HYDERABAD: Clean eating and healthy eating are not at all a crime. But experts are ringing warning bells for those who are dangerously obsessed with #cleaneating. Orthorexia nervosa is an eating disorder of having an obsession with healthy eating with associated restrictive behaviours. It causes more anxiety than anything we find in the traditional bad habits.
Other eating disorders which are commonly found are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Worrying more about what is actually in the diet is a symptom commonly seen in such eating disorders. Orthorexic behaviour has lately been fueled by diet and workout trends on social media. Many studies have found that the ubiquity of orthorexia has increased in recent years likely in connection with the rise of social media. Social media demonstrates that being slim and healthy go hand in hand.
We frequently see these items and believe that certain foods are necessary for good health by social media influencers. In a way or other, they are promoting some products and are rewarded also even if they don’t use it.. This misconception of health is incorrect, and it also makes you feel insecure if you are not “thin” and “fit.”
“People who are not qualified also talk and suggest diets on social media platforms nowadays. A person who lost weight starts telling about their diet and gives advice to their followers.
This is creating a bad influence on a big part of society and they start following it,” says Dr Sushma, Dietician, Care Hospitals, Banjara Hills. Due to the importance of social media in our life nowadays, we are easily taken in by this type of advertising.
We are forced to believe by many unprofessional social media influencers that if we eat like them, we too can have six-pack abs or be as physically fit as they appear to be.
“We have become slaves to social media today. We know that from having a perfect body which is slim and toned to eating perfect healthy food is not possible for 99% people, but that 1% is making us believe in a reel world,” concludes Dr Diana Monterio, psychologist.