Eating exceptionally high-quality products, going for regular morning jogs and evening walks is certainly commendable. But lately the term “orthorexia” has been heard - an obsession with impeccable nutrition, excellent health and in the right way life.

Anatomy of orthorexia

Orthorexia is translated from Greek as “correct appetite.” For the first time they started talking about it as an excessive passion for healthy food. For example: eating exclusively sprouted wheat grains, avoiding foods with certain substances, and fried foods. Many people who have succumbed to the race for healthy food observe certain “rituals”: chewing food 50 times or buying vegetables at the same time in a certain place. Orthorexics believe that by following these unwritten rules, they can cheat the passage of time and live to at least a hundred years. If they voluntarily or involuntarily deviate from the instructions (for example, they chew food not 50, but 49 times, or eat at 18:05, although they set the bar for themselves to have dinner no later than 18:00), this may become a reason for remorse. They can also impose their food rules on others, and are capable of ruining and even completely breaking off relationships with those who do not share their plate rules. However, such people, as a rule, are not limited to just quality food. Physical activity also becomes their thing - yoga, running, fitness. Moreover, here too the reasonable is replaced by the slogan “bigger, higher, stronger.” Such people are ready to run around the stadium or on their home treadmill to the point of exhaustion. Therefore, the word “orthorexia” is understood not just as a mania for proper nutrition, but as an obsession with a healthy lifestyle in general.

The path to longevity or neurosis?

American Stephen Bretman is considered the discoverer of orthorexia. He went through such an addiction, got rid of it and then wrote a book “Addicted to useful products: how to overcome obsession proper nutrition" However, talking about orthorexia is a marketing ploy. In fact, in medicine such “mental well-being” has been described for a long time and is called syndrome obsessive states. A person can become obsessed with anything - buying injury tickets or counting pigeons in the park. In modern society, generally noble calls have appeared to look after your health, play sports, get rid of bad habits, give up fast food. However, many people did not respond appropriately to these correct codes. This is where the mania for good food and a healthy lifestyle came from.

In fact, obsession is one of the forms of neurosis. Obsession with food further incapacitates already frayed nerves. Moreover, such people are not limited to following a diet and avoiding products with synthetic dyes and flavor enhancers. Without any medical reason, they often remove truly valuable products from their plates - eggs, butter, meat (it is believed, for example, that these are sources of harmful protein and cholesterol). The body does not receive enough of the elements it needs, and this causes serious health problems. And sometimes obsessiveness can be a sign of one of the mental disorders. Therefore, if orthorexia is clearly expressed, it is a good idea to consult a doctor.

How not to think about food, especially if you are currently watching your weight?

I propose to talk about this topical topic, but now think about the yellow monkey... have you thought about it? Introduced? Now don't think...

Happened? Have you managed to stop thinking about the yellow monkey? It’s unlikely, it’s still present in your head invisibly, what can you do, mental paths are inscrutable :)

How many times a day do you think the thought of food comes into your head?

I can tell you offhand that these thoughts never leave your head, and even if you don’t think about food specifically, they are constantly present in the background.

Maybe I’m a little categorical, but I rely on experience working with people, and I understand perfectly well that this article is most likely read by a person , and most likely, having problems with excess weight.

Does a slim person think about food?

Yes, of course, he thinks, especially when he is hungry or plans to cook something for himself, and this is normal, because if we did not think about food, we would forget about it and die of hunger.

It turns out that thoughts about food are a normal function of our consciousness, this is how the self-preservation instinct works.

Only sometimes this instinct goes a little overboard, so to speak, and thoughts about food become the main thing or a constant background.

The so-called exacerbation begins mainly when a person becomes preoccupied with the process of losing weight and directs all his efforts to limiting his diet.

How to stop thinking about food?

When do you think about food?

When it is not there or it is not enough.

Remember the movies or works of art wartime: if there was talk of hunger or half-starved existence, then almost all the heroes dreamed of food and thought about it constantly.

This is how the deficit mode works - what is missing, you want most of all.

And now you can say - but we are not in besieged Leningrad, and I can go and buy myself whatever I want. That’s how it is, only if you are on a diet, then you drive yourself into the state of besieged Leningrad, and your thoughts are like those of a “siege survivor.”

First of all, become aware of how often you think about food, and when, and why:

How many times a day do you think about food?
What food do you think about the most?
For what reason are you thinking about this particular food?
Do you think about “junk” and “delicious” food?
Can't you afford this food?
Are you thinking about food because you're hungry?
Is it time for lunch or dinner?
Do you eat little because you are on a diet?
Your thoughts come from external stimuli? (type of food, smell, conversations)

If you answer such questions, then it will become clear to you what makes your thoughts revolve around food.

Secondly, if you literally have “chronic” thoughts, then you need to learn to switch to something else. I know that many will now say: “I can’t do it!”

Yes, at the first stage it turns out badly, and your thoughts strive to return there, to the tasty and harmful.

But think about how long this has been going on for you?

How long have you been trying to fight this phenomenon?

If you have been losing weight for a long time, and losing weight through diets, limiting tasty and sweet foods, then the temptation to eat this forbidden food has existed for a long time.

It follows from this that the energy of these thoughts is very large, and interrupting or switching it is quite difficult, but, as you know, the one who walks will master the road, which means we must start with small steps.

How to switch to other thoughts and how to force your brain not to think about food?

Catch a thought by the tail - realize what you are thinking about now
Stop internal dialogue- get all thoughts out of your head
With a strong-willed and conscious effort, start thinking and imagining something else that has nothing to do with food
If it doesn't work, start over

The only point is that you need to prepare a “duty” thought, dream, fantasy, etc.

And, of course, the difficulty is stopping the internal dialogue and the state of an “empty” head, there will be no ready-made recipe, you need to train.

When you prepare a “standby” thought or dream and start using it, the switching will happen much faster.

I know that many people advise not to switch brains, but simply to do something else; It will help some, but not others.

Why doing something else doesn't always help you free yourself from obsessive thoughts about food?

The fact is that many people, even when busy with business, carry on endless internal dialogues.

These dialogues create a certain emotional background– sadness, irritation, resentment, anger, etc.

Any negative emotional background is perceived by our body as stress, and stress is struggle, it is tension. And to relieve stress, you need food.

And, again, after eating, the internal dialogue resumes, again a certain internal mood arises, and again tension. This is called “running in a vicious circle.”

It seems that what’s wrong if a person thinks about food? He thinks, and let him think))

The problem is that “thinking” causes appetite, because all our thoughts and memories have an associative connection, and in this case the associations will be in the form of visualization, literally feeling the taste of this or that food, its smell.

And all this causes a crazy appetite, and while eating does not help control the size of the portion eaten.

I would like to summarize briefly: in order to stop thinking about food, you need to be able to do 4 things:

Eat normally, avoid diets and dietary restrictions (don’t arrange a besieged Leningrad for yourself)
Learn to stop internal dialogue
Switch to other thoughts
And be full

Write in the comments - do you still remember about the yellow monkey? 🙂

But seriously, do you have a problem with constantly thinking about food?

Best regards, Natalia.

P.S. Now it is passing, and in the process of work a very interesting point: It turns out that the lives of people who have extra pounds are very similar and there are many habits of a “fat person”.

In view of this, an idea arose: to collect these habits and analyze what might be common and what to do about it?

I have compiled a small survey of 2 points, and I invite you to take it and receive gratitude from me in the form of a small gift (you will choose it yourself).

We kindly ask, if you decide to take the survey and spend literally 2-3 minutes on it, then you don’t need to write gobbledygook in the form - please

I will send you gifts by email manually, and therefore answers of this kind will not give you anything, I will be grateful to you for complete answers

Did you know that a fanatical desire to eat healthy can pose a threat to both physical and mental health? We asked Alexandra Menshikova, a psychologist and psychotherapist, to explain why an obsession with a healthy lifestyle has nothing to do with a healthy lifestyle.

Alexandra Menshikova // Photo: Ekaterina Frolova

Alexandra Menshikova, psychologist-psychotherapist, candidate of psychological sciences.

Orthorexia (from the Greek orthos - “straight, correct” and orexis - “urge to eat”) is usually called an excessive passion for “healthy” eating. But you won’t find such a disease either in or in Russia. There is not yet sufficient evidence that this habit negatively affects human health and can cause harm to him. There are also no clear criteria for what is considered orthorexia, and no understanding of exactly how this excessive passion affects the psyche. Nevertheless, the term itself, like the phenomenon itself, of course, exists. Quite often, orthorexia occurs among eating disorders, for example, as part of anorexia - in order to lose weight, a person switches to a “proper” diet and begins to exercise intensively. But there is still a fundamental difference between orthorexia and anorexia. With anorexia, it is important to a person how he looks and how much he weighs, so diets are just the result of the desire to bring the desired image to life, and with orthorexia, in principle, all attention is directed only to food. That is, the idea itself, the very fact of following the principles of “proper” nutrition, is important.

Signs of orthorexia

Diet

In orthorexia, food quality plays a role main role. Food must be natural, environmentally friendly and free of additives. Often people with orthorexia are convinced that some food group can harm them, so potentially harmful components are immediately excluded from the diet. That is, a person has a clear set of what can be eaten and what cannot be eaten (an example of “black and white thinking”, which is characterized by the labels “good”, “bad”, “harmful”, “useful”), and its main task is follow the rules of this system and in no case violate them.

Rituals

For a person obsessed with proper nutrition, eating is a real ritual. Food must be prepared in a certain way and under certain conditions (for example, in a pan with the “correct” coating), vegetables and fruits must be cut on an environmentally friendly board. pure materials, and the act of eating must occur at a certain time - not when a person wants, but when need to. In other words, healthy eating turns into a religion, and everything connected with it - every little thing and every detail - begins to have almost decisive importance. And if, for example, such a person finds himself in a situation where he is forced to eat not what he planned, and not where he planned, he begins to experience severe stress. He develops fear, which often leads to him simply refusing to go to places where there is at least a minimal chance of eating the “wrong” food.

Avoidance behavior

Since a person very strictly monitors what he eats and what he absolutely cannot eat, he sometimes begins to avoid those places where “forbidden” foods could, in principle, appear. He also distances himself from those who do not share his opinion. It is important for him that his idea is supported, so he will try by all means to impose his beliefs on others. Often this behavior can lead to isolation and rupture social connections. But nevertheless, such people quickly find like-minded people. Like-minded people with whom they are connected only by one common interest. And this interest is food.

A person with orthorexia does not eat to be healthy. The meaning of his life comes down to eating healthy food. That's all. So if you catch yourself that “proper” nutrition is becoming an obsession, and previous interests are fading into the background, it’s time to think about it.

Risk group

Orthorexia mainly affects young women under 35 years of age. Young men also face this problem, but less often. There are many reasons for the development of orthorexia - for example, if a person had a disease in childhood, requiring certain dietary behavior, or his parents are fixated on healthy eating. But h Most likely to develop orthorexia are people with unstable self-esteem and unformed personal identity- they have not fully decided who they are, what they want, what they like and what is important to them. Their “I” is not formed, they do not know their interests, their needs, or their capabilities. Following certain food guidelines becomes a way of self-realization for them.

People with high demands on themselves are also at risk - they need strict rules to follow. Orthorexia can also be a reaction to stress - as a way to cope with it. In this case, the person does not solve the problem, but simply distracts himself from it for a while. He thinks that he has neutralized his worries and fears by shifting his focus to following the principles of proper nutrition, but in fact he has only formed a new fear. Fear of breaking your diet, relaxing and eating something wrong. Thus, stress only increases, and a feeling of guilt is added to the previous anxious states.

In any case, everything is relative and ambiguous. It is still quite difficult to draw a clear line where passion for proper nutrition turns into pathology. Still, it should be taken into account that a healthy lifestyle is a social trend. Society seems to say: if you follow it and at the same time you are slim and fit, then you are good, and if you have excess weight and you don’t want to play sports, then you’re lazy. That is, well done to those who eat right and exercise, but everyone else doesn’t. But actually it is not. Food, of course, is an important component of life, but not the main one. And it - by itself - will not make a person happy.

Even though people with orthorexia spend a lot of time thinking about food—their lives are filled with thoughts about food—they get absolutely no pleasure from eating. More precisely, this is how they get pleasure, but from the fact that they follow certain rules that they have set for themselves. Such a person feels chosen. He is great because he has willpower, and everyone else is weak. He begins to critically evaluate those around him and realize his superiority over them. An important note: he stands out not because of his deeds, but because of his food. That is, he has no other tools to express his “I”.

Good day. My name is Yana, I’m 19 years old and I don’t have a very healthy relationship with food.
I was skinny as a child. Everyone and all sorts of people told me about this. At home in kindergarten, then at school. And in middle school I started eating more and more often. Thus, I recovered quite a lot by the ninth grade. At that time, I didn’t care about my weight, only last year I decided to lose weight when I stepped on the scale and saw the result.
In a little less than a year I managed to lose 9 kilograms using some simple methods. The weight then came off gradually and I paid little attention to the process. But the closer I was to the goal, the sooner I wanted results. I started counting calories and this topic occupied all my thoughts.
I began to specifically limit myself in food, rarely exceeding the threshold of 500-700 calories. I felt fine, but I stopped counting calories. It made me nervous.
Today I don’t count calories and I’m not going to go on any diets, but thoughts about losing weight and eating do not leave me. And I often overeat.
It's not so much my weight that worries me, but my obsession with food. I think about her constantly. When you are hungry and when you are not hungry too. I stopped feeling the limits. I can't do things that interest me.
I would really like to start treating food as just food, as fuel.
Perhaps they can give me some advice here.
Thank you in advance.

March 16, 2016

Yana

Evgenia Sergeeva

Administrator

Yana, good night. Please write, do you work/study? Hobbies, friends, relationships, sports?

March 17, 2016

Hello Yana! During adolescence, quite often there are some overlaps in eating behavior - either they eat stress, or they go crazy on the topic of diets. This is hormonal changes and maturation. So don't focus on it so much. I would like to ask you, how dissatisfied are you with your weight now? If you are ready, then tell me your height and weight. Do you always overeat during the day or is this due to some conditions or events? How does this feeling of “overeating” express itself for you?

March 17, 2016

Mirovik,
Good night to you too.
I just recently received my diploma. I’m not working at the moment, I’m planning to move to another city in the near future.
I have been drawing all my life, as long as I can remember. I love to draw and have a desire to do it, but for some reason I can’t bring myself to do it.
Regarding friends, we have them, but we rarely communicate. I noticed that I don’t want to.
No relationship.
Irina Kornilova,
Hello Irina.
My weight is normal, 55 kilograms with a height of meter 65. All the fuss is because of a couple of kilograms, yes. But I repeat, it’s not so much my weight that worries me, but my obsession with food.
I overeat at times.
Although I don’t go on any kind of diet, it’s difficult to move away from the diet mentality. For example, I try not to eat sweets and starchy foods. As a result, it is these foods that I eat without measure.
Do you mean physically?

March 17, 2016

Yana

Your weight is normal and it cannot be imagined that you regularly “overeat” and “eat to excess.” How do you know you've eaten too much? Are there any physical symptoms that are significant to you? Or do you define it differently? Well, for example, one bun a day is acceptable for you, but two - do you already think that you are overeating? “I eat without measure” - how much do you think? Can you give me an example?

March 17, 2016

Heaviness in the stomach. In my opinion, this is a sure sign.
Sorry, I didn't put it that way. I don’t eat without moderation, I don’t feel like I have moderation, somehow. Well, let’s say, before, after eating two pancakes or one bun, you didn’t want any more. And now it seems that if you don’t stop, you can eat a lot, a lot. There is no feeling of satisfaction, even if I am no longer hungry or have completely overeaten.

March 17, 2016

Yana

As I understand it, this does not create problems for your weight, because you are in conscious control of everything, you are able to stop, even. if you don't feel full. Sometimes the feeling of fullness does not occur when the stomach is stretched. If you are addicted to eating a lot of fruits and vegetables (that is, the volume of food is large, although there are not many calories), then the stomach stretches and the feeling of fullness occurs only 15 minutes after you eat. If you eat in small portions, then the stomach will be small and even a wet meal will already cause a feeling of fullness - “eat heavily.” Another way to “get enough” is to drink a full glass of water or juice before eating - the volume is occupied by liquid and less food will be needed to fill stomach and feel that you are full.

Do you do any kind of fitness? How do you maintain your figure - do you run, do yoga or exercise?

March 17, 2016

Thank you, Irina, for your advice.
It’s just that I’ve been eating small portions for quite some time now. I know that very little is enough for me not to feel physical hunger, but what about hunger in my head?
I usually have three main meals, after each I don’t feel physically hungry for 4-5 hours, but I think about food from time to time. Sometimes I manage to restrain myself and go to bed full, and not with a full stomach, but it also happens differently. I don't know why this happens and I would like to figure it out. It's hard to track the feelings that make me eat when I'm not hungry.

No, I wouldn't say I'm into fitness. I try to walk more, using the elevator for a long time I don’t use it, I occasionally perform various static exercises. Not serious.

March 17, 2016

Yana

Yana, look at how you eat and what kind of lifestyle you lead (in terms of physical activity), allows you to maintain a wonderful weight, which is at the lower limit of the norm for your height, so as not to become completely thin. With a height of 65, the normal weight is somewhere in the region of 55-58 kg (calculated by the formula = height - 100 cm - 10% of height). That is, you have developed absolutely correct eating habits, in which from time to time you allow yourself to eat heavily or eat something for the soul. The female body is not a machine or a machine that consumes the same amount of fuel, which depends only on technical characteristics models. The female body has monthly cycles and seasonal cycles, which depend on hormones. Sometimes everyone wants something sweet or salty or something rich. Sometimes on certain days of the cycle “zhor” attacks for one or two days. This is absolutely natural and even necessary. Twice a year the metabolism of residents middle zone is being rebuilt - by the spring-summer period it is adjusted to protein metabolism, and in the autumn-winter period to carbohydrate metabolism. This is due to the fact that the body needs a different amount of calories in winter than in hot summer. Therefore, in spring and autumn there also come some periods when you want something special, in the spring you want greens and vitamins, and in the winter you want something heartier and more satisfying - this is also natural. There are also situations of increased stress and stress - then the body needs additional calories and substances that it receives from food in order to get more energy or relieve nervous tension. Chocolate. for example, it stimulates the production of the hormone dopamine - the hormone of joy. You cannot ignore the body's needs in favor of some artificial calorie standards or diets that deprive you of certain types of foods. This causes a crash normal operation body and such an obsession with nutrition. "Idea fix" about that. to consider food as fuel, to be absolutely indifferent to it, is impossible in the normal state of the body, since spontaneous loss of appetite is a symptom of disorders, a symptom of many diseases. Is this what you are striving for? I assume that you now have quite a lot of free time - after you have completed your studies, but have not yet started working. Once your brain is busy, adapting to new job and living in a new city, your focus will most likely shift to more constructive and important experiences than eternal thoughts about food.

5. The main thing is to live unsystematically, freely. Those. You can impose some kind of system if freedom allows it, i.e. If you imagine that freedom is a big box, then the system should be a box half the size so that it easily fits into freedom, so that there are gaps on all sides. Then maybe the system will work. Otherwise, there will be a strong fixation, constant monitoring of everything consumed, and the psyche may not be able to stand it. After all, something like nutrition is just a part of life, its background. Let’s say you rarely have a stomach ache, and so you start constantly thinking about whether your stomach hurts, listening constantly - as a result, after a few days you will state that you have discomfort inside the abdomen, while having any sensation in the abdomen is part of life - the same happens with nutrition. If you constantly think about how much you eat and how much you really need to eat, what you can and cannot do, you are putting too much stress on your psyche. And the answer, of course, will be given - these are breakdowns after diets, this is punishing yourself by overeating or binge eating in the presence of stress factors or more complex life problems, and so on. If there is no obsession with food (no monitoring, evaluation, calculations, feelings of guilt when overeating), then the eating process will be regulated not by the higher cerebral cortex, but by the central nervous system– I’m hungry – I’ll eat and go on with my business. If I’m hungry again, I’ll eat until I’m full again. Of course, if the lifestyle is sedentary, and the diet is essentially incorrect and irregular or excessively plentiful, then weight gain is guaranteed, but still there will be no obsession. And what people who are not fixated on food usually do when they gain excess weight is start buying less harmful products and more healthy ones - they eat lunch in advance, instead of grabbing something harmful in fast food, etc., they move more, and the weight is gradually regulated. All this is possible without disruption only because the level of freedom is very high and a couple of restrictions are easily perceived. And if there is a clear program that needs to be inexorably followed, or there is a clearly defined problem that should have been solved yesterday (or several months or even years ago), then that’s it - obsession appears, and even one small limitation is perceived very hard. For example, restricting eating less sweets actually causes a passionate desire to eat more sweets, while with freedom and non-obsession this desire would not arise. A person says to himself, “Really, I need less sweets - I won’t buy this and that” - and this decision is easy if suddenly there is a birthday at work - the person will, of course, eat a piece of cake, but will not eat the second piece. And the other one, fixated, will either not touch it at all, while everyone is eating, or even if he does eat more than one piece. That is, I think that first of all you need to get rid of obsession, and then impose restrictions that will not be perceived as restrictions. That is, I call for permissiveness. And I bet that when the Forbidden fruit ceases to be forbidden - it becomes not so sweet at all - the understanding immediately comes that an overcrowded stomach causes discomfort, and dessert was, in general, of no use, and sitting all the time without moving is also uncomfortable, but movement (any) brings joy . But this understanding has absolutely nothing to do with restrictions - a person is still free to eat as much as he wants at any time of the day. But he begins to understand and makes a decision. And having made this decision, this absolutely does not mean that he will follow it forever and strictly. He will break it under adequate circumstances (such as a piece of cake on a colleague’s birthday, or it could be a longer period - for example, a vacation in Italy - where it is impossible to refuse ice cream - unless, of course, this person loves street Italian ice cream very much) without any remorse and will return to it again when he finds himself in his previous environment.