Comments on: Orthorexia

By: Rachel Hibberd

Rachel Hibberd — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 16:03:19 +0000

shiva,

I’m a vegetarian (most of the time) for the same reason as you and I get all kinds of people, mainly meat-eaters, lording it over me when I choose to have a steak. I’m of the opinion that it’s like contributing to charity; I can do the 20 bucks a month and I’m not a hypocrite for not donating my entire income. I eat very little meat, and sometimes I treat myself because I still miss how it tastes. I think this is better than nothing and it’s part of my identity as an environmentally conscious person. Other people think it makes me a hypocrite. So I end up doing my occasional meat in secret, which I hate.
Argh.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 22:29:16 +0000

Am I a bad person for finding orthorexics annoying as hell?

By: andreashettle

andreashettle — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 20:16:40 +0000

Dallia Aguilar Amanda is laying low for a while and not responding much to people. You may want to go to http://ballastexistenz.autistics.org/?p=317 and scroll down to the comments to see comments #56, #92, #105, #133, #134, and #138 to see some links to other autistic bloggers (and parents of autistic children) to see if someone else has ideas for you on the food issue.

By: Dallia Aguilar

Dallia Aguilar — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 10:38:50 +0000

My son has PDD, which falls in the autism spectrum disorder. Because he is now 3 1/2 he now only qualifies for services through the Chicago Public Schools. His difficulty is with food. Because this doesn’t affect him educationally the school system doesn’t give this issue precedence. He only eats a few things over and over again, and sometimes doesn’t want to eat. Since he doesn’t lose weight the doctors don’t respond to my requests for help. He gags and says everything is yucky and won’t even attempt to try things. The doctor suggested mixing supplements into his milk. I didn’t want him to notice it so I only started with 1 teaspoon, Alas he noticed and now it’s been approx. 2 months since he’s had milk. They say he has sensory issues. He hates to be dirty and doesn’t even like to have a drop of water fall on him, but has gotten progressively better. My issue is with food and I don’t understand how I can help him eat more of it. The gerber food has to go. I feed him gerber to make sure he gets nutrious food but he sometimes tell me he’s hungry even after having several jars of Gerber but just won’t eat anything else. Or at times he’ll ask for something, take one bite and then gag and then will start crying. I’d appreciate any advice you may be able to give me. You’ve made me realize that there are an infinte amount of possibilities for my sons future. I can now breath easier, through you I have come to realize my son will be just fine.
Thank You,
Dallia Aguilar :) Dallia74@aol.com

By: zilari

zilari — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 22:32:14 +0000

This is a late response to this post, I realize, but I did want to bring up the fact that social pressures can work in the “other” direction in some cases. I am not a strict vegetarian but I usually avoid most meat because I have a lot of sensory issues related to the texture. And I’ve had plenty of people get hostile toward me for my preference…telling me things like, “You’re going against nature by not eating meat!” and, “People like you would just die if you lived in the Stone Age”.

I also have had people harass me for the size and content of my lunches (I don’t like to eat a lot in the middle of the day because long lunches disorient and sedate me, and I eat a lot of vegetables simply because I like them, not because I’m trying to follow any kind of fad). I’ve taken a long time figuring out nutritional stuff, and the way I eat now is the result of a process of figuring out how to feed myself things that (a) I can prepare and store easily, and (b) that don’t do weird things with my blood sugar, since I used to have what I thought were “panic attacks” but that turned out to be reactive hypoglycemia episodes. So, I certainly don’t expect my diet to cure anything or give me magical powers…I’ve just found a way of eating that works for me, and it is very annoying to have people come along and tell me that I need to start eating more hamburgers or that not having cake at some kind of event means I’m being a “snob” or thinking I’m “better than everyone else” for abstaining.

While orthorexia is problematic in that it’s generally based on some kind of pseudoscientific idea, I think it’s related to a bigger problem that consists of people being too nosy and controlling with respect to what other people are eating.

By: Adam

Adam — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 23:18:04 +0000

Great post. I now have an accurate diagnosis of my step-mom who has somehow gone to doctors who found nothing yet insists on traveling with her own food becuase she believes she is so ‘allergy-prone’ that she will become allergic to any food she eats more than a couple days in succession.
I work with autistic kids and am gluten-intolerant. I don’t become autistic if I eat breat. I get grumpy and short tempered from the nutrient deprivation (and somewhat irregular). Food allergies are real but generally just cause headaches and irregular BMs. Thank you again.

By: shiva

shiva — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 14:30:50 +0000

“I’d always assumed it was 100% metabolism/blood sugar, but a sensory integration aspect sounds interesting.”

well, what i mean is, the metabolism/blood-sugar thing is absolutely there, it’s just the same as what all or nearly all “normal” people experience, but the sensory integration issues associated with being autistic mean I/we notice it more and/or can’t cope with it as easily/the same way…

Tho i *hope* that’s not true, because it then means there’s nothing physical/chemical that can be done to “treat” it… grrr, i dunno…

By: M

Wed, 15 Nov 2006 11:31:00 +0000

Thank you for this – it’s very timely. I’m seeing a friend who I think I’m ‘losing’ to veganism in a couple of days, and I’m reading this and the links, and while there are no easy answers it might make me less likely to just go in there and yell at her :)

I also have the headaches-dizziness when not eating (I never forget to eat, just if food is not available, like being very busy or out). I’d always assumed it was 100% metabolism/blood sugar, but a sensory integration aspect sounds interesting.

I love food, and the study of food, and all the weird and wonderful and non-nutritional ways that humans interact with it. Taboos and ‘good’ foods seem to be as old as humans – orthorexia is tapping into something very deep.

By: shiva

shiva — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 09:11:34 +0000

Agreed with a lot of this discussion, especially the horrible way in which anorexia (like just about every other sort of mental distress or “self-destructive” behaviour) is individualised and therefore depoliticised by the medical system, and the classism inherent in many forms of veg*ism, health-food obsession, etc.

I’m vegetarian, but more for (what i see as) environmental/sustainability reasons than “animal rights” reasons (I’m not entirely sure what i think of the concept of “animal rights”, mostly because of the number of people i know into it who agree with Peter Singer about disabled people) – farming animals takes up far more land and energy than farming plants with the same nutritional value to humans. There’s also the fact that I’m very uncomfortable with the concept of keeping animals in captivity (partly because of how much it reminds me of keeping humans in captivity, ie institutions), but that’s really an argument against *farming* animals, not against *eating* them (I don’t have an ethical problem with hunting for food, as long as it’s sustainable, ie not endangering species).

Ettina – I have some problems similar to you, but tested negative for any sort of blood sugar abnormalities, and for all the other conditions doctors thought could have caused my symptoms (constant or near-constant hunger, inability to put on weight, headaches and dizziness related to waiting too long to eat). I have been told by someone working for an autism-related organisation that these symptoms are actually more likely to be sensory integration problems (thus, they’re the same as what eveyone feels, but I just find it harder to deal with because of my neurological differences), which doesn’t make me happy because it implies there is no possible physical solution for it…

I don’t really know what to do about people with orthorexia – I know one woman who won’t eat anything not grown organically, is a ridiculously strict vegan (won’t even eat stuff cooked by other vegans just in case it had something accidentally non-vegan in it), won’t take supplements, and has all sorts of other irrational beliefs about food and health (such as, for example, that *all* animals, not just humans, can live on a vegan diet, which is what i suspect caused one of her cats to have the kidney failure it died from) – she seems impossible to convince of anything by rational means, however, so while i still worry for her (surprise surprise, she looks very unhealthy and malnourished, and *clearly* has major fatigue problems) i’ve given up trying to talk to her about food/health politics…

By: KimJ

KimJ — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 02:04:27 +0000

A lot of people discuss trying diets as “free” or almost free, with no negative consequences. Having experience with dieters, though, I know this to be false. My mom dieted herself into obesity. She was very thin yet complained of needing to diet. She concentrated on artificial sweetners and buying anything that said “lite”. She got into the fads throughout the years. She still does.
She is now on a variety of meds to deal with her diet-induced health problems. She can’t think independently with making menu choices. She’ll abstain from “bad” foods and overeat the so-called “good foods”.
I know this varies from the type of dieting you’re discussing. But it leads to the same manias.
Yet, people are very dismissive of any negative side effects of trying diets. My son is very picky, so even if I tried to put him on a diet, I’d probably just starve him. He’d probably think I was punishing him.
I actually work hard to instill in him not to be nutty over food. We don’t enforce the 3 Squares, no cleaning your plate, and I don’t buy him diet food of any kind. He manages to get his nutrition and calories and he manages to burn it off. That’s the best I can hope for.