To the uninformed, the terms "healthy eating" and "eating disorder" sound like opposites. But as those who are familiar with orthorexia nervosa are well aware, it is possible for a dedication to healthy eating to morph into an obsession -- and a form of disordered eating.

In a Feb. 12 article on the website of Time magazine, writer Bonnie Rochman explored the scourge of orthorexia, and the arguments in favor of its inclusion as a separate disorder in the upcoming fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders:

When [Kristie] Rutzel first sought help for anemia and osteopenia, a precursor of osteoporosis triggered by her avoidance of calcium, her doctor in upstate New York, where she attended college, had never heard of orthorexia.

"You should be trying to eat healthy," she remembers him telling her. He couldn't quite grasp that he was talking to a health nut who believed there were few truly healthy foods she felt were safe to eat.

Her condition was eventually identified as anorexia, a diagnosis that organizations like the Washington-based Eating Disorders Coalition think is a mistake.

The group, which represents more than 35 eating-disorder organizations in the U.S., wants orthorexia to have a separate entry in the bible of psychiatric illness, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

The American Psychiatric Association, which publishes the DSM, is currently accepting input on proposed changes to the manual. DSM-V is slated to be released in 2013.

Labels: orthorexia, dsm-v

Posted By: Aspen/CRC