Who’s they?
I happened to be flipping through television late one night, and saw the tail end of a newscast on a new eating disorder. They flashed the number for a clinic and a hotline to call if you had the following symptoms:
- A desire to eat healthy organic food, free from pesticides and genetic modification by today’s methods.
-The need to know what’s in your food before you eat.
-The need to know where your food came from.
-The need to know what food does in your body once you eat it.
I seriously screamed at my husband, “Oh My GOD!” I was stunned. That was me! Let me dial this number and get myself checked into te Betty Ford for my semi-newly named (1997) eating disorder. “My name is Lindsy, I enjoy carrots and low blood pressure.” (Please imagine me in all my sarcastic glory right now, my eyes can’t even roll far enough in the back of my head to display how absolutely retarded I feel this is.)
Orthorexia. Ortho, which is greek for correct or right, and rexia, which means appetite. If ONLY we ALL had a correct appetite. We could say good-bye to just about all of the top killers. Heart diseases, cancers, diabetes, obesity… think of the implications of everyone on the planet wanting healthy, pesticide and hormone free food!!! The HORROR!!! (I feel like banging my forehead on my desk, repeatedly.)
I figure the guy who came up with this load of crap is probably in bed with Little Debbie. Nope. Come to find out he was some alternative medicine Doctor in California. (Well, there you go, from the state that elected Arnold as Governor, and prefers saving the lives of tiny fish over the millions of people who suffer with drought every day…) I guess he treated someone by telling them to cut things out of their diet, it worked, and then that person went crazy and cut everything out of their diet.
So seriously. I do not have an eating disorder. Nor does anyone else who wants to be informed about their food, diet, or bodies. This is a sad story of how some people fail to use common sense, Doctors included. If all you are eating is Carrots, you are obviously not getting all of the nutrients your body needs. HOWEVER, if all you are eating is processed shit out of vending machines and vacuumed packed bags, you aren’t getting the nutrients your body needs either. Hello! Orthorexia isn’t a mental disorder, it’s not even recognized as a disorder in the Diagnostic manuals.
One drop of common sense goes a LONG way these days. And, to quote Voltaire: “Common sense is not so common.”
-Lindsy, my name is Lindsy and my love of vegan cupcakes proves I have an eating disorder. Or was it the vegan pizza? Wait, maybe its the delicious vegan ice cream…
