The danger of orthorexia, the obsession with eating healthy

A rigidity and inflexibility in the diet that ends up leading to deterioration on a psychological level.

The specialist in Endocrinology and Nutrition at the HM Modelo Hospital, Iria Rodríguez, has warned of the danger of suffering from orthorexia, an eating disorder that is characterized by an obsessive fixation on food that the patient considers healthy, with recurrent and persistent preoccupation with food.

"Sometimes this obsession begins with a diet that is proposed to address some type of pathology that requires certain nutritional management and others simply due to the desire to have a healthier diet," he said.

Sometimes the obsession focuses only on the quality of the food or its way of growing or manufacturing, and other times it consists of the restriction of some food group due to the erroneous belief because they contain toxic substances or because they think they are unhealthy.

"In any case, they always tend to be very rigid self-imposed rules for alleged health reasons, but that they are often erroneous," Rodríguez emphasized, to report that orthorexia "is fundamentally combated with prevention, with nutritional education for the population from reliable sources, avoiding less than rigorous information that is currently disseminated through the media. social networks".

The appropriate and recommended thing to do on a day-to-day basis, as indicated, is to wear aa healthy, complete, balanced and varied diet, such as the Mediterranean, which includes all the foods necessary to cover our micro- and macronutrient needs and helps prevent cardiovascular diseases, obesity, diabetes and even some types of cancer.

"But if we occasionally skip it It is not going to significantly affect our health. We should not become obsessed or have feelings of guilt or anxiety," concluded the specialist in Endocrinology and Nutrition at the HM Modelo Hospital.