{"product_id":"health-food-junkies-isbn-9780767905855","title":"Health Food Junkies","description":"The first book to identify the eating disorder orthorexia nervosa–an obsession with eating healthfully–and offer expert advice on how to treat it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs Americans become better informed about health, more and more people have turned to diet as a way to lose weight and keep themselves in peak condition. Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa–disorders in which the sufferer focuses on the quantity of food eaten–have been highly documented over the past decade. But as Dr. Steven Bratman asserts in this breakthrough book, for many people, eating “correctly” has become an equally harmful obsession, one that causes them to adopt progressively more rigid diets that not only eliminate crucial nutrients and food groups, but ultimately cost them their overall health, personal relationships, and emotional well-being.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eHealth Food Junkies\u003c\/b\u003e is the first book to identify this new eating disorder, orthorexia nervosa, and to offer detailed, practical advice on how to cope with and overcome it.  Orthorexia nervosa occurs when the victim becomes obsessed, not with the \u003ci\u003equantity\u003c\/i\u003e of food eaten, but the \u003ci\u003equality\u003c\/i\u003e of the food.  What starts as a devotion to healthy eating can evolve into a pattern of incredibly strict diets; victims become so focused on eating a “pure” diet (usually raw vegetables and grains) that the planning and preparation of food come to play the dominant role in their lives.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eHealth Food Junkies\u003c\/b\u003e provides an expert analysis of some of today’s most popular diets–from The Zone to macrobiotics, raw-foodism to food allergy elimination–and shows not only how they can lead to orthorexia, but how they are often built on faulty logic rather than sound medical advice. Offering expert insight gleaned from his work with orthorexia patients, Dr. Bratman outlines the symptoms of orthorexia, describes its progression, and shows readers how to diagnose the condition. Finally, Dr. Bratman offers practical suggestions for intervention and treatment, giving readers the tools they need to conquer this painful disorder, rediscover the joys of eating, and reclaim their lives.Dr. Steven Bratman suffered from orthorexia nervosa himself, and, in the process of overcoming it, became the first physician to diagnose the problem. He is currently the medical director for Prima Health, a book publisher, and is the author of \u003cb\u003eThe Alternative Medicine Sourcebook\u003c\/b\u003e.  He lives in Colorado.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDavid Knight is a writer. He lives in Colorado.Introduction\u003cbr\u003eHealing through nutrition is one of the pillars of alternative medicine.\u003cbr\u003e“Let your food be your medicine,” the saying goes, and during my years of\u003cbr\u003emedical practice, patients have often begun their conversation with me by\u003cbr\u003easking whether they can be cured through diet. I feel obliged to nod\u003cbr\u003ewisely. Although I am a conventionally trained M.D., I have been involved\u003cbr\u003ewith alternative medicine since long before medical school, and a sacred\u003cbr\u003ereverence toward the healing power of diet is part of the job description\u003cbr\u003eof holistic physicians like myself. However, I am no longer the true\u003cbr\u003ebeliever in nutritional medicine I used to be. My own experience, as well\u003cbr\u003eas what I have seen happen to many of my patients, has affected me deeply.\u003cbr\u003eToo often I’ve seen the search for cure through diet become a disease\u003cbr\u003eworse than the original problem.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis book is about that disease, which I have named orthorexia nervosa. If\u003cbr\u003eyou do not suffer from orthorexia yourself, the odds are high that a\u003cbr\u003efriend of yours does. Do you know anyone who seems\u003cbr\u003eto think constantly about choosing healthy food, who proselytizes some\u003cbr\u003edietary theory supposed to cure all illnesses, who acts superior to other\u003cbr\u003emortals who don’t worry so much about eating? Have you run across\u003cbr\u003eraw-foodists and macrobiotic followers, or people who talk about food\u003cbr\u003eallergies, candida, or eating right for your blood type? I’d be very\u003cbr\u003esurprised if you haven’t. Fascination with healing diets is increasingly\u003cbr\u003ecommon.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere have always been recommendations regarding the healthiest food to\u003cbr\u003eeat, but in recent decades the obsession over healthy eating seems to have\u003cbr\u003eescalated out of control. In more and more people it seems to be taking on\u003cbr\u003ethe characteristics of an eating disorder like anorexia or bulimia.\u003cbr\u003eHowever, unlike these other eating disorders, orthorexia disguises itself\u003cbr\u003eas a virtue. Anorexics may know they are harming themselves, but\u003cbr\u003eorthorexics feel nothing but pride at taking care of their health in the\u003cbr\u003ebest possible way.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI know how this feels, because I’ve been there myself. I’ve been at\u003cbr\u003evarious times a raw-foodist, a total vegetarian, and a macrobiotic\u003cbr\u003efollower, and although I learned a lot from those experiences, it finally\u003cbr\u003edawned on me that there is a dark side to dietary virtue. Similarly, as a\u003cbr\u003eholistic physician, I used to prescribe pure diets to my patients and only\u003cbr\u003egradually came to understand that I wasn’t necessarily doing them a favor.\u003cbr\u003eIt’s not that I don’t support eating healthy food; it’s only that when\u003cbr\u003ehealthy eating becomes an obsession, it’s no longer so healthy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe good news is that orthorexia is not as difficult to cure as\u003cbr\u003ealcoholism, heroin addiction, or anorexia. The first section of this book\u003cbr\u003etries to help the health food junkie admit that he or she really has a\u003cbr\u003eproblem. The next section turns to some of the most common dietary\u003cbr\u003etheories that instigate orthorexia and shows that they are not the first\u003cbr\u003eand last word on health. Its purpose is to weaken the grip those theories\u003cbr\u003ecan have on one’s mind. Finally, the third part of this book gives\u003cbr\u003especific advice on how to overcome orthorexia and learn again how to eat\u003cbr\u003ewithout obsession. It really is possible!\u003cbr\u003eSection One\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUnderstanding\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eORTHOREXIA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat Is Orthorexia?\u003cbr\u003eTwenty years ago I was a wholehearted, impassioned advocate of healing\u003cbr\u003ethrough food. My optimism was unbounded as I set forth to cure myself and\u003cbr\u003eeveryone else. This was long before I became an alternative physician. In\u003cbr\u003ethose days I was a cook and organic farmer at a large commune in upstate\u003cbr\u003eNew York.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLike all communes in those days, ours attracted food idealists. I had to\u003cbr\u003eprepare several separate meals at once to satisfy the unyielding and\u003cbr\u003econtradictory dietary demands of those who inhabited our old Shaker\u003cbr\u003evillage. The main entrée was invariably vegetarian. How-\u003cbr\u003eever, to placate a small but very insistent group, on an end table placed\u003cbr\u003eat some distance there could always be found a meat-based alternative.\u003cbr\u003eActually, since at least 30 percent of our vegetarians refused to\u003cbr\u003econtemplate food cooked in pots and pans contaminated by fleshly\u003cbr\u003evibrations, our burgers had to be prepared in a separate kitchen. The\u003cbr\u003ecooks also had to satisfy the vegans (non-dairy vegetarians), who looked\u003cbr\u003eon cheese as poison, as well as the non-garlic, non-onion,\u003cbr\u003eHindu-influenced crowd, who believed that onion-family foods provoked\u003cbr\u003esexual desire.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor the raw-foodists we laid out sliced raw vegetables in endless rows.\u003cbr\u003eOnce, when a particularly enthusiastic visitor tried to convince me that\u003cbr\u003eslicing a vegetable would destroy its energy field, I felt so hassled that\u003cbr\u003eI ran at him wildly with a flat Chinese cleaver until he fled. Meanwhile,\u003cbr\u003ethe macrobiotic followers condemned the raw vegetables for different\u003cbr\u003etheoretical reasons, and also set up a hue and cry over the serving of any\u003cbr\u003e“deadly nightshade” plants such as potatoes, tomatoes, and eggplants.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat wasn’t all. Those who preferred choosing fruits and vegetables based\u003cbr\u003eon seasonal availability clashed violently with others who greedily\u003cbr\u003edemanded grapefruit in February.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBesides these widely varying opinions on which food to serve, there were\u003cbr\u003eas many theories on the method by which it should be prepared. Nearly all\u003cbr\u003eour food fanatics agreed that nothing should\u003cbr\u003ebe cooked in an aluminum container, with the exception of our gourmet\u003cbr\u003ecooks, who explained that given our limited budget, only aluminum pots\u003cbr\u003ecould spread the heat satisfactorily.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEveryone agreed that when steaming vegetables, only the minimum amount of\u003cbr\u003ewater should be used, in order to save precious\u003cbr\u003evitamins. The most severe enthusiasts would even hover around the kitchen\u003cbr\u003etoward the middle of food preparations and lay hands on the greenish\u003cbr\u003eliquids swirling at the bottom of the steamer. The\u003cbr\u003ematter of washing vegetables, however, remained swathed in controversy.\u003cbr\u003eSome commune members knew for a fact that the most nutritious portions of\u003cbr\u003ea vegetable lived in the skin. Others felt that a host of evil pollutants\u003cbr\u003einhabited the same location, requiring exuberant scrubbing to detach. One\u003cbr\u003evisitor explained that the best policy was to dip all vegetables in\u003cbr\u003ebleach, giving out such a powerful line of\u003cbr\u003ereasoning for this course that we risked adopting the method on the spot.\u003cbr\u003eLuckily, we were out of bleach at that moment, and by the time we\u003cbr\u003epurchased some, the visitor—and the theory—had departed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDIETARY EXTREMISM\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe extremism of the above stories seems to be an inevitable complication\u003cbr\u003eof dietary theories. The crowning example in my memory occurred at a\u003cbr\u003eseminar held at the commune, led by a famous macrobiotic counselor I shall\u003cbr\u003ecall Mr. Lux. An audience of at least thirty-five listened with rapt\u003cbr\u003eattention as Lux lectured on the evils of milk. “It slows the digestion,”\u003cbr\u003ehe explained, “clogs the metabolism, plugs the arteries, dampens the\u003cbr\u003edigestive fire, it causes mucus, respiratory diseases and cancer, and even\u003cbr\u003esludges the soul so it can’t see clearly.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt that time a member of the commune by the name of Matt lived in a small\u003cbr\u003eroom upstairs from the seminar hall. He was a sometimes recovering\u003cbr\u003ealcoholic who rather frequently failed to abstain. Although he was only in\u003cbr\u003ehis fifties, Matt’s face showed the marks of a lifetime of alcohol abuse.\u003cbr\u003eHe had been on the wagon for nearly six months when he tiptoed through the\u003cbr\u003eclass.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMatt was a shy and private man. However, upon returning from the kitchen\u003cbr\u003ewith a beverage, he discovered that there was no way he could reach his\u003cbr\u003eroom without crossing through the crowded seminar. The leader noticed him\u003cbr\u003eimmediately.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePointing to the glass of milk in Matt’s hand, Lux boomed out, “Don’t you\u003cbr\u003erealize what that stuff is doing to your body, sir? Class, look at him! He\u003cbr\u003eis a testament to the health-destroying properties of milk. Study the\u003cbr\u003epuffy skin of his face. Note the bags under his eyes. Look at the\u003cbr\u003estiffness of his walk. Milk, class—milk has done this to him!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBewildered, Matt looked at his glass, then up at the condemning faces,\u003cbr\u003ethen back to the milk again. His lower lip quivered. “But,” he whimpered,\u003cbr\u003e“but this is only milk, isn’t it?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the Alcoholics Anonymous meetings with which Matt was familiar, cow’s\u003cbr\u003emilk was practically mother’s milk, synonymous with rectitude and purity.\u003cbr\u003e“I mean,” he continued to the unforgiving students, “I mean, it isn’t rum,\u003cbr\u003eis it?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy focusing single-mindedly on diet and ignoring all other aspects of\u003cbr\u003elife, alternative practitioners like Mr. Lux come to practice a form of\u003cbr\u003emedicine that lacks a holistic perspective on life. This is ironic, of\u003cbr\u003ecourse, since holism is one of the strongest ideals of alternative\u003cbr\u003emedicine, at least as widely mentioned as healing through diet. It would\u003cbr\u003ebe more holistic to take time to understand the whole person before making\u003cbr\u003edietary recommendations and occasionally temper those recommendations with\u003cbr\u003ean acknowledgment of other elements in that person’s life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUnfortunately, patient and alternative practitioner too often work\u003cbr\u003etogether to create an exaggerated focus on food. Rather than heal the\u003cbr\u003eperson, this unbalanced emphasis can lead to a disease in its own right,\u003cbr\u003ethe disease I call orthorexia. I know this disease well, because for many\u003cbr\u003eyears I was one of the most extreme health-food\u003cbr\u003efanatics you can imagine. In fact, I’ve come to think of it as a true\u003cbr\u003eeating disorder, not as life-threatening as bulimia and anorexia nervosa,\u003cbr\u003ebut definitely in the same family.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eORTHOREXIA NERVOSA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo express this realization, I coined the term “orthorexia nervosa.” It\u003cbr\u003euses “ortho”—Greek meaning straight, correct, and true—to modify “anorexia\u003cbr\u003enervosa.” Orthorexia nervosa refers to a fixation on eating healthy food.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs we shall see later, there are often many hidden motivations behind\u003cbr\u003eorthorexia. But on the surface, at least, this eating disorder often\u003cbr\u003ebegins innocently, as a desire to overcome chronic illness, lose weight,\u003cbr\u003eto improve general health, or to correct the many bad habits of the\u003cbr\u003eAmerican diet. However, because it requires considerable willpower to\u003cbr\u003eadopt a diet that differs enormously from the food habits of one’s\u003cbr\u003eculture, few can make the transition gracefully. Most of us resort to an\u003cbr\u003eiron self-discipline, often enhanced by a lofty feeling of superiority\u003cbr\u003etoward those who continue to eat a normal diet.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOver time, what to eat, how much, and the consequences of dietary\u003cbr\u003eindiscretion come to occupy a greater and greater proportion of our mental\u003cbr\u003elife. The effortful act of eating the right food may even begin to invoke\u003cbr\u003ea sense of spirituality. As orthorexia progresses, a day filled with wheat\u003cbr\u003egrass juice, tofu, and quinoa biscuits may come to feel as holy as one\u003cbr\u003espent serving the destitute and homeless. On the other hand, when\u003cbr\u003eorthorexics fall off the path (which, according to the pertinent theory,\u003cbr\u003emay consist of anything from ingesting a single illegal raisin to\u003cbr\u003edevouring three quarts of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and a Big Mac), we\u003cbr\u003eexperience it as a fall from grace. The only remedy is an act of\u003cbr\u003epenitence, which usually involves ever stricter diets or even fasting to\u003cbr\u003ecleanse away the influence of unhealthy foods.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis obsession seems silly to someone not so possessed. I’ve heard it\u003cbr\u003ecalled “kitchen spirituality,” “cuisine dysfunction,” and “food worship.”\u003cbr\u003eBut within the orthorexic there is a grim sense of self-righteousness that\u003cbr\u003ebegins to consume all other sources of joy and meaning. An orthorexic will\u003cbr\u003elose all pleasure at her child’s birthday party because she has eaten a\u003cbr\u003espoonful of ice cream along with the children; she will beat herself up\u003cbr\u003efor days over a slice of broccoli that was eaten cooked rather than raw.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEventually orthorexia reaches a point at which the orthorexic devotes most\u003cbr\u003eof her life to planning, purchasing, preparing, and eating meals. If you\u003cbr\u003ehad a window into her inner life, you’d see little else but\u003cbr\u003eself-condemnation for lapses, self-praise for success, strict self-control\u003cbr\u003eto resist temptation, and conceited superiority over anyone who indulges\u003cbr\u003ein impure dietary habits. The meaning of life has been displaced onto the\u003cbr\u003ebare act of eating.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is precisely this displacement that defines orthorexia as an eating\u003cbr\u003edisorder. In this essential characteristic, orthorexia bears many\u003cbr\u003esimilarities to the two named eating disorders: anorexia and bulimia.\u003cbr\u003eWhereas the bulimic and anorexic focus on the quantity of food, the\u003cbr\u003eorthorexic fixates on its quality. All three give to food a vastly\u003cbr\u003eexcessive place in the scheme of life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eProponents of nutritional medicine appear to remain blissfully unaware of\u003cbr\u003ethe propensity for their theories to create an obsession. Indeed, popular\u003cbr\u003ebooks on natural medicine seem to actively promote orthorexia in their\u003cbr\u003eenthusiasm for sweeping dietary changes. No doubt, conventional medicine\u003cbr\u003ehas made the opposite mistake, tending (until recently) to ignore the\u003cbr\u003ebenefits of good diet. However, when healthy eating becomes a disease in\u003cbr\u003eits own right, it is arguably worse than the health problems that began\u003cbr\u003ethe cycle of fixation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMY OWN ESCAPE FROM ORTHOREXIA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI, too, passed through a phase of extreme dietary purity when I lived at\u003cbr\u003ethe commune. In those days when I wasn’t cooking, I managed the organic\u003cbr\u003efarm. This gave me constant access to fresh, high-quality produce.\u003cbr\u003eEventually I became such a snob that I disdained to eat any vegetable that\u003cbr\u003ehad been plucked from the ground more than fifteen minutes earlier. I was\u003cbr\u003ea total vegetarian, chewed each mouthful of food fifty times, always ate\u003cbr\u003ein a quiet place (which meant alone), and left my stomach partially empty\u003cbr\u003eat the end of each meal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter a year or so of this self-imposed regime, I felt light, clearheaded,\u003cbr\u003eenergetic, strong, and self-righteous. I regarded the wretched, debauched\u003cbr\u003esouls in the larger world around the commune, downing their chocolate chip\u003cbr\u003ecookies and fries, as mere animals reduced to satisfying gustatory lusts.\u003cbr\u003eBut I wasn’t complacent in my virtue. Feeling an obligation to enlighten\u003cbr\u003emy weaker brethren, I continuously lectured friends and family on the\u003cbr\u003eevils of refined, processed food and the dangers of pesticides and\u003cbr\u003eartificial fertilizers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor two years I pursued wellness through healthy eating. Gradually,\u003cbr\u003ehowever, I began to sense that something was wrong. The need to obtain\u003cbr\u003efood free of animal products, fat, and artificial chemicals put nearly all\u003cbr\u003esocial forms of eating out of reach. I began to sense that the poetry of\u003cbr\u003emy life had diminished. All I could think about was food.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut even when I became aware that my scrabbling in the dirt after raw\u003cbr\u003evegetables and wild plants had become an obsession, I found it terribly\u003cbr\u003edifficult to free myself. I had been seduced by righteous eating. The\u003cbr\u003ecenter of my life’s meaning had been transferred inexorably to food, and I\u003cbr\u003ecould not reclaim it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI was eventually saved from the doom of eternal health food\u003cbr\u003eaddiction through three fortuitous events. The first occurred when my\u003cbr\u003eguru, who was guiding me in the way of lacto-ovo-vegetarianism and was\u003cbr\u003estarting to tend toward fruitarianism, suddenly abandoned his quest. He\u003cbr\u003eexplained that he had received a sudden revelation. “It came to me last\u003cbr\u003enight in a dream,” he said. “Rather than eat my sprouts alone, it would be\u003cbr\u003ebetter for me to share a pizza with some friends.” I looked at him\u003cbr\u003edubiously, but I did not completely disregard his message.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe second event occurred when an elderly gentleman (whom I had been\u003cbr\u003evisiting as a volunteer home health aide) offered me a piece of Kraft\u003cbr\u003eSwiss cheese. Normally I wouldn’t have considered accepting. I did not eat\u003cbr\u003echeese, much less pasteurized, processed, and artificially flavored\u003cbr\u003echeese. Worse still, I happened to be sick with a head cold that day.\u003cbr\u003eAccording to my belief system at that time, if I fasted, I would get over\u003cbr\u003ethe cold in a day. However, if I allowed great lumps of indigestible dairy\u003cbr\u003eproducts to adhere to my innards, I would no doubt remain sick for a\u003cbr\u003eweek—if I did not go on to develop pneumonia.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut Mr. Davis was earnest and persistent in his expression of gratitude,\u003cbr\u003eand he would have taken as a personal rebuke my refusal of the cheese.\u003cbr\u003eShaking with trepidation, I chewed the dread pro-\u003cbr\u003ecessed product. To my great surprise, it seemed to have a healing\u003cbr\u003eeffect. My cold symptoms disappeared within an hour. It was as if my\u003cbr\u003eacceptance of his gratitude healed me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNonetheless, even after this miracle I could not let go of my beliefs. I\u003cbr\u003eactually quit visiting Mr. Davis to avoid further defiling myself. That I\u003cbr\u003ewould place food obsession over a human connection I truly valued filled\u003cbr\u003eme with shame, and now, as I look back, was a clear sign I was drowning.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe life preserver that finally drew me out was tossed by a Benedictine\u003cbr\u003emonk named Brother David Stendl-Rast. I had met him at a seminar he gave\u003cbr\u003eon the subject of gratitude. Afterward, I volunteered to drive him home,\u003cbr\u003efor the purpose of getting to know him better. (This may be called\u003cbr\u003e“opportunistic volunteerism.”) On the way to his monastery, although\u003cbr\u003esecretly sick of it, I bragged a\u003cbr\u003ebit about my oral self-discipline, hoping to impress the monk. I thought\u003cbr\u003ethat he would respect me for never filling my stomach\u003cbr\u003eby more than half, and so on. David’s actions were a marvelous\u003cbr\u003eexample of teaching through action.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe drive was long. In the late afternoon we stopped for lunch at one of\u003cbr\u003ethose out-of-place Chinese restaurants—the kind that flourish in small\u003cbr\u003etowns where it seems no one of remotely Asian ancestry has ever lived. As\u003cbr\u003eexpected, all the waiters were Anglo-Saxon, but the food was unexpectedly\u003cbr\u003egood. The sauces were fragrant and tasty, the vegetables fresh, and the\u003cbr\u003eegg rolls crisp. We were both pleasantly surprised.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter I had eaten the small portion that sufficed to fill my stomach\u003cbr\u003ehalfway, Brother David casually mentioned his belief that it was an\u003cbr\u003eoffense against God to leave food uneaten on the table. This was\u003cbr\u003eparticularly the case when such a great restaurant had so clearly been\u003cbr\u003eplaced in our path as a special grace. David was a slim man and a monk, so\u003cbr\u003eI found it hardly credible that he followed this precept generally. But he\u003cbr\u003econtinued to eat so much that I felt that good manners, if not actual\u003cbr\u003espiritual guidance, required me to imitate his example. I filled my belly\u003cbr\u003efor the first time in a year.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen he upped the ante. “I always think that ice cream goes well with\u003cbr\u003eChinese food, don’t you?” he asked blandly. Ignoring my incoherent reply,\u003cbr\u003eBrother David directed us to a Friendly’s ice cream parlor and purchased\u003cbr\u003eme a triple-scoop cone.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDavid led me on a two-mile walk through the unexceptional town as we ate\u003cbr\u003eour ice cream, edifying me with spiritual stories and in every way keeping\u003cbr\u003emy mind from dwelling on the Offense Against Health Food I had just\u003cbr\u003ecommitted. Later that evening Brother David ate an immense dinner in the\u003cbr\u003emonastery dining room, all the while urging me to have more of one dish or\u003cbr\u003eanother. I understood the point. But what mattered more was the fact that\u003cbr\u003ethis man, for whom I had the greatest respect, was giving me permission to\u003cbr\u003ebreak my health food vows. It proved a liberating stroke.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYet it wasn’t until more than a month later that I finally decided to make\u003cbr\u003ea decisive break. I was filled with feverish anticipation. Hordes of\u003cbr\u003elong-suppressed gluttonous desires, their legitimacy restored, clamored to\u003cbr\u003ereceive their due. I set out from the commune toward the nearest junk food\u003cbr\u003erestaurant. On the twenty-minute drive into town, I planned and replanned\u003cbr\u003emy menu. Within ten minutes of arriving I had eaten three tacos, a medium\u003cbr\u003epizza, and a large milkshake. I brought the ice cream sandwich and banana\u003cbr\u003esplit home, for I was too stuffed to violate my former vows further. My\u003cbr\u003estomach was stretched to my knees.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe next morning I felt guilty and defiled. Only the memory of Brother\u003cbr\u003eDavid kept me from embarking on a five-day fast (I fasted only two days).\u003cbr\u003eIt took me many more years to attain the ability to follow a middle way in\u003cbr\u003eeating easily, without rigid calculation or wild swings. (See Section 3\u003cbr\u003efor suggestions on how to accomplish this transition.)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnyone who has ever suffered from anorexia or bulimia will recognize\u003cbr\u003eclassic patterns in this story: the cyclic extremes, the obses-\u003cbr\u003esion, the separation from others. These are all symptoms of an eating\u003cbr\u003edisorder. Having experienced them so vividly in myself twenty years ago, I\u003cbr\u003ecannot overlook their presence in others.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIS DIET A SIDE-EFFECT-\u003cbr\u003eFREE TREATMENT?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs an alternative physician, I often feel conflicted. I almost always\u003cbr\u003erecommend dietary improvements to my patients. How could I not? A low-fat,\u003cbr\u003esemivegetarian diet is potent preventive medicine for nearly all major\u003cbr\u003eillnesses, and more focused dietary interventions can often dramatically\u003cbr\u003eimprove specific health problems. But I do not feel entirely innocent when\u003cbr\u003eI make dietary suggestions. I have come to regard dietary modification,\u003cbr\u003elike drug therapy, as a treatment with serious potential side effects.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eConsider Andrea, a patient of mine who once suffered from chronic asthma.\u003cbr\u003eWhen she first came to see me, she depended on several medications to\u003cbr\u003econtrol her symptoms, but with my help she managed to free herself from\u003cbr\u003eall drugs. Yet I feel guiltier about\u003cbr\u003emy success with her than with any other patient I’ve seen while in\u003cbr\u003epractice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe method we used involved identifying foods to which Andrea was\u003cbr\u003esensitive and removing them from the diet. Milk was the first to go, then\u003cbr\u003ewheat, soy, and corn. After we’d eliminated those four foods, the asthma\u003cbr\u003esymptoms decreased so much that Andrea was able to cut out one medication.\u003cbr\u003eBut she wasn’t satisfied.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDiligent effort identified other allergens: eggs, avocado, tomatoes,\u003cbr\u003ebarley, rye, chicken, beef, turkey, salmon, and tuna. These, too, Andrea\u003cbr\u003eeliminated, and she was soon able to drop another drug entirely. Next went\u003cbr\u003ebroccoli, lettuce, apples, buckwheat, trout, and the rest of her\u003cbr\u003emedications.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUnfortunately, after about three months of feeling well, Andrea began to\u003cbr\u003ediscover that there were now other foods to which she was sensitive.\u003cbr\u003eOranges, peaches, celery, and rice didn’t suit her, nor potatoes or\u003cbr\u003eamaranth biscuits. The only foods she could definitely\u003cbr\u003etolerate were lamb and (strangely) white sugar. Since she couldn’t\u003cbr\u003eactually live on only those foods, Andrea adopted a complex rotation diet,\u003cbr\u003ealternating grains on a meal-by-meal basis, with an occasional complete\u003cbr\u003eabstention to allow her to “clear.” She did the same for vegetables, with\u003cbr\u003esomewhat more ease since there was a greater variety to choose from.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen Andrea came in for a follow-up visit a year later, her story\u003cbr\u003edisturbed me. Very pleased with the effects of diet but absolutely\u003cbr\u003edependent on careful eating, Andrea carries a supply of her own particular\u003cbr\u003efoods wherever she goes. She doesn’t go many places. Most of the time she\u003cbr\u003estays at home thinking carefully about what to eat next, because when she\u003cbr\u003eslips up, the consequences endure for weeks. The asthma doesn’t come back,\u003cbr\u003ebut she develops headaches, nausea, and strange moods. She must\u003cbr\u003econtinuously exert her will against cravings for foods as licentious as\u003cbr\u003etomatoes and bread.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAndrea was happy with the treatment I’d given her, and she referred many\u003cbr\u003eof her friends to see me. Yet the sight of her name on my schedule\u003cbr\u003econtinued to make me feel ill. The first rule of medicine is “Above all,\u003cbr\u003edo no harm.” Have I helped Andrea by freeing her from drugs only to draw\u003cbr\u003eher into the bondage of diet? My conscience isn’t clear.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf she had been cured of cancer or multiple sclerosis, I suppose that the\u003cbr\u003edevelopment of an obsession wouldn’t be too high a price for physical\u003cbr\u003ehealth. However, when we started treatment, all Andrea had was asthma. I\u003cbr\u003ehave asthma, too. When she took her four medications, she had practically\u003cbr\u003eno asthma symptoms, and what’s more, she had a life. Now all she has is a\u003cbr\u003emenu. Andrea might have been better off if she had never heard of dietary\u003cbr\u003emedicine.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI am generally lifted out of such melancholy reflections by some\u003cbr\u003esubstantial success. The same day Andrea provoked that intense guilt, I\u003cbr\u003esaw Bob in follow-up, a man whose psoriatic arthritis (a rather unusual\u003cbr\u003eand often quite painful form of arthritis) was thrown into full remission\u003cbr\u003eby two simple interventions: removing wheat from his diet and adding foods\u003cbr\u003ehigh in trace minerals. Before he met me, he took dangerously high doses\u003cbr\u003eof prednisone. After we started, he needed no medications at all. Seeing\u003cbr\u003ehim encouraged me not to give up entirely on making dietary\u003cbr\u003erecommendations.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut my enthusiasm remains tempered. Like all other medical\u003cbr\u003einterventions—like all other solutions to difficult problems—dietary\u003cbr\u003emedicine dwells in a gray zone of unclarity and imperfection. It’s neither\u003cbr\u003ea simple, ideal treatment, as some of its proponents believe, nor the\u003cbr\u003ecomplete waste of time conventional medicine has too long presumed it to\u003cbr\u003ebe. Diet is an ambiguous and powerful tool, too unclear and emotionally\u003cbr\u003echarged for comfort, too powerful to be ignored.","brand":"Harmony","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300410118373,"sku":"NP9780767905855","price":21.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780767905855.jpg?v=1767728821","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/health-food-junkies-isbn-9780767905855","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}