christmas feast or feasts is pretty normal at this time of year but for some people that prospect is more stressful than welcome.
Both men and women can suffer from what is called orthorexia which is an obsession with healthy eating that gradually rules out most of the foods a lot of us will be tucking into over the next few weeks.
The key part of the name of this condition is “ortho” which means upright or straight (think orthodontic, for instance). People who can be described as experiencing orthorexia often start out by wanting to cultivate a healthy body. This involves attention to diet but gradually concerns about diet take over and become obsessive.
A lot goes on in our culture that pushes this process along. For instance, Instagram has millions of images with the hashtag “cleanfood”. I’m not saying that most of those who post these images of “perfect” bodies and “healthy” foods have a problem but the astonishing number of images under that one hashtag shows how widespread the cultural fixation is on “clean” eating.
Signs
What might be some signs that orthorexia could be an issue for you?
Do you skip social activities – family dinners, say – because they may interfere with your healthy eating? Do you spend a lot of time obsessing over the healthiness of your food? Have you dropped or lost relationships because of your healthy eating? Do you feel tormenting guilt if you eat something forbidden like, say, an ice cream or a potato? Do you find yourself unable to drop your rules for special occasions such as Christmas dinner? Has anyone suggested you look thin or malnourished since you started your healthy eating?
These might be signs that you are building your life around food and that you could suffer a loss of relationships and wellbeing unless you change.
You’ll find a useful “self-test’ checklist on orthorexia.com which is the website of Dr Steven Bratman who coined the term in a 1997 essay.
One step on the road back from orthorexia is to confide in someone you trust and to get their moral support.
Another is to question the link between the food you eat and your worth as a person.
For instance, eating a pizza doesn’t actually make you a bad person. Lots of good people eat pizza too. And eating goji berries doesn’t make you a good person. If you searched around you’d probably find some really bad dudes who eat goji berries.
I mention this because Steven Bratman, in his 1977 article in Yoga Journal cautions that the orthorexic person may see a dietary lapse as a “fall from grace” from which he or she must be purified by taking on “numerous acts of penitence. These usually involve ever stricter diets and fasts.
“Over time, this ‘kitchen spirituality’ begins to override other sources of meaning. An orthorexic will be plunged into gloom by eating a hot dog, even if his team has just won the world series. Conversely, he can redeem any disappointment by extra efforts at dietary purity.”
Inner critic
Another step on the road back might be to watch out for the tendency to condemn your body for being too fat, too ugly, too flabby, too this that and the other. Listen to what your inner critic is saying and speak up for yourself now and then: “This body might have a couple of extra kilos but it’s carried me around for many miles and many years, so lay off.”
You might also need to work out better ways to deal with your stress because we tend to seek the comfort of our obsessions and addictions when we are stressed out.
It’s best to work on all this gradually. If you are caught in orthorexia, you are probably not going to recover from it by Christmas so don’t make that into something else to obsess over.
And when January comes with its calls for penance, fasting and self-flagellation, remember you don’t have to give in: it’s just noise.
Padraig O’Morain is accredited by the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. His latest book is “Mindfulness for Worriers”. His daily mindfulness reminder is free by email.
pomorain@yahoo.com Twitter: @PadraigOMorain