Health Food Junkies: Orthorexia Nervosa: Overcoming the Obsession with Healthful Eating [Hardcover]

Steven Bratman M.D. (Author), David Knight (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 2, 2001

The first book to identify the eating disorder orthorexia nervosa–an obsession with eating healthfully–and offer expert advice on how to treat it.

As Americans become better informed about health, more and more people have turned to diet as a way to lose weight and keep themselves in peak condition. Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa–disorders in which the sufferer focuses on the quantity of food eaten–have been highly documented over the past decade. But as Dr. Steven Bratman asserts in this breakthrough book, for many people, eating “correctly” has become an equally harmful obsession, one that causes them to adopt progressively more rigid diets that not only eliminate crucial nutrients and food groups, but ultimately cost them their overall health, personal relationships, and emotional well-being.

Health Food Junkies is the first book to identify this new eating disorder, orthorexia nervosa, and to offer detailed, practical advice on how to cope with and overcome it. Orthorexia nervosa occurs when the victim becomes obsessed, not with the quantity of food eaten, but the quality of the food. What starts as a devotion to healthy eating can evolve into a pattern of incredibly strict diets; victims become so focused on eating a “pure” diet (usually raw vegetables and grains) that the planning and preparation of food come to play the dominant role in their lives.

Health Food Junkies provides an expert analysis of some of today’s most popular diets–from The Zone to macrobiotics, raw-foodism to food allergy elimination–and shows not only how they can lead to orthorexia, but how they are often built on faulty logic rather than sound medical advice. Offering expert insight gleaned from his work with orthorexia patients, Dr. Bratman outlines the symptoms of orthorexia, describes its progression, and shows readers how to diagnose the condition. Finally, Dr. Bratman offers practical suggestions for intervention and treatment, giving readers the tools they need to conquer this painful disorder, rediscover the joys of eating, and reclaim their lives.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

The first book to identify the eating disorder orthorexia nervosa–an obsession with eating healthfully–and offer expert advice on how to treat it.

As Americans become better informed about health, more and more people have turned to diet as a way to lose weight and keep themselves in peak condition. Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa–disorders in which the sufferer focuses on the quantity of food eaten–have been highly documented over the past decade. But as Dr. Steven Bratman asserts in this breakthrough book, for many people, eating "correctly" has become an equally harmful obsession, one that causes them to adopt progressively more rigid diets that not only eliminate crucial nutrients and food groups, but ultimately cost them their overall health, personal relationships, and emotional well-being.

Health Food Junkies is the first book to identify this new eating disorder, orthorexia nervosa, and to offer detailed, practical advice on how to cope with and overcome it. Orthorexia nervosa occurs when the victim becomes obsessed, not with the quantity of food eaten, but the quality of the food. What starts as a devotion to healthy eating can evolve into a pattern of incredibly strict diets; victims become so focused on eating a "pure" diet (usually raw vegetables and grains) that the planning and preparation of food come to play the dominant role in their lives.

Health Food Junkies provides an expert analysis of some of today's most popular diets–from The Zone to macrobiotics, raw-foodism to food allergy elimination–and shows not only how they can lead to orthorexia, but how they are often built on faulty logic rather than sound medical advice. Offering expert insight gleaned from his work with orthorexia patients, Dr. Bratman outlines the symptoms of orthorexia, describes its progression, and shows readers how to diagnose the condition. Finally, Dr. Bratman offers practical suggestions for intervention and treatment, giving readers the tools they need to conquer this painful disorder, rediscover the joys of eating, and reclaim their lives.

About the Author

Dr. Steven Bratman suffered from orthorexia nervosa himself, and, in the process of overcoming it, became the first physician to diagnose the problem. He is currently the medical director for Prima Health, a book publisher, and is the author of The Alternative Medicine Sourcebook. He lives in Colorado.

David Knight is a writer. He lives in Colorado.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; 1 edition (January 2, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767906306
• ISBN-13: 978-0767906302
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,220,066 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 53 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Overcoming Obsessively Healthy Eating January 7, 2001

By Donald Mitchell HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

People can become obsessed with almost anything, why not healthy eating? Dr. Steven Bratman makes an argument for a new type of psychological disorder based on his own problems and those of his patients in this regard. The book contains a quiz to help you identify if you or someone you know has this issue, along with helpful suggestions for taking it easier in your food habits without abandoning good health practices. The author also outlines the usual causes of the disorder, in order to help those who have it recognize how they might best change.

"Obsession with healthy diet is an illusion, an eating disorder." I didn't take that statement too seriously, until I got to Dr. Bratman's vivid description of the time he left a great conversation at a party to go savor an avocado he had been ripening and day dreaming about. Then I remembered that I have known people who spent 8-10 hours a day shopping for, preparing, and eating very special diets. Aha!

The disorder is a problem when it causes someone to eat a too restrictive diet. The book considers the most popular ones, and generally advises that it is all right to follow it if you just loosen up.

More serious, the food focus can cut off contact with others. They don't "smell" right because they don't eat what you do. Or they eat offensive foods that you cannot stand to be around. Increasingly, you spend time by yourself instead of with other people. This is often a strategy for dealing with a fear of being with other people.

The most common psychological causes are a desire to have total healthy safety, compulsion for complete control, wanting to conform to the "thinness" social ethic, searching for spirituality through food, food puritanism, and using food to create an identity. That last one is pretty scary. "You are what you eat" is being taken literally.

I was surprised when I took the test to find that I seemed to have this obsession, even though I spend little time thinking about food, eating food, or being rigid about what I eat. This made me wonder how well thought through this disorder really is. But I plan to watch myself in the future, and try to understand if I am overdoing it.

Dr. Bratman argues that food diets have little science behind them. The diets work for some people because of "suggestion" and for others because they have an undiagnosed food allergy or deficiency. As a result, he suggests that you experiment with eating different diets and see if you feel better or worse.

He is particularly negative about the "Eat Right for Your Type" diet, and states that he expects to get slammed for his opposition. Well, I graded him down one star for this, even though he said you could you use if you loosen up on the regimen a bit. The new book "Live Right for Your Type" is full of scientific studies that show predilections for certain diseases and conditions with certain blood types. These studies are also linked to nutrition in various ways. My reaction was that Dr. Bratman should have addressed these studies, unless he was unaware of them. If he was unaware of them, how good are the rest of his conclusions?

In fairness, I would have graded him down one star anyway, because I did not see a scientific basis in the statements for his conclusions. Much of what he was describing could simply be related to something else. His approach seems very qualitative to me. As someone who struggles with this issue himself, he may just be seeing everyone else in the same way. After all carpenters often see all problems as something that can be solved with a hammer.

Whether this condition exists or not, his advice is probably all right. Admit you have a problem. Identify what has caused you to be obsessed in this way (in my case, it was being leaned on by my doctor with dire threats of future ill health). Normally eat a plate or a bowl of a balanced diet, and get seconds on one food only. Go easy on the guilt when you "slip." Eat graciously with your Mother and others you care about, regardless of what is served to you. Relax when you need to make exceptions to your normal diet. Keep your mind off of food. Watch out for hidden agendas sneaking into your eating.

As a physician, friend, or parent, he suggests that you intervene when you see someone dieting past the point of safety, the diet is making the person miserable, the person would like to quit the diet and cannot, a third party is involved creating a diet "cult" experience, or the diet seems to have become an emotional ilness. Use tact, humor and gentleness rather than strong arm tactics because people are touchy about these issues.

May you have all the health, happiness, peace, and prosperity that you would like!

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Useful reading for all self-proclaimed "food gurus"! May 6, 2002

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

I recently had a huge fight with a macrobiotic friend over the "deadly" importance of such alien foods as nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant and a few others), dairy products and fresh fruit.

Now, I've been a macrobiotic myself for years and I was not arguing for MacDonalds, just saying that to complement a mostly-vegetarian diet with small amounts of good quality "forbidden" foods is not a "sin".

I was so shocked by the out-of-proportion reaction of this apparently very open friend that I begun questioning my beliefs. And my conclusion was the same as Dr. Bratman: friends, it's all very well to eat healthy food but let's get real, food is food and if we were not so spoiled for choice we would eat whatever was available as our ancestors always did. I'm deeply appreciative of the positive way macrobiotic guidelines have helped me improve my diet but macrobiotic people (me included untill this friend's overzeal shocked me out of it) do tend to become fanatic and semi-religious about food.

Does it seem reasonable to argue that while dairy food is "poisenous" (no matter that being used by humans for millenia) strange (and delicious, but that's not the point) food from Japan is vital for your well-being? Now, does this seem to you to have something to do with Macrobiotics being invented by a Japanese and that dairy food was unknown in Japan before being introduced by us, "barbarians"?

Same applies to fresh fruit: I like fresh fruit and no only do I eat it daily as I eat it raw, the way nature provides us with it. Does this sound a bad habit to you? It would if you were macrobiotic because fresh fruit is too "Yin" in the macrobiotic view and thus creates an inbalance in anyone who eats it.

But are really the philosophical and religious concepts of "Yin" and "Yang" the best tools to choose a lifestyle? Most macrobiotic people I know are coffee addicts and smoke heavily: they tend to think this is OK because caffeine and smoking are considered "Yang".

This is so widespread that I had never thought about it before but clearly you have a psychological problem if you think that an apple or a bit of cheese are worse for your health than coffe and cigarettes.

And this is all that Dr Bratman says: people with these behaviour problems should seek help.

28 of 33 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The cure is worse than the disease? June 9, 2002

By "julie10089"

Format:Hardcover

When author Steven Bratman, M.D., first used the term "orthorexia nervosa" in
a magazine article, he got some confused responses. " 'I would like to use
the orthorexia you describe to cure my knee pain,' one caller said. 'I've
already cut out all deadly-nightshade vegetables, grains, sugar, caffeine,
meat, and nuts. Do you think I should go on a water fast one week each
month?' "

But as most of us can guess from its similarity to anorexia, orthorexia is not
an idealistic dietery theory but rather describes a problem: unhealthy
obsession with healthy diet. "To be perfectly honest, I intended the term
somewhat tongue in cheek, as a kind of sassy way to surprise clients who were
proud of their obsession and make them think twice about it," the author
explains.

Dr. Bratman is a conventionally trained M.D. and an alternative medicine
practitioner who himself spent many years adhering to idealistic, healing
diets such as macrobiotics (a complex diet that involves balancing yin and
yang, but you cook the food) and raw foods theory (never eat cooked foods).
Other sections deal with food allergies, the zone diet, candida, supplements,
tablets and magic substances (super blue-green algae, barley magma, sheep
thyroid, pregnenolone, ciwujia, spirulina, kombucha tea, and royal jelly among
many others). He maintains respect for many of these diets. He also says,
"Food allergy treatment can be a powerful healing approach that at times
appears to reduce symptoms dramatically in practically any illness." He does
not believe alternative medicine is a joke, and has success stories to tell
from his practice.

It's just that he started seeing a lot of people with a fixation on healthy
eating who had lost their perspective and balance. Could the cure be worse
than the disease?

He also says over and over that we should not go to the other extreme and
simply eat junk. "It is certainly not the point of this book to dispute the
value of healthy diet. Proper food choices can clearly reduce the risk of
cancer and heart disease, and may be able to prevent other major illnesses of
middle and later life. This is a well-known and incontestable fact. What I
do want to point out, however, is that there is a dark side to this reality,
an unintended consequence of the emphasis on eating properly. There is more
to life than reducing cancer risk. Too often this holistic perspective is
forgotten by those who emphasize that food is the best medicine."

Just what is this dark side? "One of the primary features of
orthorexia is the feeling that we are better than others because of
our fantastic diet. Since the rest of the world does not adhere to
the God-given laws of healthy eating (as we uniquely understand them),
we can't eat with the rest of the world. Besides, a great deal of our
identity is tied up in diet." And further, "The net effect is social
isolation. The ancient satisfaction of breaking bread with a friend
is denied us; we must either bring our own bread (a concoction of
potato flour, amaranth, and spelt that only an orthorexic could love)
or eat alone. This isolation is a real emotional harm caused by
orthorexia. As my health food guru realized in Chapter 1, 'Rather
than eat my sprouts alone, it would be better for me to share a pizza
with some friends.' A good half or more of the joy of life comes
from relationships; when orthorexia interferes with those
relationships, it causes a real impoverishment of our lives."