Cade Lucas
What started as a high school group assignment has become a public health campaign for three Westbourne Grammar students.
14 year old’s Kevin Sharobem and Evie Theodore, and 15 year old Mia Rigas didn’t even know what Orthorexia Nervosa was before they began a research project in July.
Now all three have launched KEM Awarness (named after each member) to inform the public on this little known condition and campaign for it to be classed as an eating disorder.
Like it’s namesake, Anorexia Nervosa, people with ortherexia have a dangerous and unhealthy relationship with food, and as Evie Theodore explained, one that is contradictory too.
“It’s the obsession with eating clean or pure foods which can lead people to cutting out whole food groups and things we need to survive.”
Those foods often include those that are processed and high in carbohydrates, sugar and salt, many of which are excluded from many diets.
Ms Theodore said the link with dieting was one of the most troubling aspects of orthorexia
“Because it’s often spoken about as just a form of extreme dieting, people don’t seek help for it,” she said.
“It can lead to malnourishment, nutrition deficiencies and even death.”
The blurred lines between dieting and otherexia not only make it hard to identify, but also hard to prevent, with Eating Disorders Victoria pointing to social media as a place where destructive eating habits are promoted.
“The recent phenomenon of ‘clean eating’ has given license for orthorexia behaviours to be encouraged and celebrated.” says the EDV website.
“This makes it easier for individuals to unknowingly slip into disordered eating patterns and increases the risk for a serious eating disorder.”
Despite this, EDV points out that ortherexia is not recognised as such by the The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), however with symptoms like anxiety, mood-swings and depression, it is considered a serious mental health condition.
Evie Theodore is hoping that upcoming meetings KEM Awarness has scheduled with politicians, and doctors will help orthorexia eventually be classed as an eating disorder .
In the meantime, she’s urging people to be careful when changing their eating habits.
“All diets come with some sort of health risk and it’s important to do a lot of research and planning.”
For more information visit: KEM Awareness: orthorexia1.weebly.com/ and Eating Disorders Victoria: www.eatingdisorders.org.au/
If you or someone you know has an eating disorder, contact The Butterfly Foundation on 1800 33 4673.
