Healthy Eating Becomes An Obsession: Article Analysis

Obesity in the United States is a major issue. Because there is such a high obesity rate, there have been so many diets established to try and reduce these constantly rising rates. A lot of these weight-loss diets that have been established are known as fad diets. A fad diet is a diet that becomes popular quickly, and may die out just as quickly. In the United States, there are some popular and healthy fad diets such as the Atkins diet, the South Beach diet, and Weight Watchers.

Over the weekend, I attended an Overeaters Anonymous meeting at the Birmingham Unitarian Church in Bloomfield Hills. This meeting was open to OA members and non-OA visitors. Each meeting is composed with special topics such as, a book study, lifeline, speaker, or newcomer’s stories have a defined topic of discussion. However, these meeting have certain bylaws that are strictly followed, which is the only requirement for OA membership and that is the desire to stop eating compulsively. Each attending member is asked to respect the meeting’s group conscience and give a voice to any person who has the desire to stop their addiction of overeating.

The obesity epidemic has become one of the worst illnesses nationwide over the past few decades. Obesity is technically defined as a disorder that involves excessive body fat which increases the risk for health problems or concerns. The most concerning part of America’s obesity epidemic is the percentage that affects the children. The major question, is can we as Americans do anything to change the obesity rate?

Keeping in mind that she has always strove for perfection, some irrational thoughts and psychological symptoms have developed concerning her standards for both food consumption and weight. These irrational fears have led her to believe that food is bad, and since she is terribly scared of getting fat, she finds fulfillment by abiding by her restrictive diet and maintaining her abnormal weight by restricting food and using laxatives when necessary to avoid weight gain. It’s easy to see that Joan has developed an obsession with both food and her weight that has taken over her life. All of these psychological symptoms have also caused some social symptoms which have negatively impacted her relationships, mainly stemming from concern of friends and family which usually result in arguments about eating. Joan’s physiological systems are also reflecting concerning symptoms such as dry, inelastic skin, liver problems, unhealthy hair, dizziness, amenorrhea, and of course, excessive

strive to “provide healthful food, … but spoke with real passion and at length about the morning

The article, “Building a $325,000 Burger, talked about Dr. Post and his work on in-vitro meat. His experiments are to make meat out of stem cell grown muscles. The idea for having in-vitro meat has many positive aspects, for example, it supports animal welfare, covers environmental issues, “greatly reduces water, land, and energy use, and emissions of methane and other greenhouse gases, compared with conventional raising of cattle or other livestock”. Since this cultured meat is made through stem cells, the cells can turn into any kind of tissue. If someone wanted muscle tissue or neural tissue, then he or she can access it.

Obesity rates are soaring throughout North America (What Is Obesity?, 2013). With obesity reaching almost epidemic proportions in the United States, and the threat of a global epidemic, we must watch this alarming increase carefully ( Health Risks of Obesity, 2013). Obesity is defined as: "…an excess of adipose tissue…" (A Report of the Surgeon General, 2014). The two most common measures of obesity are Body Mass Index (BMI is a ratio of weight to height) and relative weight index, such as percent desirable weight (Body Mass Index , 2013). BMI is the most frequently used measure of obesity as it has a strong correlation with more direct measures of adiposity, such as underwater weighing (A Report of the Surgeon General, 2013). Some

Obesity has become increasingly more prominent in American society. The Unites States has even been termed an overweight nation. Some twenty to thirty percent of American adults are now considered obese (Hwang 1999 and Hirsch et al 1997). With this in mind, Americans constantly look around themselves determining their weight status as well as that of those around them. While some Americans do fit the healthy category, others enter the underweight, overweight, and even obese categories, all of which can be unhealthy.

This is an experimental study because it is looking at whether participation in leanness focused sports causes disordered eating. Because it is looking at a causal relationship, it is an experimental design, rather than correlational. The independent variable we were studying was the sport type of participation. For this variable, the participants could be characterized as leanness focused sport athletes, nonleaness focused sport athletes, or non-athletes. The dependent variable was the level of disordered eating, as determined by the EAT-26. The data would be analyzed using a one-way ANOVA. If the result of this determined that there was a significant result, somewhere in the data, the next step would be to perform post hoc tests to see where the differences occur. An appropriate post hoc test would be Fisher's Least Significant Difference test. The desired result of this study would be that leanness focused sport athletes would have a significantly higher level of disorder eating than nonleanness focused sport athletes. Additionally, nonleaness focused sport athletes would have a significantly higher level of disordered eating than non-athletes.

It is often driven by a desire to optimize health by restricting food intake and avoiding certain food. Orthorexic individual could potentially have psychosocial issues correspondingly. Chronic worry regarding imperfect health, sense of guilt and self-hatred when the ‘wrong’ type of food is taken, excessive frustration when their diet or food practices is disrupted are often reported. These behaviors are likely to encourage the development of stricter diet or urge to self-punishment. Orthorexic individuals and anorexia individuals share some common features, high need to exert control, high trait anxiety and perfectionism. Both would treat their ability to follow their choice of diet as a sign of self-discipline and an achievement. However, orthorexic individuals are more likely to show off their eating habits and value themselves of superiority. They are at a higher risk of social isolation due to their behavior and belief to stay in complete control of their surroundings (Koven, & Abry,

In America, more people are becoming overweight or obese than ever, over 70 percent of the population. Much of this is occurring because of what the food industry is doing and because of many misconceptions in the minds of the ordinary people. These, along with other factors are generating an obesity epidemic in the USA. This documentary visits several experts and people with first-hand experiences with obesity. They bring to light many of the causes that induce people becoming obese, teach people how to avoid such things, suggest methods for restoring one's health, and reveal the benefits that come with good health and the hindrances that come with malnutrition. At the same time, it follows the fictional life of a woman as she makes the decision

While obesity is an epidemic sweeping the nation, Orthorexia Nervosa is sweeping in. In 1997, Doctor Steven Bratman wrote an article in the 1997 issue of Yoga Journal (http://www.orthorexia.com/original-orthorexia-essay/) on a new term he introduced as ‘Orthorexia.’ Orthorexia is the unhealthy obsession with eating healthy food (Bratman S. 1996.) Not to be confused with anorexia, orthorexia does not base itself upon the idea of unhealthy restriction, but instead health and purity. Orthorexia is a relatively new disorder than compared to its similar counterparts; bulimia, anorexia, and binge-eating disorder. The health industry has created a new sense of fear in the western world, a fear of the unhealthy.

Orthorexia is not about how thin we can be or how little we can consume it is about having control over eating healthy to where it can at times cause disease or death. Parents mean well but in their tendency to teach their children proper nutrition and diet skills they can do more harm than good. Parents need to be aware of the early warning signs or if they think they may have a problem with their children's eating habits. When we have anxiety about what we are eating, then that can be just as harmful to our bodies as cutting out all the foods that considered “wrong”. One of the signs of orthorexia is for the person to start cutting out all unhealthy types of food, which can be very dangerous as our bodies need different kinds of foods and there is a reason for all the types of food and to cut these items out can cause serious health consequences. If you see any warning signs or notice you or someone you know is starting to take eating healthy to an unhealthy level, the best place to look for treatment or therapy is dieticians and counselors dealing with

Screening tests and evaluations help with many diagnoses of various eating disorder. Created to help identify orthorexia was the BOT, ORTO-15, ORTO-11, and EAT-40 tests. The BOT test which stands for Bratman’s Orthorexia Test was developed to help identify if the expression of feeding behaviors in health education is pathological or not. This test is a 10 question yes/ no questionnaire were answering yes to at least 4 questions can indicate that one may be developing orthorexia (Brytek-Matera, 2012). The BOT test asks the questions the require one to think about you day to day diet. Some sample questions include: how many days you plan your meals ahead, how many hours you spend thinking about food, have you become stricter with yourself, and

Although orthorexia nervosa is not an eating disorder that many people are aware of, it is