Are You Too Healthy?

Felt Playground

I recently came across this article in the UK's Daily Mail. It talks about a condition called "orthorexia" – an extreme fixation with eating "pure" food that can lead to malnutrition, chronic ill health and depression.

"Women are much more likely today to become exercise and diet-addicted because of our celebrity-obsessed culture and the pressure to be  slim," says Lucy Jones of the British Dietetic Association. "While this condition is not as dangerous as anorexia, any obsession that cuts out entire food groups can lead to long-term health damage  such as a lack of bone density,  heart attacks, strokes and diabetes."

It's more difficult to spot than anorexia or bulimia because sufferers can simply insist that they're "looking after themselves" or "have a wheat intolerance".

We're constantly hearing that different food groups are "bad" for us – that our bodies weren't designed to digest meat, that carbohydrates are bad for weight loss, that we should be trying to avoid even the natural sugars in fruit... but when does cutting healthy food groups out of our diets entirely become excessive?

One of the most interesting interviews I've done was with James Duigan, the trainer that keeps celebs like Elle Macpherson in tip top shape. He preaches about eating "clean and lean". It's pretty simple – shop more from the outsides of the supermarket (the fresh fruit and veggies, the meat, the diary) and less from the aisles, where all the processed food lives. It's an unquestionably healthier way to live – as long as you don't take it too far.

Even James admits Elle eats chocolate every now and then. It's all about moderation.