On Becoming Orthorexic

I am always pushing the limits on non traditional approaches to healing and wellness. As a practicing vegetarian- with a severe lactose intolerance-, I can attest that my health is so much better than where I was 18 year ago when animal products were such a predominate part of my diet. Over the years, I have also stopped relying on traditional medicines for common ailments such as a cold, insomnia, upset stomachs etc. and again feeling better with no drug side effects. I want to say this works for me, but I cannot say it will work for everyone else. As my health improved with diet and lack of over the counter medicines, I became more and more skeptical towards traditional approaches. I should have become leery with how far away my pendulum had swung as I found myself questioning when physicians -with the highest of degrees from Harvard or Yale- would recommend a course of action and I would doubt what they we proposing. However, I would go to my hair dresser and she could recommend any new trend in natural health and I would be beating down people to jump on board with her recommendation. Pamela my doctor would say, I suggest you take these steroids to help maintain your asthma. Steroids! I was horrified. How could he make such a recommendation? I need to see data on not just how effective it is, but tell me about the side effects. Yet, I was willing to pay $41.00 a bottle (that lasted a week) for Acai Berry juice because my hair dresser had a client who knew someone who had relative and they were healed from all aliments just from drinking this juice.

So it was not surprising when my sister suggested that we go on a retreat together and recommended an all natural, all raw, all vegan place; immediately I was packed and ready to go. Well… I was not packed. I struggled with what I wear to a place like this. Are there evening dinners? What do we wear to the lectures? Is breakfast casual or business attire? You see, I had no knowledge of what to wear and more importantly, I had no knowledge of what would actually take place at the retreat. My sister – whose recommendations are just as important as my hairdresser ‘s– said “let’s go” , so I packed a variety of different outfits, different shoes and most importantly all of my makeup and a couple of bottles of my favorite perfumes - nothing like smelling good while you are eating raw.

As we pulled up to the beautiful campus, my sister and I were clinging to each and grinning like two 5- year olds off to our first day of kindergarten. The check in process was a bit laborious and the amount of forms requiring signatures and releasing the organizations of all responsibilities seemed a bit over the top. But this, nor our husbands sitting with stoic expressions wondering if they were going to miss the start of the football play– offs or even more concerning having to eat lunch at the retreat, would dampen our joy. Check-in is finally done, our hands are a bit tired, but our joy is high as we kiss our husbands goodbye and watched as they sped off – hoping the gravel kicking up from the tires did not create any damage to the property or us. Oh and look at this bountiful table – who knew there were so many different types of sprouts that one could eat. We are so hungry and eating this salad of raw sprouts, decorated with raw peppers and flavored with this special house dressing, all seemed like the perfect culinary treat- although my heart and my palate longed for a bit of sea salt or some nicely fresh herbs. My taste buds were not being fooled by these olives soaked in sea brine and what is this ground kelp?

By the second meal of sprouts and several lectures later – I was no longer impressed. Who is this guy, where are his credentials and why should I believe him when he says eating breakfast is not healthy? My mother taught me otherwise, my doctor believes it is the most critical meal of the day and my hairdresser has never shared such nonsense. And how did he get John Wayne’s medical records stating that he had 40 pounds of “stuff” in his colon? Aren’t these records private? And is that even medically possible? http://www.snopes.com/horrors/gruesome/fecalcolon.asp.

During the next few days we were indoctrinated with all the benefits of eating sprouts including that Sunflower Sprouts are a complete protein containing all of the essential amino acids. In addition to a multitude of sprouts, we were told to drink a green drink three times day and fresh wheat grass juice twice a day. During my less than 10 minute doctor visit – the PhD doctor (never did figure out in what or from where) – prescribed over $500.00 in supplements I needed to take. The doctor rapidly reviewed my blood lab results commenting on the excellent health I was in. So with perfectly nutritious food and in excellent health – I still needed $500.00 of supplements? Did I mention this was just a two months supply! So maybe $500.00 is not that expensive for supplements (personally I found it outrageous), but when you add this to the cost of the program and the additional cost for everything else it made sense – to my utter dismay- when I heard a woman share that she took out a home equity loan to be at this retreat.

It was most apropos while I was at this retreat I was reading Michael Pollan’s book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma (www.michaelpollan.com). While being confronted with my own dilemma of eating raw versus cooked food orshould we have fruit in our diet, I was grateful to Pollan’s book and the opportunity for his insight into logical thinking as we consider what our diet should be. I believe there is great value in eating a lot of raw food, but also recognize how important in has been in our development as humans the ability to cook food. Somewhere in our quest to find the right diet, the right thing to eat, the right decision on what is healthy or not, we have lost our ability to make sound decisions based on good old common sense. It is so easy to be swayed as we try to make a good decision on what is healthy. I grew up enjoying eggs and butter, but it was just few years ago that both were consider foods of death. They taunted you of good memories as they sat on the shelf while a skull and cross bone sign hung over daring you to purchase. Margarine was the health food choice and eggs should only be considered as cradles for baby chicks. I am told that I must take probiotics in order to maintain a healthy gut. Is my gut unhealthy? Can I take too much? How will I know it is working? Omega -3 is in my cereal, my margarine replacement, in my soy milk and I have the option of buying 0range Juice with Omega -3. Yum, fishy tasting orange juice.

I enjoyed Michael Pollan’s book, The Ominvore’s Dilemma so much I hurriedly went to the store and purchased his next book, In Defense of Food. I loved it and appreciated through reading this book what I might be, or might become; Orthorexic. In my pursuit of healthiness have I developed an unhealthy obsession with being healthy. If I have then I am determined to cure myself of this potential disorder. I have decided to do this without the consult of my either doctor or hairdresser – well maybe just a little from each. I will listen to my body and employ a healthy dose of common sense. And to those that know me well, I will still say no to any creature with parents or eyes being featured on my dinner plate.

Today I enjoyed delicious sandwich that was made especially tasteful with nice crispy broccoli sprouts – so glad I have been able to get over my fear of sprouts that developed during my “healthy” retreat.