Eating nutritious food no longer the way out to become healthy?

(Representational image)

New Delhi: While multifarious studies have stressed upon the practice of eating healthy and how it can be highly beneficial to adapt to it, a new study has found that an obsession with eating clean food may actually be endangering lives, reports The Independent.

While the current global obsession/trend of losing and/or maintaining a healthy weight is a good thing, the huge amount of diets and mixed information about the health properties of certain food items often leads to confusion.

That said, most of the people don't know what they actually are eating and this has become a common problem these days.

Nutritionist Patrick Denoux believes that a pure vegetarian diet can lead to B12 deficiency.

Vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to various health problems. B12 is not made by the body and most people get the required nutrient from animal products like eggs, dairy products, meat or fish.

If untreated, a vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to vision loss, weakness, tiredness and light headedness, heart palpitation, nerve problems, depression and memory loss.

The other issue with clean eating is that it could be leading to orthorexia nervosa – a term first coined by physician Steven Bratman in the year 1990.

Someone suffering from orthorexia is "imprisoned by a range of rules which they impose on themselves."

"It was as if she preferred to lose her sight. Rather than betray her commitment to animals," Ortega said.

This problem of obsessive healthy eating disorder is known as orthorexia nervosa.

Orthorexia is not part of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, set down by mental health professionals in the United States that is also widely used as a benchmark elsewhere.

Experts believe that orthorexia sufferers could be treated with cognitive behavioural therapy, which may involve learning how to deal with situations that can cause anxiety about eating, relaxation techniques and discussing excessive beliefs.

(With ANI inputs)