Perfect Formula Diet

A Healthy Foods Diet Doesn’t Stoke Industry Profits, Hence the Orthorexia Label

Vegetables. Fruits. Tasty beans. Satisfying baked potatoes and whole grains. Crunchy fresh nuts. Fragrant herbs and spices. Are you forming a picture of a delicious day of eating? Are you imagining vibrant health, a trim figure, and a sustainable garden or small family farm?

Well, according to certain “experts,” this kind of diet is downright sick. Believe it or not, there is increased media attention on a fake “eating disorder” called orthorexia. Sufferers of this “disorder” are accused of eating the most unprofitable foods – fresh from the soil, cooked at home, simple and naturally appealing. Such whole foods provide little opportunity for big business to make a buck on your ruining your health or big pharma to make a buck (or several billion of them) selling you the pills to fix the effects of the manufactured foods.

When I first read about this “disorder,” quite honestly I thought it was a joke. However, although not an official medical diagnosis, medical sources do discuss and debate orthorexia and whether it should be recognized as an official “illness.”

Those on a whole foods diet suffer little from other diseases. So the medical establishment can conveniently then label them as “sick” for refusing to eat the toxic manufactured and animal foods that overflow supermarkets.

The signs of orthorexia, according to the Mayo Clinic, include avoiding foods containing artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives,

pesticides, genetically modified ingredients, fat, sugar, or salt. The Mayo Clinic material goes on to helpfully mention that wanting to eat in this sane manner “can be treated with counseling and medication.”

Proponents of this ridiculous “diagnosis” automatically assume that healthy eating is not pleasurable. In fact, humans are designed by nature to enjoy whole foods. Only in the last hundred years or so, since the advent of factories, refrigeration, and higher incomes, have people even had the choice of living on anything but whole foods.

Give your tastes a few weeks to break away from the prison of chemically manipulated taste and mountains of added salt and sugar, and you’ll never want anything but whole foods. They are that good. Here are a few of the taste treats I love, all 100% plant-based, made without added oil, and so yummy I can hardly wait to get hungry again.

• Sandwiches and wraps

• Veggie burgers

• Burritos and enchiladas

• Curries

• Stir fries

• Pasta (including lasagna)

• Pizza

• Salads

• Casseroles

• Baked, roasted, and boiled potatoes

• Whole grain cereal and oatmeal

• Brown rice, corn, quinoa, and barley

• Every kind of fruit and vegetable

• Every kind of herb and spice

• Olives

• Nuts and seeds

• Soups – my favorite, even in summer

• Dark chocolate

Would you call this a limited diet? The only things that are limited are my time in the doctor’s office and hanging around the pharmacy waiting to spend my money on drugs. Really, I don’t mind those limitations, and neither would you, most likely.

When you think for yourself, whole foods are the only logical choice. You can just smile to yourself if someone uses the twisted label “orthorexic.” Remember the hidden motivation and billions of dollars fueling this diagnosis. Just go on thriving on the foods you love and keeping your own money in your own pockets.

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Blog by Janice Stanger, Ph.D. Janice authored The Perfect Formula Diet, a nutrition book built on sustainable food choices. Enjoy six kinds of whole foods for permanent, hunger-free weight loss and health.

Tags: getting healthy, healthy desserts, Janice Stanger, orthorexia, Plant-based nutrition, reverse chronic disease, weight loss, whole foods

This entry was posted on Friday, March 12th, 2010 at 10:48 pm and is filed under Plant-based nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.