The phrase ‘clean eating’ was coined in 1997 and has become the societal staple of a healthy lifestyle over the course of two decades. The sneaky thing about this phrase is that ‘diet’ is missing from the end. It sounds reasonable on the surface, flexible meals focused on fresh, natural ingredients with no foods off limits. However, if you look closer no food groups are off limits but many foods are restricted. Some of these restrictions include: no refined or processed foods like white pasta, flour, and rice, little red meat intake, and no added sugar.
A diet is a diet is a diet is a diet. While clean eating is more flexible than something like the keto or paleo diet, the suggestions of what to avoid can be implemented just as strictly. Orthorexia is a form of disordered eating the slippery slope of clean eating can become. We say eating disorders are a slippery slope because they are often formed without intention.
Now let’s elaborate on orthorexia… Wanting to consume nutrient-dense foods is not bad by any means. However, it becomes a problem when the thought of eating something you deem as unhealthy interferes with your daily life or prevents you from truly experiencing or even attending special events. Over time thoughts surrounding food will take up most of your mental capacity. You may find yourself spending hours looking at new recipes, daydreaming of foods you will not allow yourself to eat, or even constantly bringing up food in conversation. Orthorexia often goes undetected because it is disguised as a healthy lifestyle change all while the obsession with food is taking a toll on one’s mental, emotional, and possibly physical health.
The diet industry has gone to extensive lengths to tell you what you should or should not eat. To be clear, food is not good, bad, clean, dirty, healthy, or unhealthy. The human body was not physiologically designed to be put through stringent diets or 30 day cleanses. A well-balanced diet does not mean perfect proportions of complex carbs, vegetables, unsaturated fats, and chicken. It means you can get adequate nutrition from a cheeseburger and fries and don’t need to compensate with a salad at your next meal. Just as the same pair of pants will not fit every person, a mass-marketed diet will not either.
If you would like to schedule an appointment with one of our registered dietitians to discuss a non-diet approach to a healthy, fulfilling lifestyle please click here.
Written by Shelby Armstrong - Dietetic Intern