Hollywood Popular Artists

Apr 16th 2012, 21:56

It's good to eat healthy, so shouldn't eating healthy all the time be a good thing? But if you get so obsessed with eating healthy that it causes you nonstop stress, isolates you from people and may not even be all that healthy after all (like cutting out protein and other important things), then we're talking about a whole 'nother thing.

When we talk about eating disorders, we usually think of anorexia and bulimia. But have you heard of orthorexia, which is about people so obsessed with avoiding unhealthy foods that it can turn into both mental pain and malnutrition? Scary thought: in extreme cases, it can even lead to death because of that malnutrition. Yesterday MTV aired "True Life: I Have Orthorexia" which  further explored this disorder.

We met Spring, Andrew and Lauren, all in their twenties and struggling with what they eat. Spring's been eating raw food for two years and purges, Andrew is scared that unsafe food (food with chemicals, I mean) might give him diseases like cancer, and Lauren, who was treated for anorexia, has a super strict diet of only fifteen foods.

They all got into these overbearing diets in recent years. Spring started because she wanted her baby to have the healthiest breast milk, but then it got so obsessive that she'd want to puke after eating anything cooked. Andrew took a class where he learned about chemicals pumped into food and got paranoid about what he puts in this body. Lauren wanted to lose weight, but the desire for it got so bad it threatened her relationship with her GF.

We can see all three get slack (and weird looks!) from friends, family and significant others. They might miss out on parties because they don't want to eat the food there. And eat at restaurants? Agony.

But none of them are happy with where their life is going. As Lauren's mom says, food has to be your friend. You've got to eat, and all three seek out help. And by the end all three are starting to improve, though Lauren feels it's going more slowly and Spring hasn't been able to fully stop purging.

It might sound surprising that trying to eat healthy can be harmful, but when obsession comes in, who knows where it will take you! Also, having worried friends or family tell a person to eat just isn't going to cut it. We can see how the friends and family just don't "get it" and how Spring, Andrew and Lauren have to struggle to explain their feelings. With things like orthorexia, there's always a bigger picture.

We can also see some stereotypes get smashed here like not all eating disorders come from anorexia and bulimia. Sometimes it takes professional help and a lot of soul searching to get better, but it can be done! Check out Half of Us for more on battling eating disorders. And in case you're wondering how the trio in the episode are doing, check out Remote Control's interviews with Lauren, Andrew and Spring.

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