THE XX FILES: "Orthorexia" a growing problem

 Jessica Alba’s baby daughter allegedly eats a sugar-free, organic diet.

Uma Thurman and Donna Karan reportedly subscribe to the raw lifestyle, eating uncooked and unprocessed vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds.

And in one of many celebrity attempts at “detoxification,” Oprah Winfrey completed the Quantum Wellness cleanse, a three-week program that bans sugar, alcohol, caffeine, gluten and animal products from the diet.

Though the examples are numerous and the list of avoided foods endless, the logic behind these rigid diets is all the same: to be healthier.

To some in the medical field, an extreme form of this good intention is a growing cause for concern.

Coined by Dr. Steven Bratman, the term “orthorexia” is a condition in which people become intensely preoccupied with eating healthy foods. In his book, “Health Food Junkies,” he explains the etymology of this new word: “ortho-“ means “upright” or “correct,” while “orexis” means “appetite.” Therefore, orthorexics are obsessed with proper eating.

Bratman is the first person to not only define and bring attention to the practice but also to advocate its classification as an eating disorder.  (Currently, it is not considered a clinical diagnosis.)

Others disagree, arguing that extreme worries about healthy eating are a symptom of eating disorders, not eating disorders in themselves.

Nonetheless, the fact is clear: specialists acknowledge that individuals – some as young as eight years old in the case of Greye Dunn, who was overly concerned with his sodium intake – are indeed harboring strong anxieties about what, in their minds, they should and should not consume.

And regardless of the definite medical status of orthorexia, Dr. Bratman’s push to categorize it as an eating disorder undoubtedly brings attention to disordered eating and eating disorders not otherwise specified (EDNOS), acknowledges their subtleties and points to Americans’ unhealthy relationship with food overall.