I had to laugh when I read the article posted on www.bakeryandsnacks.com about orthorexia. They call this a “healthy eating disorder” that is on the rise where “sufferers restrict the consumption of sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol, wheat, gluten, yeast, soya, corn and dairy foods. They also cut out any foods which contain artificial additives, or have come into contact with pesticides and herbicides.”

Hmmm, sounds pretty good to me. How can healthy eating be a disorder? Oh yeah, if you are selling baked goods and snacks, I guess orthorexics aren’t buying your garbage are they?

If you go to Wikipedia and look up the definition, they mention problems going overboard with this, and just like anything, that certainly is a possibility. I’m sure some people take it too far and hurt their health, or could even die from being too much of an extremist, but as for me, I’m a proud orthorexic! I actually eat some dairy from time to time, so does this make me a lacto-orthorexic?

My “condition” causes me to “suffer” through 4,000 calories of good food per day (or more) and keeps me leaner than ever. It also gives me the most energy and strength of my life and the mental clarity to boot. Another orthorexic recently posted in a BBC news story shares some of these “symptoms.”

My mom passed away from early onset Alzheimer’s disease, so I am a volunteer in a long study at the VA hospital which tests my memory, cognition, coordination and mental capacity every year. They tell me I am bucking the odds so far by improving my scores every year instead of the normal decline for people past 40. I know that I owe this in large part to being an orthorexic.

Besides all the great physical and mental health benefits we know about from eating clean, it also makes you look great and it burns fat like crazy! The picture above is of a strict orthorexic who trains at the X Gym. Contrast him to the typical American who eats bakery and snack items, and the choice should be a no-brainer!

Think about it. Michelangelo sculpted “David” 500 years ago, and lots of people looked that way back then because they were mostly orthorexics by default. They just didn’t have crappy food available to eat. It was ALL organic, all fowl was wild or free range, and cows ate grass! If Michelangelo was around today and sculpted from the average modern population, his statue might have turned out different…