I mean, I was technically raised orthorexic and have technically been orthorexic all my life.
Where food came from, what was in it, how it was produced, how were all big parts of growing up
This isn't meant to be insensitive or to minimise the issues around an industrial diet that effect many people.
Broscience incoming:
Eat what would be considered an ultra clean diet (but which is actually optimal). Eat the same volume as you normally would basically, it's not about losing weight. It can be done extremely cheaply and the wide options available are extremely tasty imo. You will cook a lot and bring food with you in lunchboxes. There's still probably room for blowouts if you can maintain for 90% of the time.
After a few months or a year your overall health and insulin response will have improved, your sense of hunger and sweetness will have changed, as well as your understanding of satiation. You may find that getting to and maintaining the weight you want becomes much less of a stress.
To be specific, ultra clean from my perspective means, apart from the obvious things:
replacing corn/pasta/wheat/potato with chickpeas/lentils/mungbeans/pintobeans/pulses_to_infinity/oats/ground_linseed/ground_hempseed/endlesss_options
replacing any solvent extracted oils, like canola, with mechanically extracted oils like olive
replacing anything processed (meat or vegetables) with cheaper unprocessed wholefoods you've cooked yourself.
Hope this doesn't sound like a smugpost, it's not meant that way.
IIRC, for it to be orthorexia, it's not about a prioritisation of healthier options but an obsession that actively harms your ability to live a normal life. Like, that the concept of eating in a restaurant causes great anxiety because of the concept that they might have used canola oil instead of olive oil or the concept of eating a single Dorito being so repulsive to you that it makes you physically ill to consider.
Anything where you're obsessing over the purity of something is probably bad that's my take
Fully agree that if great anxiety or physical illness happen when you think about any food it's a big problem.
I think that could be overstating it though.
People's perception of what actually constitutes food and what is health has been twisted by decades of capitalist messaging.
A doctor I'm aware of here, who I'd say treats the children of helicopter parents, tells the story of parents coming to her extremely worried that their kids were underweight, even though the diet was extremely healthy. She had to show the parents pictures of skinny active healthy kids from the 50s to convince them that it was normal, that their perception of chubby healthy kids was wrong.
how are chickpeas, oats & company meant to be 'cleaner' than corn & wheat.
in fact it might be best for you to define 'clean' because from my perspective it looks incoherent
how are chickpeas, oats & company meant to be ‘cleaner’ than corn & wheat.
Feels like I'm being set up for a fall here lol. I'm not a dietician or a scientist, like I said, broscience, but the general points are valid imo.
The varieties of corn and wheat available to us have been engineered for resilience and profitability and industrial agriculture, not for health. They are high glycemic index foods. Sugars in these foods are released quickly, in general, which leads to an unhealthy insulin response. Zoo-keepers have had to stop feeding primates as much fruit because modern varieties are developed to be so sweet that dental issues became widespread. The same logic apllies to varieties available to us. The form in which they come to us, white flour without husk or fiber for example, is too refined (fiber slows sugar release). They're usually more expensive too imo. Indian and chinese stores sell sacks of pulses cheaply.
Pulses are much higher in protein also. The protein slows the release of sugars for a more even insulin response.
in fact it might be best for you to define ‘clean’ because from my perspective it looks incoherent
Well shit I better get to it then :)
I won't define clean for anyone else, but have always taken it to mean that all the food you eat is prepared from single unprocessed ingredients.
sample breakfast: oats, egg, oil, nuts, seeds in whatever combination to taste, infinite variations
sample lunch: pulses, chopped vegetables, generous oil, piece of fish/chicken, salad leaves leftover from last night's dinner
sample dinner:pulses, vegetables, oiloiloil, fish/tofu/chicken/turkey/whatever, green salad
carry bags of mixed nuts/maybe fruit/tin'o'sardines for day snacking. drinks are black coffee and tea, beer or wine whenever there's an excuse, usually once a week tbh. These foods are quick to prepare and easy to pre-prepare and bring with you with a little practice, even if you've got very little time.
very happy to. I mean, it's basically the way that athletes today are advised to eat afaik.
probably should also have mentioned that a $50 pressure cooker makes cooking pulses in quantity, for freezing in portions, sooo much quicker.
I'll stop now.
I don't think your orthorexic. This isn't far off from my diet, vegan and mostly whole foods, and I'm not exactly a health or purity nut, just very active. I do feel very good about what I eat.
By definition if it's a disorder it's bad for you and your health. Ask yourself if your eating habits impair your normal functioning or otherwise harm your health. If they do then you should probably see a professional and address them. If not, go crazy with it
Never even heard the term orthorexic and I'm too lazy to look it up. Sounds fine though.
