Get healthy in moderation!
Swedish doctors are alarmed by the spread of healthy lifestyle mania in society – orthorexia. And they urge those who think about proper nutrition for more than 3 hours a day to contact specialists – psychologists and nutritionists. Orthorexia (from Greek. "ortho" – correct) is a mental disorder that manifests itself in an obsession with a healthy lifestyle based on proper nutrition and regular exercise with a heavy load. This "correct" aspiration in fact can lead to mental problems and nutritional disorders.
According to experts, RIA Novosti notes, it is difficult to determine exactly how many people in Sweden suffer from this disease. But, according to the founder of the Swedish Association against Eating Disorders, Madeleine Mesterton, over the past 5 years, significantly more people have turned to them "who train with the tenacity of a fan and eat only very healthy food." "It seems to me that young people are under very powerful pressure today. According to her ideas, one should be thin and well-trained. In addition, the media is constantly bombarded with advice about what not to eat, what to eat and how to train," she believes. For a long time, orthorexics look sporty and healthy. Orthorexia grows out of ordinary and correct things, brought to the point of absurdity. Its peculiarity – and at the same time the complexity of its treatment – is the patient's confidence that he is doing the right thing, acting for the benefit of his body and living healthier than others.
As a result, an orthorexic experiences a constant fear of getting sick or getting better, he has a serious 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. But first of all, orthorexia is dangerous because it can develop into anorexia – a complete refusal of food. The term "orthorexia" was proposed by an American doctor from California, Stephen Bratman, in 1997. He called it a "proper nutrition complex." Bratman in his youth was a member of a large commune that was engaged in the cultivation of organic products. He ate exclusively fresh vegetables and before swallowing a piece of food, chewed it exactly 50 times. Such pedantry brought Stephen to a nervous breakdown, which he called "orthorexia". Later, Bratman even wrote a book about this problem, "Addiction to healthy foods: How to overcome the obsession with proper nutrition." According to statistics, the victims of orthorexia are most often women from 30 to 50 years of age, middle-income, working, but not too loving their work, with serious problems in their personal lives. In men, orthorexia often accompanies the experiences of a "midlife crisis".
Doctor Stephen Bretman calls the following signs of orthorexia: – a person thinks about proper nutrition for more than 3 hours a day; – he definitely plans tomorrow's menu, and does not eat what is in the refrigerator; – the feeling that he eats the right food means more to him than the pleasure of the food itself; – he constantly refuses the food that he likes, for the sake of the one that is useful; – because of the chosen diet, it is difficult for a person to eat anywhere but at home. By the way, in about 70% of cases, insanity on a healthy lifestyle creates social difficulties for a person – he cannot have lunch in a cafe with friends or colleagues, refuses to have leisure time with them, the orthorexic's performance decreases, he begins to be shunned. Symptoms of orthorexia are also the desire to give up fats and carbohydrates, deep awareness of the rules of nutrition, focus on maximum results in the gym, obsession with your own weight, forced healthy eating and constant conversation with yourself at the level of "one ice cream costs so much time in the gym." Also, orthorexics are constantly improving their diet and are engaged in excretion cleansing of the body (for example, excretion of toxins). When they get sick, they often refuse to take medications, considering them "chemistry".
Among the most dangerous diets and procedures considered by orthorexics to be attributes of a healthy lifestyle are fasting (especially "dry", when a person refuses not only to eat, but also to drink), raw food, complete rejection of salt and sugar, urine therapy, long mono-diets, color diets. The first step to healing, according to Swedish doctors, is for a person to realize that he has these disorders. Then he should turn to specialists – a psychologist, a nutritionist and all those whose help may be needed.
Source: GZT.ruPortal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru