25 August 2020

Crazy Because of Choosing Clean Eating? Really? What Next!

"The term orthorexia describes an obsession with “clean eating” that has started to cause significant distress by dominating someone’s daily life. There is growing expert consensus on what orthorexia looks like and the dangerous impact it can have on both adults and kids. Orthorexia is a “form of disordered eating” and parents should take it seriously."

This comment almost lead me to close the tab and not read the rest of the article because of what it infers and does not say.  

So I must first say, lest there be misunderstanding, that I am primarily concerned with clean eating being equated to the use of a new term for a newly designated mental condition of orthoexia that is considered to be part of the food disorder family of mental conditions.  The fact is that the article does go on to present good advice about how to raise children who are not encouraged, allowed, or inadvertently taught to be finicky eaters, including because of the way parents model food choices.  

Of course, I have some thoughts about exactly what is said, and I imagine other folks might have, also.  Granted, and being transparent, it was a link entitled "helping veterans raise kids who are are not afraid eating" which apparently is about adults there is desire to  label as having a newly designated eating disorder: orthorexia, which is equated to "clean eating".  The problem, of course is equating a mental disorder with clean eating.

Who exactly has made that decision?  Inquiring minds need to know because the first problem that jumps out at anyone is that an eating disorder that would be referred to as a mental problem would need to first be diagnosed as an obsession.  And the fact is that the way the comment is made it is being suggested that "clean eating" is an obsession because of creating a mental condition name for it that equates it with an obsessive food disorder.   And as much as I do not want to say it, being a veteran myself, one must wonder if there have been a number of complaints from service members of a spouse  becoming interested in clean eating which the SM finds inconvenient and does not support.  For that reason there needs to be a detailed explanation of just exactly how orthorexia is described so it is NOT mixed up with and equated to people who choose clean eating  - because we all have a right to make healthy choices for ourselves.  

Take away:  Because of equating orthorexia  with "clean eating", the folks who give names to what are newly designated mental disorders, most likely need a block of instruction about what actually constitutes "clean eating" from people who make that choice and deserve better than to be labeled as mental cases because of that choice.

from the VHA
https://www.blogs.va.gov/VAntage/77977/helping-veterans-raise-kids-arent-afraid-eating/