Life Health & Fitness
Food for thought (read online here)
Eat healthy, we're told, and you'll be fit - but is there such a thing as too healthy?
By William Wolfe-Wylie, QMI Agency
Last Updated: July 31, 2010 12:00am Toronto Sun
Eating healthily and living an active lifestyle are good words to live by, but when taken to the extreme, it's easy to transition suddenly from strong to sickly.
Brian Brennan is in good shape now, but only after spending two years recovering from what doctors are calling orthorexia nervosa - an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating.
"This started not as 
a diet, but as a lifestyle change," says Brennan, not his real name. "I started eating better and heading to the gym. At first I merely made a pact with myself to cut out junk food."
But that was only the beginning. He became increasingly obsessive about going to the gym, counting calories and making sure he only ate healthy foods. And that list of healthy foods grew increasingly short.
"Because I had cut out all sweets, carbs and other 'bad' foods, my calorie intake dropped to around 1200 per day. I was probably burning over 2500 a day, and as a result I lost over 60 pounds in 12 weeks."
Within six months, his muscles had atrophied so much that he was no longer capable of going to the gym. And because he wasn't burning as many calories, he justified dropping his food intake by another half.
He was only diagnosed with an eating disorder when he dropped to 105 pounds, and forced to see a doctor.
"It took me two full years of hospital rehabilitation, both in and outpatient, to get my life back on track," he says.
"I cannot imagine ever using food as a coping mechanism again, but I definitely want to caution anybody who thinks that going on a diet is automatically a healthy lifestyle choice."
This is particularly relevan
t as people are given conflicting information when it comes to what goes in their stomachs - whether the message is to stay away from fat, stop eating carbs or keep sodium out of the diet, trends change how people eat, and confuse those trying to stay healthy in the meantime.
That's where Rachelle Wood comes in. The PEI-based nutritionist has helped clients all over Canada lose weight and get their diets under control with unvarying advice. Due to the nature of her work, she sees a lot of people trying the most unhealthy weight loss regimens around.
"I have worked with many bulimic clients who obsess about being healthy one week, then binge on junk food the next. This inconsistency in diet results in a host of issues ranging from nutrient deficiencies to emotional and psychological distress," she says.
According to Wood, the only truly effective way to lose weight and keep it off is through a gradual lifestyle change that involves good old-fashioned eating right and exercising regularly. Fad diets like Master Cleanse or the raw food movement usually only risk your health and hurt you in the long run.
"Being healthy takes hard work and dedication, not necessarily deprivation," she says.
Alternatives to the Canada Food Guide
Rachelle Wood, a holistic nutritionist who runs rachellewood.ca out of Prince Edward Island, believes that the Canada Food Guide can be improved for everyday eating habits.
"One problem with the food guide is that it neglects to mention anything about food allergies. More people are being diagnosed with allergies to nuts, eggs, corn, soy, dairy and wheat products. The food guide does not list healthy alternatives if you wish to avoid these foods."
Instead of looking at the four categories that are laid out in a horizontal fashion, for people who need to modify the food guide, she recommends a pyramid system where you eat more of what is at the base of your pyramid, and less of what's at the top.
"The bottom, or foundation, of the pyramid is vegetables, then fruit/carbohydrates, protein and fat as the top."
She notes that within her practice, clients seek out fattening foods and simple carbohydrates when they are under stress.
"The best way to stay healthy is to follow a whole foods diet, exercise often and reduce stress levels," she explains.
Orthorexia Nervosa
It's still a relatively new idea. The term was coined in 1997 by an American doctor named Steven Bratman, but it still hasn't been included in any of the diagnostic manuals for mental disord
ers, like the DSM-IV.
According to Psychology Today, orthorexics are different from anorexics in that they are obsessed with food quality rather than quantity.
"Implicit in the description are traits that resemble obsessive-compulsive disorder, since sufferers devote excessive attention to their own strict rules and often spend hours each day worrying about tomorrow's meals," wrote the magazine in 2008.
Other specialists argue that orthorexia is different from anorexia only in the smallest ways, and treatments are relatively similar.
A BIG thank you to journalist William Wolfe-Wylie at Sun Media for choosing to interview me for this story. What are your thoughts about Canada's Food Guide? How do you think it should be changed? I would love to hear your thoughts. Please post your comments below.