Don't Let the Passion for Healthy Eating Turn into an Obsession

One of the experts of DoktorTakvimi.com, Uzm. Cl. Ps. Elif Eşen Kara talked about her obsession with healthy eating. With the effort to keep up with the active life, ready-made foods can be preferred in daily life. However, healthy eating is becoming more and more important. People who are sensitive about this issue make an effort to acquire healthy eating habits and even to instill these habits in their children. Stating that this effort to live a healthy life often increases the quality of life of people, Dr. Cl. Ps. Elif Eşen Kara underlines that sometimes this habit can cause serious anxiety and become unhealthy.

The number of people who have the problem of obsession with healthy eating is increasing day by day.

exp. cl. Ps. Kara draws attention to the fact that the effort to eat healthy turns into an unhealthy obsession from a healthy effort if it is of such intensity and frequency that it will make daily life activities difficult. In this case, people can see repetitive thoughts about whether the food is healthy, severe anxiety, and very intense control cycles that make daily life difficult for certain criteria such as food preparation stages, additives, food dyes, packaging features. cl. Ps. Kara states that this problem, called orthorexia nervosa, is becoming more common day by day.

Reminding that people who are inclined to obsession, who are thought to maintain a certain appearance or weight due to their work/social environment, or who are too concerned with diet, have a higher risk in this regard. cl. Ps. Kara lists the symptoms seen in people who experience this condition as follows:

• Thinking about healthy/unhealthy nutrition at a level that will affect their daily lives,
• For this reason, avoiding socializing, traveling and similar activities,
• Deterioration of nutritional balance / deterioration of physical health due to intake of certain groups of food,
• Losing a significant amount of weight due to the obsession with healthy eating, not due to calorie restriction,
• Don't spend too much time planning food, shopping for healthy eating,
• High level of guilt when ingesting a food that is not in the healthy eating category.

One of the experts of DoktorTakvimi.com, Uzm. cl. Ps. Elif Eşen Kara recommends that people who think too much about healthy nutrition and get stuck on nutrition and physical health should receive support from a physician, dietitian and psychologist because they have psychological difficulties as well. Underlining that this situation can turn from an obsession to a healthy eating effort with the person's desire, Uzm. cl. Ps. Kara said, “In this way, while the subject of healthy nutrition can maintain its meaning in the life balance of the person; social life, work, family life, interests, such as other life dynamics will not be an obstacle, ”says she.