LINCOLN, Neb. — Although it isn’t formally recognized in the medical world, there’s a new eating disorder on the rise.
It’s called orthorexia nervosa: an unhealthy obsession with eating healthy. Anne Wigda, the University Health Center’s registered dietician, said the media reports a new “miracle diet” every week that college students believe will be a cure-all for their health problems.
“I don’t know if there’s any one trend (with dieting),” Wigda said. “It’s more of everybody looking for that one perfect way to eat what will give them the perfect weight, the perfect energy level and the perfect health. I think there’s just so much more time and energy being spent on that.”
All of that time and energy focusing on food and healthy eating can actually lead to bigger issues, Wigda said.
“What we’re actually seeing more of, not just in college students, is a condition called orthorexia,” Wigda said. “It is an unhealthy obsession with having to eat things that are perfectly healthy or perfectly clean or perfectly organic. Now people are taking healthy eating to such an extreme that their whole life is consumed with it, they’re thinking about it all the time.”
Wigda said these fads just don’t work. When it comes to dieting, Wigda isn’t a fan of anything that requires eliminating an entire food group, as is done with the paleo diet. However, eating more fruits and vegetables, eating at fairly regular time intervals and eating less-processed foods are more effective ways than any of the dieting trends that are currently popular, Wigda said.
“Instead of orange juice, eat an orange,” Wigda said. “The way mother nature makes foods without any processing has been the way to go for many years.”
Another key to healthy eating, Wigda said, is having everything in moderation.
“If we’re eating a variety of things, we maximize getting the positive things of the food we eat and we minimize any negative thing that they might discover down the road that they don’t know now,” Wigda said. “Variety and moderation of everything is kind of a safe way to go. Scientists are learning new things everyday about food.”
College students face the challenge of eating on their own for the first time and adjusting to a new lifestyle, Wigda said.