Quote:
Originally Posted by ilovetv
If you'd ever lived with somebody who is addicted to their rituals of righteous grocery shopping, food storage, cooking, picky eating, and droning that implies everyone else is an ignorant slob who doesn't know how to eat, you would know that orthorexia is a real mental illness, regardless of whether it is classified in the DSM (Diagnosis & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) for getting bills paid by insurance or government.
Worse yet is living with, or seeing next door, parents who inflict this disordered thinking and jail-like lifestyle on their innocent little kids in their most formative years.
We actually had neighbors whose kids would roam the (upscale) neighborhood, looking for food from other moms who allowed their kids to eat normally (which means allowed them to have a snack when they got home from school instead of forcing "no snacking" on them).
In the DSM, the other main eating disorders described here encompass much of what orthorexic behavior is:
Eating Disorders | psychiatry.org |
That's a great post. Another aspect of carrying things too far with regard to perceived healthy eating.
We've known people who limit their kids to plain water rather than milk or juice. Chocolate milk is poison in their minds. One family belonged to a Chiropractor in town who just happened to buy a home next door to us. They had seven children who were severely limited in what they could eat. My daughter, 16, at the time....was an occasional babysitter.
The mom, college educated like the dad, would write a list of what she could and could not give the children.........only beverages to be had: water. No snacks at all. They were vegetarians and I believe adopted the B'hai faith........eventually moved to Uraguay? South America.
Whether or not cows milk is popular today or not, ours had milk, juices and an occasional chocolate milk. Lemonade in the summertime. Water was not the "in thing" then.
I never ever rationed food. We had ice cream in the freezer for them and their friends. Big bowls of fruit on the kitchen island....to take as they pleased. Never rationed a thing. Both were thin healthy kids, thin healthy teens and now thin healthy adults.
Whereas I had another neighbor who also rationed food and her kids are all seriously obese........as they felt deprived. Go figure.
We also served all different types of ethnic meals.
I even made Mushu Pork in the little pancakes after we enjoyed it in Washington, D.C. Always tried various cousines and both still enjoy exotic foods............where other kids we know grew up to be picky eaters.
It's when a BIG DEAL is made out of eating or not eating.
I think people should just eat when they are hungry.
They say 6 "small" meals a day is ideal to keep one's blood sugar up.
They are not saying to gorge six times a day......but a healthy snack here and there.
But, GREAT POST ABOVE..........it's probably easier to do the righteous grocery shopping if one is single, never married and never had children.
Then you can eat what you alone desire. But, when you have a family and the children bring home friends.......you want to have kid friendly snacks around. I was one of those cookie baking moms.....so when they came home from school, always with friends in tow........they had fresh cookies. It didn't kill them and I used oatmeal and raisins and nuts.
Plus chocolate chips. Ginger, etc. Molasses, etc. I had the luxury of being a stay at home mom...........and our house was always open to the friends...........they all turned out well, thankfully.
Rigidity in any form is not healthy.......especially as you say, for the person living with them or near them.
I may have been five years old but I still remember those years at my Italian grandmother's dining table......with many generations of inlaws and outlaws........never once heard anyone say "I can't eat that" or "I have this or that ailment"........they just were jolly and ate with gusto and all lived into their 90's. Anyone that remembers all the dishes and plates on top of plates plus all the "various courses" of an Italian family dinner, will know what I'm talking about.............the miracle in my mind is how they did it from those tiny kitchens??? Must have been that home made Italian vino.