[Megan]

I'm a 99.99% vegetarian, and mostly vegan also, and I can see myself, and many other people I know, in this article:

Orthorexia Nervosa: The Health Food Eating Disorder

by Steven Bratman, MD

Because I am a physician who practices alternative medicine, patients who come to me often begin the conversation by asking whether they can be cured through diet. "Regular medical doctors don't know anything about nutrition," they say, believing this will build rapport with me.

I feel obligated to nod wisely. I agree that conventional medicine has traditionally paid too little attention to the effects of diet. However, I am no longer the true believer in nutritional medicine I used to be. My attitude has grown cautious where once it was enthusiastic and even evangelical.

[...]

Many of the most unbalanced people I have ever met are those have devoted themselves to healthy eating. In fact, I believe many of them have contracted a novel eating disorder, for which I have coined the name "orthorexia nervosa." The term uses "ortho," in its meaning as straight, correct and true, to modify "anorexia nervosa." Orthorexia nervosa refers to a fixation on eating proper food.

Orthorexia begins innocently enough, as a desire to overcome chronic illness or to improve general health. But because it requires considerable willpower to adopt a diet which differs radically from the food habits of childhood and the surrounding culture, few accomplish the change gracefully. Most must resort to an iron self-discipline bolstered by a hefty sense of superiority over those who eat junk food. Over time, what they eat, how much, and the consequences of dietary indiscretion come to occupy a greater and greater proportion of the orthorexic's day.

The act of eating pure food begins to carry pseudo-spiritual connotations. As orthorexia progresses, a day filled with sprouts, umeboshi plums and amaranth biscuits comes to feel as holy as one spent serving the poor and homeless. When an orthorexic slips up, (which, depending on the pertinent theory, may involve anything from devouring a single raisin in violation of the law to consuming a gallon of Haagen Daz ice cream and a supreme pizza), he experiences a fall from grace, and must take on numerous acts of penitence. These usually involve ever stricter diets and fasts.

Health Food Eating Disorders

Ring any bells?