Orthorexia

Los Angeles, California

Is it me, or has anyone else noticed the way people are eating, or not eating, these days? First off, everyone seems to be eating very differently from each other, a sort of gastronomic iconoclasia. Not that we didn't always eat differently, with ethnic and other traditions in our families. But what appears rampant is what everyone is not eating, which can be easily designated as a lot.

I'm not criticizing (à la Nick Carraway, right?), as I have always said that I more easily define myself by all the things, and people, in the world I don't like, rather than the things/folks I do. So I am down with people shunning. Just not so much with food, because it does seem like this food thing in the US has gotten a little, well, ridiculous.

It's been more than a decade since I stopped throwing the kind of dinner parties I once enjoyed. There were credible food allergies, and religious or conviction abstinences. And I get that. I get, as well, that there are foods that people simply dislike and cannot abide: a friend who cannot eat cilantro; my own self regarding goat cheese; Joel who is religiously opposed to consuming any vegetables that don't start with the letter A (inexplicably, he will eat artichokes and asparagus, but a great deal of aioli is involved in this). But, seriously, it has just gotten downright nuts with so very many people homesteading their own particular territory of diet. The only person I could invite to a traditional paella party would be my friend, Lynnette. But she simply doesn't like paella...

Diet is a word that has always bothered me, unless the word Coke comes after it. Products labeled Diet, were generally marketed for people who could not control their calorie intake, wanted to lose some weight, but still wanted brownies and lasagne. Diets are also designed regimens, where participants change their habits for a period of time, lose weight, then resume their previous habits and gain weight. Sort of a push-me-pull-you system. I often scratched my head at the trendiness of dieting. My female ex-outlaws (what I call in-laws) seemed to always be jumping on these regimens, and announcing them as if their endeavor was something quite enviable. Sort of like those My child was the student of the month stickers. As in, I have joined the diet du jour! Again, fingernails to scalp; scratch in bewilderment.

And yet, diets are still out there. My favorite diet ever: What my mom called Reach for your mate, instead of your plate. This is where you replace food with sex. What is not to like about that? A diet regimen with cardio built right in.

And so, after six paragraphs of sarcasm, I have to just simply write: I really don't get it. Is this some kind of weird Kardashian/reality TV thing, or is it really something more serious? 

Orthorexia is an eating disorder related to anorexia and OCD. It occurs when someone's desire to only eat "healthy" (please note finger quotes, as clearly I'm not done with the sarcasm) foods, is linked with a real, emotional discomfort when faced with consuming any foods they deem to be unhealthy. And, lest I remind you, healthy foods today were not necessarily healthy foods yesterday, nor might they be healthy foods tomorrow. If you try to keep up with this (and frankly, I don't try), you will know that eating raw kale has been identified as causing metabolic problems; oat bran lost its healthy lustre, probably because it just got so plain damn boring, and coffee jumps back and forth between good for you and not so. And don't even get me started on the sugar/honey/agave thing, as I will be compelled to run away while loudly shrieking.

Someone (and it might have been Bill Maher on his HBO weekly, Real Time with Bill Maher), pointed out that many of the American health gurus of the past died at relatively young ages: Adele Davis, who recommended eating our food raw; Jim Fixx, who demonstrated what running your legs off will do for you; Euell Gibbons, who declared that many parts of the tree are edible. In addition, I recently heard an interview with a medical researcher who postulated that the spike in colorectal cancer among people in their 20s and 30s might possibly be related to the abrupt and intense change in diet as these people jump on and off severe diet bandwagons. That, even with a positive change, shocked cells can react with abnormal production.

In the micro, it is clear to me that those who seem overly healthy-diet conscious and even healthy-diet obsessed, are, without exception, not too healthy. This, of course, throws into the chicken-and-the-egg quandary, and obviously I'm not doing scientific research here. But science has identified orthorexia as a compulsive desire to eat only "healthy" foods (finger quotes, as above). And I see friends who truly stress out about this, and even express fear about eating anything that they consider to be "unhealthy." These mostly women friends are now taking medication for some of the following issues: high cholesterol, high blood pressure, decreased bone density. In addition, I see a few of these as being painfully thin, which is not good at any age, but wreaks havoc on your face as you age (the french say that after 50 a woman must choose between her face and her derriere. Makes you think about the french and their brie and steak frites and bordeaux...).

I wonder if this might be an American thing. I heard some Brit actors on a television show cajoling American actors for being so squeamish about everything. Well, actually, they were discussing french kissing in films, and how American actors don't do that (which is clearly untrue and I can think of filmed examples). But maybe as a country, we just aren't as able to enjoy eating foods outside of the "healthy" box. My friend, Lisa, put this well when she said: I'm not afraid of food. Because truly, there is fear involved in all of this. Recently, a friend exclaimed with some apprehension that consuming oysters was really bad. Hey, they are not bad. But even if they were, doesn't anyone remember that discretionary bad can be really good?

And, discretionary is an important point here, as this issue, like many today, seems to have very little middle ground. Clearly it is unhealthy to subsist on fast food and junk food. There is also an obesity epidemic and it is alarming that children are being diagnosed with type II diabetes. The whole super-size thing was and is a product of evil marketing. But, can we stop shaming people who eat a couple of Big Macs annually..? And yes, I just might be one of those consumers.

I eat foods which are considered by some to be "unhealthy" but I balance those with good food. I don't have high cholesterol. I don't have high blood sugar. I don't have bone density issues, and, surprisingly, I don't have high blood pressure. Surprisingly, because high blood pressure is often caused by stress, which I do got! I'm human, and, not to put a fine point on it, I've had some rough years lately. But one of the things I don't stress about is food. Julia Child once commented (and I paraphrase) that worrying about butter was probably more harmful to your health than eating butter. And Julia, butter-consumer extraordinaire, lived to 91, which I consider to be a pretty good run. If I worried about butter and oysters and all of the other "unhealthy" (finger quotes) food... jeez! What would my life be like!? Does it make any sense to spend so much of your lifetime singularly consumed with the relentless pursuit of extending your life? Or, as someone pointed out, if you add years to your life, it's going to be the last years. Those aren't so much fun anyway, so why work so hard at adding onto those?

My physician believes that everyone comes into this world with an expiration date. He feels you might be able extend it by a year or two in a few ways, or cut it short by a year or two by making choices that put you in risk of that. He thinks the three most important rules for longevity are: Don't smoke; wear your seat belt; wash your hands, fruits, and vegetables (protection against human viruses, e coli, and the virulence of a variety of bird influenzas). He believes in moderation in diet. I believe in moderation in all things, including moderation.

So, are we on our way to a full-blown epidemic of orthorexia? And, while we are on the subject of eating disorders: Is there anyone who hasn't figured out that IBS can be a code for anorexia/bulimia? When you encounter someone who is claiming that food attacks them, check their weight. I hate to break this to you, but if they look like a broom handle, they may be making excuses for low weight which is being caused by starving or purging.

Penultimately, what is with the protein thing? I understand that we need protein. But excessively meat-rich diets have been known to lead to gout. So, let's not get so crazy about protein, like the one who extolled the virtue of protein-enhanced milk. This is milk which is treated to increase the protein within. Forget the process for doing this. Just know that the product tastes like dirty socks soaked in evaporated milk. And soy-based cheese product? Vile. A case-in-point on trading "healthy" (*f.q.) for taste.

Lastly, on the subject of washing fruits and vegetables. I know I have already written about this here by commenting about people who say they eat clean, but don't wash their produce. But, here we go again. Not washing fruits and vegetables is kinda akin to making soup from dirty undergarments. You are literally ingesting from someone's bowels to your mouth, and that someone includes birds, animals, and farm workers. Are you so sure that everyone who uses port-a-toilets washes their hands before handling the food we purchase to eat? Then, ok, Little Mary Sunshine... don't wash. But don't invite me to eat at your home either. I've already had one friend who was treated via induced-coma after what was dianosed as a virus contracted by accidentally ingesting bird droppings. Months of occupational therapy followed. Though not probable that this will happen to you, it is possible. And that's a risk easily not taken.

Someone once said that food is a feminist issue (this might have been in Henry Jaglom's film Eating). And I also recall an article linking women's food issues to their financial issues, which might just be true in the area of overeating and overspending (as well as hypervigilance in both areas). But you could clearly bring so many other issues into this. So, I'm just going to simplify. Put the way you eat into your food box. Use crayons to color your daily food choices. Now, use the same crayons and draw some things outside of your box. Personally, I can't draw, but I could abstractly designate the following: oysters + sashimi; cheeses, especially cheddar and runny french ones; crusty french bread; frites; cacio e pepe, the late, lamented Huntsman Burger at restaurant Public School; Kaya Toast from the late, lamented Susan Feniger's restaurant, Street (memorialized on a previous post called The Acid Test); fresh-fried chips and good salsa; Cupid's hot dogs; a variety of booze but especially single-malt scotch and reposado tequila. And lastly, though I don't have much of a sweet tooth, I would also attempt to draw my friend Susan's Boston Cream Pie, my mom's butterscotch pudding, and beignets, loukoumades, malasadas and sopapillas (all yeasty dough fried in oil then dusted with varieties of sugar or drizzled with honey then dusted with cinnamon. I cannot stand it, they are so amazingly tasty! And, by the way, Loukoumades is a franchise opportunity in Australia!). Anyway (big digression there), here is the thing: Eat inside the box all you want. But ask yourself the following: Do I feel anxiety when I eat those things that are outside of my food box, even if only occasionally? Orthorexia? Clearly, it's not just for millennials anymore...

Thanks for reading my rant, but seriously, eat, drink, and be merry! (*finger quotes)