Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Can You be Too Obsessed With Eating Healthy?

The encouragement and motivation to get healthy is found everywhere today, from infomercials on T.V. to billboards to magazines. Are you several weeks into a New Year’s resolution to become healthier? How is it going?

While a commitment to stay healthy is a great thing, it can become dominating and something people can become consumed with. You can be too obsessed with eating healthy. A term for this kind of behavior developed in 1996 by Dr. Steven Bratman. He coined the phrase, “orthorexia nervosa” to describe when someone has a fixation on healthy eating. Eating healthy food is not a problem but an unhealthy obsession with eating healthy is a serious condition.

There are several risk factors involved with this type of behavior. If you are consumed with eating certain foods, you may unknowingly be highly lacking in essential vitamins, minerals, fats, carbohydrates and proteins that your body needs to truly be healthy and function properly. Obsessing about eating healthy may cause you to limit your food intake so much that you actually become undernourished.

This type of obsession can also have emotional effects as well as it can cause anxiety, depression and sleep disruptions. Our society praises health and “being thin” but if you find that you are being held captive by your efforts to achieve that, it is time to seek help.

Dr. Jeff Bowman, foot specialist in Houston, TX cares about the whole body when evaluating his patients health. If foot pain is hindering your efforts to stay healthy, contact our podiatric office at (713) 467-8886 or visit us online at www.houstonfootspecialists.com.
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