Strange eating "disorders"

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Wednesday, June 3. 2020

Strange eating "disorders"

It's coming to a DSM near you one of these days: Orthorexia nervosa. You may find many victims of this disorder in the socially-distanced lines at Whole Foods. It's a harmless preoccupation other than the risk of annoying or boring your friends.

Another one is Binge Eating, aka Binge Eating Disorder. These are people who will ask for seconds, or eat ravenously until the food is gone. Historically it was just called the sin of gluttony, but now it's a diagnosis. It is interesting to me how various behaviors, maybe once attributed to demons, later to sins, are now DSM diagnoses.

Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss in Psychology, and Dr. Bliss at 15:06 | Comments (11) | Trackbacks (0)

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My dad has this. It's gotten worse since he retired because he has nothing else to do.
Always concerned with the nutrients in everything one eats, every second of the day, popping dietary supplements and herbal supplements.

He doesn't shop at Whole Foods and he stops short of talking about pesticides (probably because Mr. FJord and I are former farmers and I've straightened him out on a lot of the outright lies that foodies spread) or at least doesn't around us, but it's the most annoying thing ever. I wouldn't care if it was just about what HE eats, but he starts dictating on what me and my family should eat...

I wish he'd get a better "hobby".

#1 fjord on 2015-10-04 07:25 (Reply)

The cure is 9 missed meals. After that you will eat anything. I grew up poor and missed meals. Spent 20 years in the military and when I was single living in the barracks I ate 4 meals a day in the chow hall. Other GI's complained about the food and I just never understood it.

#1.1 Anon on 2020-06-08 19:46 (Reply)

Seems basically like a subtype of OCD combined with an extra-controlling personality type where people not only make themselves do various unpleasant things - they want to make you do it too.

For your own good, of course.

#2 JM01 on 2015-10-04 18:00 (Reply)

We have a few of these types in my extended family. They always want to dictate to everyone else how to eat, but at the same time they're hypochondriacs, always working on their "health" like it's a religion or something.

#2.1 LP on 2020-06-03 17:19 (Reply)

I have a good friend of some 45 years who has this. He truly believes if he were to eat a little bacon (or anything from a long list of "harmful" foods) that all his years of eating "perfectly" would be lost and he would die sooner as a result of his failing.

#3 GoneWithTheWind on 2015-10-06 01:02 (Reply)

Can we all make a pact to swear that we will never let these people learn that the Social Distancing period is over with, for the sake of our own sanity.

#4 Aggie on 2020-06-03 15:22 (Reply)

I see this in people who are constantly trying new weight-loss diets and want to talk endlessly about how their latest regimen produces magic results unrelated to calories in/calories out. Also people who announce that they are allergic (or other hypersensitive) to a list of foods that takes pages to document. "Whatever it is, I can't eat it!"

#5 Texan99 on 2020-06-03 15:34 (Reply)

It is interesting to me how various behaviors, maybe once attributed to demons, later to sins, are now DSM diagnoses.

Interesting to me as well. If it is a "sin" it is up to me to fix; if it is a "diagnosis" it's the doctor's responsibility, hopefully with the right organically-sourced medication.

I'm amazed at how much of the modern world is about avoiding responsibility for our own actions.

#6 Hamlet's Fool on 2020-06-03 16:00 (Reply)

I was a food junkie most of my life. Now my diet is good and health is very good. I binge eat when I go to my girl friends house for a weekend, once a month. She is a TV person, I am not. I get kinda bored. She has all of those addicting carbs I used to indulge in. Crackers, Reese's etc. But I also binge on the food I bring. That's why I only go once a month.

#7 I.......... on 2020-06-03 17:04 (Reply)

Up until only two or three generations ago, the ability to consume large quantities of calories in a short tie, then put on and maintain body weight were survival advantages, given food supply was normally intermittent and unstable. The fact that it led to a heart attack at 55 didn't matter if it kept you from dying of starvation at 30. Now that food is cheap, plentiful, and available and since everybody expects to live into their 70s that these drives become a problem.

#8 Another guy named Dan on 2020-06-04 08:15 (Reply)

I would like to see the results of blood work from a sample group of 100 people diagnosed with Orthorexia nervosa.

Then compare these findings with the blood work from a group of average US citizens not afflicted with this horrifying condition.

My guess is this study was funded by a group of cardiologists to keep their customers base growing.

#9 JR on 2020-06-04 09:57 (Reply)

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Wednesday, June 3. 2020

Strange eating "disorders"