ORTHOREXIA

ORTHOREXIA

In the last years, the number related to eating disorder cases is growing. The new lifestyles, excessive concerns about body image, changes in food, advertising and others have made this increase. Clearly the issue of nutrition is very important and people are concerned about their diet, their health and how they can reach it through food; that is why many of them read magazines, books, watch programs and everything to get wellness.

The most common eating disorders are Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa but there are new ones which are appearing over recent years as orthorexia

The term "orthorexia" comes from the Greek word meaning "right appetite obsession" ortho (right) and-orexia (appetite); the orthorexia more than the quantity of food it focuses on the quality of the food until. This disorder is a pathological obsession with healthy or balanced eating. It usually starts innocently, as a desire to get overcome diseases, lose weight or improve health.

They are usually people with very strict rules, if at any time they do not follow these rules they are punished by themselves with stricter diets such as fasting

The most common damage from orthorexia is the loss of opportunities due to the obsession about food which becomes something more important than what it really is, while somebody is obsessed with food many things are left of doing.

SYMPTOMS

• Excessive preoccupation for the quality of what is eaten more than by the pleasure and necessity to eat.
• Planning meals for the next few days; orthorexics tend to plan menus for the coming days, weeks, etc.
• Spend more than three hours a day thinking about her healthy diet.
• Social isolation avoiding eat away from home or at restaurants  which is why the meetings with friends will be less common until they until they reach the loneliness
• Feeling of guilt or "sin" when the diet is broken

TREATMENT

• Treating orthorexia is very difficult, usually it takes several years for a person to get maintain good nutrition without strict rules and calculated, to stop feeling guilty about what you eat after spent years obsessed on it.
• They must begin to learn to eat normally and how to do it naturally without thinking about it too much, forgetting the concern about what you eat.
• They must eat when they're hungry and keep eating to satiation.
• Psychotherapy can help patients to change their behavior and self-esteem, correcting his distorted view about the harm of certain foods.

CONCLUSIONS:

• Orthorexia is an obsession of eating healthy.
• It usually starts innocently, as a desire to get overcome diseases, lose weight or improve health.
• The persons who suffer of orthorexia have very strict rules for his food.

SUGGESTIONS:

• Fighting and looking for professional help to balance a normal autoesteem.
• The health Ministry must give orientation to the population about how they can feed healthy.
• They must choose foods that they like it and they will be able to enjoy it.

El trato orthorexia es muy difícil, por lo general esto toma varios años para una persona para ponerse mantienen la nutrición buena sin reglas estrictas y deliberado, dejar de sentirse culpable sobre lo que usted come después de años gastados obsesionados sobre ello.

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