People, it seems, have never been so afraid of their food -and, say some experts, an obsession with healthy eating may paradoxically be endangering lives.

Frenchwoman Sabrina Debusquat, 29, recounts how, over 18 months, she became a vegetarian, then a vegan, before becoming a “raw foodist“ who avoided all cooked foods, and ultimately decided to eat just fruit. It was only when her boyfriend found clumps of her hair in the bathroom sink and confronted her with the evidence that she realised she was on a downward path.

“I wanted to get to some kind of pure state. In the end my body overruled my mind,“ said Debusquat. For some specialists, the problem is a modern eating disorder called orthorexia nervosa.Someone suffering from it is “imprisoned by a range of rules which they impose on themselves“, said Patrick Denoux, a professor in intercultural psychology at the University of Toulouse-Jean Jaures, France.

Paris nutritionist Sophie Ortega said she had one patient who was going blind due to deficiency of vitamin B12, which is needed to make redblood cells. B12 is not made by the body , and most people get what they need from animalderived foods such as eggs, dairy products, meat or fish or from supplements. “A pure, unbending vegan“, her patient even refused to take the supplements, said Ortega, “It was as if she preferred to lose her sight... rather than betray her commitment to animals.“....Read more

Source web page:Times of India