When do foods become too pure?

Have you ever looked at extreme wellness posts and thought to yourself, "how did we get here?" Well I have a fun mini history lesson for you.

We are a nation that loves to be healthy. We love to talk about health. We love to proclaim that we eat so healthy and that our lifestyles are so healthy. There is something so interesting about holding health to a moral standard to me. It sounds ridiculous, but the way this topic is discussed, if you are not the pillar of what society deems healthy by lab values and, most importantly, appearance, then you must not be trying hard enough. It’s as if genetics don’t exist, and even when genetics are mentioned and acknowledged, the social determinants of health or one’s socioeconomic status is ignored. Again, why aren’t you trying harder? *Please note that this is sarcasm*

I had to insert a Kardashian gif for this topic

I will make this very clear right now, I am a dietitian, and yes, I do care about health. But I also acknowledge that due to many circumstances, not everyone can live up to the “perfect version” of health that society likes to promote. Scrolling through social media posts and feeling barraged with rhetoric such as “Every time you eat, you are beating or fueling disease,” it’s not a surprise that we feel the onus and the intense pressure to eat perfectly. I have written about why I don’t subscribe to the perfect eating or perfectionism mindset (please see “What is wrong with the word healthy?” below), and I will expand on this and talk about why we should rethink our obsession with health. 

Believe it or not, being obsessed with health is a disorder. Orthorexia nervosa is perhaps best summarized as an obsession with healthy eating with associated restrictive behaviors. First named by Steven Bratman in 1997, orthorexia nervosa (ON) from the Greek ortho, meaning correct, and orexi, meaning appetite. Orthorexia mostly revolves around food quality, not quantity. Unlike those with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa, people with orthorexia mostly focus on the perceived healthfulness of food rather than on losing weight or being thin. Some symptoms of ON can include:

• Compulsive checking of ingredient lists and nutritional labels

• An increase in concern about the health of ingredients

• Cutting out an increasing number of food groups 

• An inability to eat anything but a narrow group of foods that are deemed ‘healthy’ or ‘pure’

• Unusual interest in the health of what others are eating

• A feeling of superiority around their nutrition and intolerance of other people’s food behaviors and beliefs

• High levels of perfectionism

• Spending hours per day thinking about what food might be served at upcoming events

• Showing high levels of distress when ‘safe’ or ‘healthy’ foods aren’t available

• Obsessive following of food and ‘healthy lifestyle’ blogs on social media

• Body image concerns may or may not be present

• Psychosocial impairments in different areas of life

*The above is for educational purposes only and does not represent diagnoses, nutrition therapy, or medical care.*

Orthorexia is not formally recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual DSM-5 TR, like anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. However, it is a condition that is on the rise and can still lead to eating disorders in addition to malnourishment, loss of relationships, and poor quality of life. I often think about these conditions and statistics whenever I see diet culture posts under the guise of wellness. There is so much talk about the desire for “pure foods” or foods with fewer ingredients. Also, organic, non-GMO, natural, and clean are all key buzzwords that the wellness industry will use to fearmonger. In other words, processed foods are scary and should be avoided. In order to be your most virtuous and moral self, avoid them at all costs. In my opinion, what makes this rhetoric the most fascinating is knowing the history behind it.

Do you love s’mores? I sure do. And every single time I eat one, I think of Reverend Sylvester Graham (1794 – 1851). Weird right? Well, what’s weirder is the fact he invented the Graham Diet in order to curb sexual desires. Physical lust, particularly for oneself (aka masturbation), Graham believed, caused mental health issues and blindness. From this belief came the invention of the graham cracker. Graham, a former farmhand and teacher turned Presbyterian minister, believed that adhering to a vegetarian diet and abstaining from sugars, spices, and foods made with overly processed flour and chemical additives would enforce purity of thoughts and acts and curb the sexual appetite. Pure foods. Whole foods. Don’t worry, the delicious crackers that we eat today are vastly different from the original formula, which lacked sweeteners such as sugar and honey. Today’s graham cracker formulas incorporate ingredients such as molasses, brown sugar, kosher salt, and ground cinnamon. Thank goodness. Think about all the posts on avoiding sugar, and the more hyper-palatable a food is, the worse it is for you. The rhetoric might not be leaving out curbing sexual appetite, but it still is quite similar. Let’s look at another example.

Graham would most likely be mortified at the innovation of s’mores. Photo by Kayla Speid on Unsplash

I take my corn flakes with sliced banana and a drizzle of honey. This would horrify Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (1852 – 1943). Kellogg can be described as many things, a leader of the eugenics and racial segregation movement (stating it was the only way to save society from disaster), a physician, nutritionist, inventor, and medical missionary. Another believer in the evil of sexual acts, he believed that masturbation led to poor digestion, memory loss, impaired vision, heart disease, epilepsy, and insanity. Kellogg advocated against eating "spices, pepper, ginger, mustard, cinnamon, cloves, essences, all condiments, salt, pickles, fish, fowl, oysters, eggs, and milk. Stimulating drinks should be abstained from with still greater strictness. Wine, beer, tea, and coffee should be taken under no circumstances." In order to help his followers and patients with bland and unstimulating diets, Kellogg and his brother invented the breakfast variation of corn flakes in 1878. A leader in eugenics who was against the use of spices amongst other foods, again, the similarities to wellness culture are uncanny. 

This just needs banana and honey for me. Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

Let’s just be super clear with a few things: Is there such a thing as wellness that can actually be helpful? Yes, of course. Is everyone who posts about the concept of eating healthy doing something wrong? No, definitely not. I believe that you should eat how you wish because I believe in body autonomy. I work in the health field, so I don’t think discussing health is inherently wrong or evil. What I do take immense issue with is the concept that health is a moral determinant of how we treat people. We associate it with a moral virtue as well. This obsession that we as a society have with health is, in a way, concerning, especially if you learn the history behind where much of this rhetoric comes from. There is nothing wrong with having goals or wanting to know what’s in your food. However, what is the silver lining of when this becomes dangerous? I don’t have an exact answer to this, but I do want to leave you with the following food for thought questions:

1. At what point do we acknowledge that it's not the healthiest of lifestyles if we are restricting our food to the point of constantly thinking of food and then telling ourselves we are obsessed or addicted?

2. At what point do we acknowledge that it's not the healthiest of lifestyles if we disengage and withdraw from social events and connections because we are worried about being around food and not being able to control ourselves?

3. At what point do we acknowledge that it's not the healthiest of lifestyles if we are hyper-fixated on physical body changes only that come at the expense of our mental, physical, and emotional health?

Maybe, just maybe, at some point, we as a society will realize that if we are sacrificing our mental, emotional, and physical health to achieve a goal in the name of health, it might be time to reflect and rethink the meaning of health. How about we realize that health is nuanced, individual, and requires non-binary thinking? Food and what works for people will also always be nuanced and individual. Food is representative of so many things aside from its nutrients. It represents a social aspect, culture, community, traditions, experiences, and joy. This tends to get lost in translation in the media, so I will continue to broadcast this myself. Joy is a nutrient. Have a s’mores or two.