Book Review – Health Food Junkies by Steven Bratman

Alright friends, we are finally back to regular blogging schedule! On Wednesday, I try and touch on something nutrition related and this week, we are chatting about my book review for March. For those of you who are new readers, one of my goals for 2014 is to read a book relating to the blog every month.

It ties in quite well with the theme I had two weeks ago with National Eating Disorder Awareness week. As I was headed out to Florida, I had a co-worker who knew I was doing the series tell me to read Health Food Junkies by Steven Bratman and he put the book on my desk before I flew out.

This is not a new book (published in 2000), but the topic of orthorexia nervosa remains controversial because you cannot argue that it is a GOOD thing to eat healthy food. However, Bratman argues that it can go to far and you can get stuck in a place where eating healthy is all consuming.

He challenges the reader with questions such as:
“Do you care more about the virtue of what you eat than the pleasure you receive from eating it?”
“Have you found that as the quality of your diet has increased, the quality of your life has correspondingly diminished?”
“Do you keep getting stricter with yourself?”
“Do you feel a guilt or self-loathing when you stray from your diet?”

It was an easy read; Bratman begins explaining what orthorexia is and launches into The Healing Diets, looking at all the biggest dietary trends from Food Allergies, Raw Foodism, Macrobiotics, The Zone, Candida Cleanses, Eating for your Blood Type and Supplements. I found he was extremely compassionate and realistic. He was mindful of the fact that some people need to eat this way to be healthy, but that was not who he was addressing. It was the people who made it an all-consuming part of their life and relied on the way they eat for their sense of self-esteem and fulfillment.

He does touch on how to recover from Orthorexia Nervosa and thankfully, it is much easier than anorexia or bulimia. In a lot of cases, he suggests slowly loosening up your diet and incorporating the ability to have cheat foods. I am adding my own words here, but finding the balance in the 80/20 rule (eating healthy 80% of the time and allowing yourself to be more relaxed about the other 20%).

One of my favourite quotes from the book is: It is better to eat pizza with friends than sprouts alone.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who would associate themselves as a healthy eater. I am not saying that healthy eaters have orthorexia, but I think it is wise to be self-aware of things like this and keep checking in to ensure that you are choosing your food and your food is not ruling you.

Thoughts on Orthorexia Nervosa? 
Have you read the book?