Being Concerned with Healthful Eating is Now Apparently an Eating Disorder

I have a question: Do you exhibit any of the following actions:

  • Felt the need to check nutrition labels before purchasing an item from the grocery store
  • Had a concern about the health of ingredients you put into your body
  • Cut out certain foods (i.e., foods that are high in sugar)
  • Not wanted to eat food that is considered unhealthy or junk food
  • Interested in what others eat and whether their diets are healthy
  • Thought about whether food will be healthy as events you may attend
  • Been upset or disappointed when there is no healthy food available to eat
  • Took interest and following food or “healthy lifestyle” blogs on Twitter and Instagram

 

Well, according to the psychiatric community, you could have the “medical condition” called “orthorexia nervosa” [1]. Even though I am only 20, I have seen a few stupid things in my lifetime, but this is right at the top, and I am not really surprised. The National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) said if people exhibit these behaviors malnutrition is likely. Ironically, I believe the opposite would be true: if people do not care about what they eat or put into their bodies and only eat cheap, fast food, then malnutrition would be likely.

At the same time, though, the conventional psychiatry industry is highly controlled by the pharmaceutical industry. For example, when new psychiatric disorders are “discovered,” or rather “developed,” the drug companies can make medicines to treat them, and psychiatrists get new business. Remember, this is the same industry that classifies creativity as a mental illness.

This is a vicious cycle where everyone makes money, except the person diagnosed with the constructed mental illnesses that are not even illnesses at all, and that person is subjected to the harmful side-effects of the toxic pharmaceuticals.

However, while this may be listed as a mental illness by NEDA, orthorexia nervosa has not been officially added to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)… yet. There is a strong push by psychiatrists to get it in there, but for now, it is just grouped with other generalized eating disorders. If it can get its classification, similar to anorexia or bulimia, and if it is added to the DSM, then you can be confident the pharmaceutical industry will begin to create drugs to cash in.

This seems to be another step in the push for Americans to eat and consume whatever foods they are told to be edible without questioning it. Another excellent example of this are GMO foods. It is normal for people to be curious about how their foods are produced, and in my opinion, if you simply do not care and are willing to eat anything, I believe that is naïve.

The GMO industry has pushed back against transparency with the products they produce by lobbying against the GMO labeling movement. Here is my question: if these companies believe so much that what they are producing is healthy and safe, why should they be concerned about labeling their products what they are? I support the right to know, meaning full disclosure of what is in the foods we eat. If you are interested in a list of GMO free companies, see reference [2].

If you are interested in learning about how to eat healthfully, I would recommend checking out the books Breakthrough Health and Eat Clean and Be Healthy. Breakthrough Health includes several chapters about various aspects of health. Eat Clean and Be Healthy has a few informational chapters out diet and eating cleanly, but it is also mainly a cookbook and features many Broer family recipes and healthy eating tips, and was written by the whole Healthmasters team.

If you have any questions about these books, please feel free to call us at 800.726.1834.

 

References:

[1] https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/learn/by-eating-disorder/other/orthorexia

[2] https://livelovefruit.com/gmo-free-companies/