Are You TOO Healthy?

Do you think there is such a thing of being too healthy? I am not quite sure if that is possible. However, I am very interested in sharing with you something which I not only just lectured about last week at the University of Toronto, but something I notice with clients of mine, as well as, from some former class mates from the nutrition school I attended.

Taking care of our bodies by providing it with the proper food is important. It ensures that we are getting the right amount of vitamins, minerals, micro and macro nutrients which our bodies needs to function at it’s best. Ensuring we get enough water to keep us hydrated is key, being active is essential, as well as, getting enough sleep in each night.

So my question being – “Are You TOO Healthy?” comes into play here when this knowing of what you need to do to be healthy in regards to food becomes a mental burden. What I mean by this essentially, is when you start to spend so much of your day, time and energy thinking about food, to a certain degree you may actually have an Eating Disorder.

According to Steven Bratman, MD, Orthorexia is an Eating Disorder coined in 1997, which is defined as an obsession with “healthy or righteous eating.” According to Bratman, it often begins with someone’s simple and genuine desire to live a healthy lifestyle.

I am quite confident that numerous individuals in my nutrition program would disagree and plea that they are just trying to live a healthy life, but the truth of the matter is that if you are doing everything in your power to try to have “perfect health” through choosing all of the “perfect” and “right” foods, the mental energy dedicated to that is not actually healthy at all. That mental devotion to food does not permit freedom with food whatsoever.

An individual dealing with Orthorexia fixates on defining the “right” foods, foods that can be safely eaten. They will spend just as much time and energy thinking about food as someone with Bulimia or Anorexia. They may not think about calories, but they think about the overall “health benefits” and how the food was processed, prepared, etc.  Individuals with Orthorexia tend not to eat out as much because they do not trust the preparation of foods other than what they have prepared.

The obsession for healthy foods could come from a number of sources such as family habits, society trends, economic problems, recent illness, or even just hearing something negative about a food type or group, which then leads them to ultimately eliminate the food or foods from their diet. Something to keep in mind: The severe restrictive nature of Orthorexia has the potential to morph into Anorexia.

This information was from this site, 
in case you want to learn more

I wanted to share this information in this blog because its nature and definition is still new to people. I remember when I was in nutrition school I began feeling or more so “hearing” my mind become fixated on health benefits etc – because truth be told EVERYTHING around us in our world has something “bad” and “wrong” with it. Though my concern truthfully had nothing to do with weight and my body image, like it did for numerous years prior, my concern was for my health.

I remember when I realized that this was too not a healthy way of being and had similarities to the amount of time and mental energy of where I was focusing on food, I looked around to my classmates and ensured I told them about this. I was and still do feel that a lot of people who study nutrition can easily slip into this way of thinking with the goal of trying to be healthy.

My belief is that this type of obsessive thinking around health and organic and non-GMO etc, has more detrimental effects to our body that just eating something that isn’t deemed “perfect”. The stress that our bodies undergoes from overly thinking can cause your entire hormonal system to be affected, your adrenals to overly pump and in turn cause more damage to your body, then just simply eating the food.

So this is my take on nutrition. Food is meant to nourish our bodies and essentially provide us with all of the nutrients, minerals and vitamins our bodies needs to survive and function at its best.

Instead of saying foods are “good” or “bad” I like to term them as “more nutrient dense” versus “less nutrient dense”.

I feel like for anyone who has ever had an ED in their life, this simple shift in wording and labeling of food is a great way to begin to literally see food through a different lens than ED has been telling you this whole time. This is the first thing I suggest. Second, if you are someone who is overly concerned with eating “perfectly” I would ask yourself why? What is your need to eat perfectly? What will eating perfectly do for your life that isn’t going on now? Are you trying to escape by focusing on eating perfectly? If so, what you are trying to escape and why?

Above, I highlighted the quote about, “They will spend just as much time and energy thinking about food as someone with Bulimia or Anorexia.”

To me this is the key message about Eating Disorders in general – spending time and energy thinking about food. My goal in working with people around food is in helping them find freedom with food, where which they begin to learn to adapt the nutritional choices they know are good for their body, plus incorporate in their favorites that my not be as nutritionally dense.

To me this combination of the two works very well and the “freedom” that I speak of has nothing to do with eating pizza and doughnuts every day, it comes from the mental freedom in that an individual has complete CHOICE in what they want to eat at ALL times, where restriction and/or overeating never plays a part because they are not on a diet or plan, but rather eating what they like and know what is good for their bodies.

I find when you learn to let go of rules and guidelines you may have built over the years around food, and you just simply choose what you want, your body gets to it natural weight. With this the thoughts of “I’ll start perfectly on Monday. Or I am never eating that again. Or I can’t eat that.” – where which through restriction usually leads to binging – is eliminated, a person’s mental state can completely shift.

From my experience this new way of thinking was the most beneficial thing for me because I learned how to trust myself and my body, in a way I had never done before. With that came a whole sense of freedom and acceptance for exactly who I am. I began to fall in love with food in a different way, thanking my body for taking it in, my taste buds for being able to taste all the flavors and the food itself for being there to nourish me.

I’ll be real with you all when I graduated nutrition school, I didn’t even know if I wanted to call myself a Holistic Nutritionist once I left because I felt so different then everyone else out there. Yet, the truth of the matter is that when it comes to nutrition there are so many schools of thought, that I believe and I encourage all of my clients to find their own and see what works for them.

Again, this doesn’t mean eating pizza and doughnuts everyday, but in my eyes it doesn’t mean eating veggies and fruits all day either. A teacher once told me about the 80 – 20 rule and I love that. 80 perfect – nutrient dense foods, 20 perfect non-nutrient dense foods. Again it’s a rule that you don’t need to follow but rather a guideline. This to me will not only keep your body healthy, but your mind as well, because you have to force it to be ok with not being “perfect”.

 
Please let me know your thoughts on this!!!! I am very curious to hear what you have to say!

PS. LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW – I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS!

Paula Galli, Hons. BSc. Psych, CNP, RNCP, ROHP
MOTIVATIONAL COACH, NUTRITIONAL COUNSELLOR & EATING DISORDER EXPERT