Is healthy eating good for you?

Is healthy eating good for you? Eating junk foods - full of toxic food additives, sugar, salt and fat - bring you all kinds of diseases: obesity, cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol, diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, sleep apnea etc. You name it! That's the fact. I've talked about how common our foods contain toxic food additives and how to make better choices about foods for your healthy lifestyle. Who doesn't wanna be healthy??

Now if you're aware of and focus on eating healthy, you'll be considered as "mentally disordered", which is called "Orthorexia nervosa" (It is Latin for "nervous about correct eating). Wait a minute, is healthy eating good for you? OF COURSE, it's great for you but not according to some experts. I'll explain about "Orthorexia nervosa".

"Orthorexia nervosa" refers to a pathological fixation on eating proper food. This term coined by Steven Bratman (Colorado MD) to denote an EATING DISORDER characterized by a focus on eating "pure" or "correct" foods. Bratman describes orthorexia as an unhealthy obsession, and claims that if the sufferer does not eat appropriately, malnutrition can ensue.

"Patients" with "Orthorexia nervosa" spend large amounts of time thinking about healthy food, frequently planning menus a day in advance. As the disorder progresses, the list of foods an individual is allowed to eat may become increasingly restrictive. "Patients" may avoid certain unhealthy foods - those containing fats, preservatives,artificial food additives, animal products, or other ingredients considered by the subject to be unhealthy. Because of this, "Orthorexia nervosa" can make it difficult for the sufferers to eat outside the home. "Patients" may begin to feel isolated from others, as their restrictive diet prevents them from participating in many social activities. So, it has many similarities to the two well-known eating disorders "anorexia" and "bulimia". Where the bulimic and anorexic focus on the quantity of food, the "Orthorexic nervosa" fixates on its quality. All three give food an excessive place in the scheme of life.

The Bratman Test for Orthorexia
-- Do you spend more than 3 hours a day thinking about your diet?
-- Do you plan your meals several days ahead?
-- Is the nutritional value of your meal more important than the pleasure of eating it?
-- Has the quality of your life decreased as the quality of your diet has increased?
-- Have you become stricter with yourself lately?
-- Does your self-esteem get a boost from eating healthily?
-- Have you given up foods you used to enjoy in order to eat the 'right' foods
-- Does your diet make it difficult for you to eat out, distancing you from family and friends?
-- Do you feel guilty when you stray from your diet?
-- Do you feel at peace with yourself and in total control when you eat healthily?

Yes to 4 or 5 of the above questions means it is time to relax more about food. Yes to all of them means a full-blown obsession with eating healthy food.

Let me translate what he claims.
If you focus on eating healthy, you are mentally disordered. So, eating UNHEALTHY foods is the way to go..... What the hell?????? Ok, I kinda understand the part of being "TOO OBSESSIVE" - makes it a disorder. But eating crap is the answer for healthy lifestyle?! What a joke...

What's wrong with being control of your own life - being aware, focusing on health, and eating healthy foods??? Oh, it's a serious danger for people who live on the ignorant consumers. Food manufactures love to use those toxic food additives because they can save $$$ and give incredible amount of profits despite the fact that those are very unhealthy for you. They don't want you to be aware of their usage of the toxic food additives. They want you to buy their stuff more blindly. Eating those make you sick. Pharmaceutical companies can sell you their drugs (chemicals) if you're unhealthy. They want you to consume synthetic chemicals and to be unhealthy so that they can make more $$$$$. Not to mention, they pay taxes to government....

Wake up!! You're the only one who can be in charge of your life!!!! You don't need to follow "popular" - junk foods - stream nor health "experts" who don't know what they are talking about. As I mentioned before on my blog, it's great and NORMAL to eat healthy foods and pay attention to your intake for your health :)
Avoid those bad chemicals in the foods. Stay aware and make better choices for your health. You don't need to even question "is healthy eating good for you?" The junk food eaters are the real mental patients, not you.