Orthorexia

 http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/07/health/orthorexia/
"Orthorexia" is a relatively new term that has gained quite a bit of popularity over the last couple of years. It is used to describe an eating disorder in which someone obsesses over eating "healthy" or "clean" and ends up actually harming themselves and being unhealthy through that obsession. Being a vegan, this is an important topic to me, but not for the reason that most might think.

First off: is orthorexia real? YES. I can say from personal experience and from observing other people that I know personally that it is a very real problem and can have immense negative impact on a person's physical and mental health. The term is not meant as a label for someone who avoids fast food and preservatives; it is meant to label someone who goes so far out of their way to eat or avoid various foods that they end up being malnourished. These people very often spend ridiculous amounts of money on supplements and "superfoods," and don't eat any of the common high-calorie staples like rice, beans, meat, etc. The obvious problem with a diet like this is that eating "superfoods" and supplements almost exclusively will lead to severe calorie restriction. You can only eat so many goji berries in a day, and they aren't exactly calorie-heavy. They're also expensive as fuck. Obviously, you need to get enough of certain substances through your diet, such as vitamins and minerals. But just as importantly, you need plenty of CALORIES. People obsess so much over antioxidants, phytonutrients, and whatever else people are coming up with lately, that they completely ignore the basics. Let's play devil's advocate and say that you need to get tons of antioxidants in order to maintain optimal health. You have two choices.
1. You can eat goji berries or some other "superfood" that is low in calories and burns a hole in your wallet, or
2. you can eat lots of cheap, calorie-heavy plant foods you can find at any grocery store that also have antioxidants, but not as many, like bananas and rice.
If you spent the same amount of money on bananas and rice as you would have on goji berries, you would have a shitload of calories and carbs to get through AND get plenty of those precious antioxidants. There aren't as many in each banana as there are in each goji berry, but because you're able to eat way more, you're getting a similar amount overall. There shouldn't even be a fucking discussion over which choice is better. What's even worse is when gurus tell people they need to something that doesn't even exist in food, so they have to take a supplement for it that the guru happens to sell. If someone is telling you that some weird substance you've never heard of and would have to go unreasonably out of your way to consume through actual food is crucial to human health, they are very likely full of shit. If they sell the substance in question, they are definitely full of shit.

Cleanse diets are popular among orthorexics. They make some concoction out of cayenne pepper, lemon juice, and whatever else they were told to use, and that's all they consume for days, even weeks at a time. This is absolutely retarded. There is no need for "cleanse" diets. You need to eat a sustainable diet that provides you with the nutrition you need on a daily basis. I don't care who you are or what exactly you're putting in your disgusting smoothie every morning; starving yourself is not "cleansing" or "de-toxing" anything.

I'm going to get this out of the way now. If I had to choose between some ridiculous calorie-restricted "superfood" diet or a high-calorie, high-carb diet including animal products, I would eat the animal products without thinking twice. I say this as someone who ate a standard diet including animal products until I was 17, then a vegetarian diet until 18 when I became vegan. I spent a couple of years as a vegan trying to stick to "superfoods" and all that crap. It simply doesn't work. You will never find an orthorexic who is actually healthy, and DEFINITELY won't find one who is fit. There's no fucking way you can eat like that, exercise regularly, and not quickly end up looking like a prisoner of war with serious long-term health problems.

The best example of this crap: David Wolfe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cnhr-1V7MiI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQgrOJu2EVc
This idiot is clearly the most obvious and silly example of the problem, but the other gurus out there aren't any better at all. They all claim to have supplements that are absolutely necessary for optimal health and longevity, which is always pure speculation that can't be backed up by a shred of data. They all claim that they know the ideal human diet, even though they do not have advanced degrees in any subject related to nutrition, and you have to buy their book to read about it. They are all unfit. They are all manipulative, lying douchebags who play the spirituality card to prey on wealthy idiots and make thousands of dollars while making those idiots unhealthy. Many of them also play the persecution card to explain why their ideas are not supported in any way by nutritional science of biochemistry and that "they" don't want you to know the "truth" about diet and health. This problem is made far worse by people who follow them and give them huge amounts of free publicity trying to convince others to try their diets/supplements.

Veganism has come a long way in the 9 years since I decided to stick to the diet. It was once considered extremely dangerous and unhealthy, but over time the data has pointed in the exact opposite direction. Orthorexia is the second-worst thing to ever happen to the vegan community (PETA has a distant lead for first). If you want to starve yourself and obsess over imaginary nutrients that a guru told you about, go ahead. But other vegans that actually want to be healthy and fit don't have time for your orthorexic calorie-restriction bullshit so FUCK OFF.