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March 5, 2008
Everything is a disorder...
Ye gods and little fishes, it's "orthoexia" again, everyone's favorite made-up disorder:
Dr. Stacey asks what readers think about it. Read it and weigh in (hehehe) here.
You have to give Dr. Stacey a ton of credit here: she points out that it is in fact a made-up disorder, and that it doesn't seem to differ significantly from anorexia. In the explanation she offers, she points out that people with "orthoexia" may omit essential nutrients like fat and may not eat enough quality foods. Dr. Stacey is getting asked to speak about orthoexia, and she's asking her readers to chime in. I'll write a comment when I have time, but some of you might like to write in as well. She's usually quite open to comments and differing points of view. At the same time, her audience seems to be mostly women with eating disorders and serious body image issues, so I fear she may get a slanted view. Go chime in, healthy people!!!
I really hate this stupid made-up disorder mania, especially this one, because while people doing CRON obviously get enough nutrients, especially things like fat (I eat more fat now than pre-CR), else you're not doing it right, people do love to put labels on us, and that just makes our lives more stressful than they need to be. If anything that is not "normal," where normal involves the majority of Americans being overweight or obese and becoming ill with heart disease, cancer and diabetes, is going to be labeled a disorder, then I'd say a lot of us have reason to be concerned.
Remember those bumper stickers that said, "Keep your laws off my body!"?
Keep your labels off my body!
Posted by april at March 5, 2008 5:07 AM
Comments
And the NYTimes just came up with another disorder: "drunkorexia". (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/fashion/02drunk.html) Basically, anorexics who are alcoholics. Imagine getting ALL your calories from alcohol. Ewwww!
Posted by: Katerina at March 5, 2008 7:22 AM
I was also annoyed, but didn't comment until you prompted us to.
Posted by: Sara at March 5, 2008 2:09 PM
Dr. Stacey's idea of "healthy eating"--or at least what she presents to her audience--differs so significantly from actual healthy eating that it's absurd to compare the two. She lost me in the first paragraph with "nutrients are often omitted (like fat)." I mean, really? Her idea of healthy eating somehow encompasses OMITTING NUTRIENTS? How does that even work?
Posted by: Jay at March 6, 2008 7:54 AM
Jay, I don't understand your comment above. Nowhere do I see that Dr. Stacey is equating omitting nutrients with healthy eating. As far as I can see, her reference to omitting nutrients is simply part of a description of orthorexia. She specifically notes that orthorexia, which often includes omitting nutrients, "isn't just healthy eating." Perhaps she lost you in the first paragraph because you (as far as I can tell, at least...) misinterpreted what she was saying??
Posted by: Rachel S. at March 6, 2008 11:49 AM
off the topic, sorry, but i just wanted to say thank you for the blog about 'picture menu available upon request' sign at burger king. you said it perfectly. my solution to truely let the illiterate, or foreigner know to ask for the picture menu, have A PICTURE of a friendly employee holding up a picture menu to the ignorant.
Posted by: chris at March 6, 2008 5:43 PM
I find it to be a very interesting, if provocative idea. Even while I agree that there is just too much policing of what people eat going on. If one is fat and pushing around a cart full of "gak" (as you CRONS would put it - and I do mean the truly "bad stuff", like Twinkies) this produces many forbidding stares. It's actually somewhat enjoyable, to be completely honest. Of course, there is definitely a price (in terms of health) to be paid for eating any but a very small amount of something like Twinkies. I really despise them, in fact. Yet, I have a love/hate thing going on with stuff like this. Like pink snowball cakes and a bakery display case full of fluffy cupcakes. This stuff must be like the worst kind of porn for CRONS. (Re: diet soda - I am eager to try the new, diet chocolate-cherry Dr. Pepper. I know you like the regular diet Dr. Pepper; I wonder if you'd drink the diet chocolate-cherry)?
Posted by: Eris at March 11, 2008 6:05 AM
April, I'm going to "weigh in" again, here, on why I think the name of that blog ("every woman has an eating disorder") is apt. It's like racism - a person of color may live a relatively free life, filled with ambition and fulfillment, advancement and money, and so forth. They *personally* may not feel the effects of racism at all. Yet, the culture is still permeated with it. Less so than ever before, but it's still with us. In a related sense, every woman *might* have eating body and food problems and obsessions (or Have had them), as every woman grows up in an environment that, basically, shows much hatred toward women. You may disagree, of course. But, I believe, very deeply, that this hatred is a true and undeniable fact. All women grow up in it and feel the effects of it, even if, individually, many women can prosper in all kinds of ways. Unfortunately "education" and "resources", while good in themselves, will not make anyone thin, once they are truly fat. I know this, personally, and can vouch for it as a fact. That said, I do enjoy how you write and especially how you write about the food you create, eat and serve to others.
Posted by: Eris at March 12, 2008 12:41 PM