For years, we've been told to eat clean in order to stay healthy. The less processed the food, the better. But it's possible to take it too far.
There's a condition that is so new that it doesn't even have a diagnostic code, but it is now being seen more often.
Liz Corrente is a personal fitness trainer and girls' lacrosse coach. She knows the importance of eating healthy to fuel our bodies.
"We have to fuel your body with good stuff to be able to do the things that you want to do, to be able to perform the way that you want to perform," she said.
When clients first come to Corrente, she not only looks at their exercise but also at what they're eating. "So the first thing we talk about is what their exercise plan is going to look like and how many days a week they want to exercise," she explained. "And then also let's look at your diet. Let's look at your nutrition. What are the good, healthy things you're putting in? What are some things you want to remove from your diet?"
With all of the news that's come out over the past several years about the dangers associated with processed foods, many of us have tried to live healthier lifestyles and pay closer attention to what we ingest.
"Eating healthy is good for you. Clean food is good for you. We should all try to eat healthy. These are all things that I think we can all agree are truths that we all live with and want to," said Elizabeth Dosoretz, the founder and CEO of Elite DNA Behavioral Health.
For years, we've been warned about the dangers of eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. But now Dosoretz warns there's something else to be aware of.
"So orthorexia is a set of symptoms that are, really kind of centered around a very rigid and specific obsession or, a need to eat healthy and pure and clean," explained Dosoretz. "And it's not about a number on the scale. It's not about a particular food group. It's a general desire to really be focused on controlling what you're putting in your body and making sure that it is fit for your idea of what is clean and pure food and good for you food."
The problem is that orthorexia is so new that it doesn't even have its own official diagnosis code yet.
Dosoretz added, "So when you really think about what orthorexia is and what it represents in terms of the patient or the client, it really is about a need to control all factors. And it's something taken from a grain of truth, taken to an extreme with rigidity. And that's very similar to it would fall under the anxieties, and it would be similar probably to somebody who, you know, has obsessive compulsive disorder."
Dosoretz said she really began to see a rise right around the time of Covid, when many of us felt the need to control something in a world where suddenly we were all dealing with things out of our control.
"I think patients felt that we didn't know how, they didn't know how to control their environment or the information and things felt for all of us, really, things felt completely out of control," said Dosoretz.
Corrente added, "It is very much about this obsessive sort of need to put incredibly, super, incredibly healthy things in your body and then nothing else. Right? So it's controlling what it is, what your intake is, and almost to a point where it's creating stress and it's creating anxiety. I think that it differs from some of the other, like anorexia and bulimia. This seems to be very much about the types of food that you are allowed to put in and keeping a strict control over that."
But both Corrente and Dosoretz agree: eating healthy and clean is not a bad thing. You just need to know when it's no longer good for you.
"I think that just a final note, anything, anything in excess or anything in an extreme is never going to be a sustainable way to live your life," said Corrente. "You can't maintain that, which is why you just maintain a balance. My whole business model of mind, body and nutrition, if you can create a balance in that, I think that is a healthier lifestyle that you can live long term."
Dosoretz added, "The most important thing we can do, you know, is educating people on like how to get help sooner rather than later so that we can avoid this, like escalation of a problem."
If you would like more information, visit Elite DNA Behavioral Health or Liz Corrente's revitalizfit.com .
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