Diet culture in disguise

“伪”饮食文化

Focusing on eating healthy sounds like a good thing, right? Not always.

追求饮食健康，看似是一种积极向上的生活态度，然而，事实并非如此简单。

Eating disorders often have similar underpinnings: a genetic predisposition combined with environmental factors, Rollin said. And often the disorder centers around a set of rigid rules, whether it be calories, timing of eating or the ingredients in food, she added.

Rollin，作为马里兰州罗克维尔饮食失调中心的创始人，指出饮食失调的根源常常在于遗传与环境因素的交织。她进一步解释，这种失调往往围绕着一系列严格的规则，无论是关于卡路里、进食时间，还是食物成分。

When those vulnerable to eating disorders latch on to only eating in a way they consider healthy, the behavior can go from a preference to an obsession, Rollin said.

Rollin强调，当那些容易陷入饮食失调的人仅仅按照他们认为健康的方式进食时，这种行为很容易从一种偏好演变成强迫症。

Over the years, Wood said his list of unhealthy foods grew and those considered healthy kept shrinking until he found himself leaving parties because he couldn’t find anything he would allow himself to eat — and that left him with a lot of anxiety, he said.

Wood分享了自己的经历，多年来，他的健康食物清单上的选择越来越少，而不健康的食物却不断增加。直到有一次，他发现自己在一场聚会中找不到任何可以吃的食物，这让他深感焦虑。

For some — but not all — people with orthorexia, their body image may start to hinge on how closely they follow their food rules, Rollin said.

Rollin还提到，对于某些（但不是所有）完美食欲症患者来说，他们的身体形象可能会变得与他们对食物规则的遵守程度息息相关。

And with similar underpinnings behind them, orthorexia can morph into other disorders such as bulimia or anorexia nervosa, she said.

她进一步指出，完美食欲症可能会演变为其他疾病，如贪食症或神经性厌食症，其背后有着类似的机制。

The motivations people with orthorexia may have, as well as the applause society gives them, might be labeled as health promotion or disease prevention, but often they are proxies for “pure, old-fashioned diet culture,” which prioritizes one ideal body shape and size, Gaudiani said.

来自丹佛的Gaudiani医生，作为饮食失调症专家，以及Gaudiani诊所的创始人兼医疗总监，她表示，完美食欲症患者可能受到社会对其行为的认可和赞扬，这些行为被贴上“促进健康或预防疾病”的标签，但它们实际上是一种极端的饮食文化，这种文化过分强调理想的体型和身材。

“Some elements of it can be very like diet culture in disguise,” Rollin said.

Rollin评论道：“这其中的某些元素与变相的节食文化有着惊人的相似。”

And even if there isn’t shame around weight behind it, orthorexia and the steps a person takes to adhere to certain food rules can be expensive, distracting and distressing, Gaudiani said.

Gaudiani强调，即使完美食欲症患者在背后没有感受到体重带来的羞耻感，但为了遵守某些饮食规则所采取的措施也可能是昂贵的、令人分心的，甚至是痛苦的。

“It can also limit one from what one’s sort of greater goals and values are,” she added.

她补充道：“这种饮食文化还会限制一个人实现自己的更远大目标和价值观。”

What is healthy anyway?
那么，健康究竟是什么呢？

Another sign that the rules around eating are not just about health is the difficulty with defining what healthy even is.

另一个迹象表明饮食规则不仅仅与健康有关，那就是很难界定什么是真正的健康。

In the 1990s, healthy, clean eating would be low-fat diets, Gaudiani said. Now, people are more likely to consider high-protein, high-fat, low-carb and low-sugar foods as healthy, she added.

Gaudiani回忆说，在20世纪90年代，健康、干净的饮食意味着低脂饮食。然而，如今人们更倾向于将高蛋白、高脂肪、低碳水化合物和低糖食品视为健康食品。

Others would prioritize the food’s sourcing — such as whether it’s organic, non-genetically modified and local, Gaudiani said.

Gaudiani还提到，有些人会优先考虑食品的来源，如是否有机、非转基因和本地生产。

Of course, it’s not bad to want to eat a salad, Rollin said, but the problem arises when you think you can only have a salad.

Rollin表示，当然，想吃沙拉并不是坏事，但问题在于当你认为自己只能吃沙拉时。

Everybody is unique, and so the healthiest choice of food at any given moment will depend on an individual’s needs and the context that person is in, she added. Unless you need to eat a certain way for a medical condition, often the best course of action is listening to your body, Rollin said.

她强调，每个人都是独一无二的，因此在任何时候选择最健康的食物都应该基于个人的需求和所处的环境。她建议，除非你有特殊的健康需求或疾病，否则最好的办法通常是听从自己身体的感受。

And when thinking of health, it is important you don’t only think of nutrition, Wood said.

Wood则认为，在考虑健康时，我们不应该只关注营养方面。

A healthy life includes rich social relationships, time spent pursuing passions, enjoyable physical activity and enough brain space to find peace — all of which are hard to come by when you spend hours a day ruminating on what you “should” be eating.

健康的生活包括丰富的社交关系、追求激情的时间、愉快的体育锻炼以及足够的精神空间来寻找内心的平静。如果你每天花费数小时思考应该吃什么，那么这些方面都可能受到严重影响。

“If you are somebody who just wants to live a reasonably balanced, social, connected life, orthorexia rules can really isolate you from peers because you end up turning down opportunities to eat with other humans because they don’t follow your same rules,” Gaudiani said. “Therefore, you say no, and your social world can really collapse down and become quite small.”

Gaudiani总结道：“如果你只想过一种平衡、社交、充实的生活，那么完美食欲症的规则真的会将你与同龄人隔离开来。因为你最终会拒绝与他人一起吃饭的机会，因为他们没有遵循你的规则。所以，当你不断说‘不’时，你的社交世界就会逐渐崩溃，变得非常狭窄。”

Living life again in recovery
重塑生活，康复之旅

If you or a loved one needs help for orthorexia, the good news is that treatment follows a similar path to established plans for eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia nervosa. The bad news is that the lack of awareness among the public may present obstacles.

当您或您的亲人陷入完美食欲症的困境时，好消息是，现有的治疗方法与厌食症或神经性贪食症等其他进食障碍的治疗方案类似，为康复提供了希望。然而，坏消息是公众对此类问题的认知不足，这可能会成为康复过程中的一大障碍。

When looking at therapy, check for not only an eating disorder specialist, but one with experience with orthorexia, Rollin said. Not every specialist is going to have that expertise.

Rollin强调，在寻求治疗方法时，选择具有专业知识的专家至关重要。这不仅仅是寻找饮食失调症专家，而是需要找到那些既有完美食欲症经验，又对此领域有深入了解的专家。并非每位专家都具备这方面的专业知识，因此选择正确的治疗团队显得尤为重要。

People with orthorexia may find themselves with a team that includes therapists and dietitians, similar to patients in treatment for other eating disorders, Rollin said. But those living with orthorexia will also likely face the added layer of unpacking their definition of health and reframing their ideas around it in a challenging way, she added.

Rollin提到，完美食欲症患者可能会与一个包括治疗师和营养师在内的专业团队共同合作，这与接受其他饮食失调治疗的患者类似。但她也补充说，这些患者还需要面临一个额外的挑战，那就是以新的视角来解读和重塑他们对健康的定义。

The process may also involve working with those around you, Rollin said. More people are becoming aware that it isn’t a good idea to talk about food in terms of weight regularly, but fewer see talking about “healthy” or “unhealthy” foods as problematic, she said.

在这个过程中，与周围的人合作也是至关重要的。Rollin表示，虽然越来越多的人开始意识到频繁谈论体重并不是一个好习惯，但很少有人意识到谈论“健康”或“不健康”的食物同样存在问题。

“It might take a fair amount of educating friends and family members, helping them to have understanding and compassion for why them commenting about the new juice cleanse they’re on is activating,” she said.

她建议说：“可能需要花费大量时间教育朋友和家人，帮助他们理解和同情为什么他们对您正在尝试的新饮食计划发表评论可能会引发不适。”通过增强彼此的理解和尊重，我们可以共同为康复创造一个更加支持性的环境。

And those in recovery also need to have compassion for themselves, Gaudiani said.

Gaudiani又补充道：“接受康复治疗的人也要多同情同情自己。”