Orthorexia - When Healthy Eating Goes Bad | Renee McGregor | Talks at Google

Renee McGregor ​is one of the UK’s top sports nutritionists, advising athletes from amateur to Olympic to Paralympic levels. She is a performance and clinical dietitian, and a specialist in the clinical field of eating disorders. Renee is the author of four books: Orthorexia: When Healthy Eating Goes Bad, Training Food, Fast Fuel: Food for Running Success, and Food for Triathlon Success. In this talk she discusses the confusion around how best to nourish ourselves especially with so many restrictive diets crowding the bookshop shelves, social media and online.

[sam]

This comment section makes me sad, a big part of it is basically a demonstration of the sort of mentality that puts you at risk. People think she's talking about what foods are healthy or not, but she's actually talking about what type of mindset is healthy.


She's not claiming that you need cow's milk, but that cutting it out might have many effects that you don't anticipate and that are ignored a lot when it's promoted. I use plant based milk myself, and I think she's not being entirely fair since plant based milk is often fortified with things like calcium and B12. However, that's not really the point she's trying to make either. It's about how the mentality where you cut foods out like this can cause more harm than good. You're thinking in absolutes, and that's just never good.


It can make you obsess over what you eat, and cause anxiety if you feel like you ate something "wrong". It can make you feel extremely bad about yourself because you equate healthy or "clean" eating with being a morally righteous person. It can consume so much time and energy that it impairs your work, school or social life, or you might stop doing things that you usually enjoy. You might start to cut out anything that is even suspected of being a bit unhealthy. And if you keep spiraling, you're going to start restricting your intake to the point where it's physically dangerous.

So please, please be mindful about how you think and talk about food.

[SaraWilsonBasturk]

I have a family member who has developed an unhealthy obsession with supposedly healthy eating. She has demonized certain foods while believing that others will magically ward off illness. (I’m sorry but eating three lemons daily won’t single handedly prevent cancer) We, her family who love her, find it unpleasant to spend time with her because food and it’s category (“good” or “bad”) is the only she talks about anymore. She has an almost religious-like belief good vs. bad foods but she has created a system without internal consistency. She has gone from being slender to skeletal and I am very worried about her. I don’t know how to help.

[foolsinging]

Thank God more people are talking about this disorder, and have written a book on it! My sister is killing herself...

[zoehalbert]

A lot of the comment section reflects the black and white thinking around food there is. The point is that no one food is inherently healthy or unhealthy. The poison is in the dose and dependent on someone's overall diet. If eating "unhealthy" foods causes you to be anxious or feel extreme guilt than that is disordered eating. It's okay to choose nutrient dense foods but when it becomes an obsession and someone is convinced that even eating a small amount of food that is less nutrient dense will harm them than it's most likely effecting their mental health and can lead to more disordered behaviors. Also, If you don't want to have milk that's totally fine, but the point is including some milk in your diet won't harm you unless you have an allergy/intolerance of course. It's not necessary of course, it's just one option that might work for some people.
On the allergy note, I have a life threatening allergy to nuts so I know how important it is to take allergies seriously. But I have a history of an eating disorder, and convinced myself that I was allergic to a lot of foods that I wasn't allergic to, so that can happen too. I was having digestive symptoms that were actually related to restriction, but told myself it was an allergy. Those symptoms went away after several months of eating a larger portion of food and eating more variety.

[IsabelleMN]

Thank you so much for this video. As a body compassion coach, I struggle to help people build a better relationship with food, one that isn't based on fear and anxiety. This is especially important for people who are body builders (myself included) who can easily conflate appearance with health, and are very meticulous with what they put in their body, not necessarily for health but for a certain aesthetic. What I'm hearing in this video is not a recommendation of a free for all approach to food, but to have a more critical yet relaxed examination of food.

[martag.]

I really want to see a round table discussion with this lady and Mr Michael Greger.

[barfgreenrulz]

Lovely video on the interaction between physical and mental health

[thevixtergti]

My boyfriend has this and I don't know what to do? Hes a step further where hes fixated with fasting and coffee enimas and getting rid of toxins. He drank turpentine for two weeks to kill parasites, another online fad, He wont listen to me and hes obsessed with this health fads online and social media i.e Instagram. Constantly trying to convince me it's normal with proof. Days he doesn't eat at all or consumes an orange juice and considers its a meal. I love him but I'm drifting away from him due to his extreme way of life. I dont know what do 😥 hes so headstrong he wont listen to me, and it turns into a full blown argument. He was just drinking orange juice over xmas and got norovirus for 2 weeks lost a stone and was bed ridden. He needs help because hes addicted to the online research and using his body as a gunipig. His parents just think hes into health and shrug it off but it's so much more than that. I want yo help him but I cant help him, it's too deeply rooted and I dont know what to do. 😥

[xian]

I have had alot of eating disordered eating in my life and Id say im a pretty intelligent person however only now im noticing that I cannot recover because I am not comfortable with who I am. Even the smallest things like for example we were talking about a celebrity and I said "If I cant marry them I will just become them" and.. I realised even if its a joke. I would honestly do that because that celebrity seemed perfect to me. Now I realise that I should just accept myself as me

[JemyM]

I have recovered from Binge Eating Disorder and I am doing intermittent fasting now (Alternate Day Fasting since 16:8 is what made me obese in the first place). Normal IF doesn't match the definition of a fad diet, nor do it itself relate to orthorexia, however, the reason I watch this video today is that I am tired of the amount of people with orthorexia being in the fasting community and being influencers for it.

[vitanilange]

Its not healthy to be this obsessed with ones health I agree....still I must say it helped me out of my anorexic mindset, and made me want to start nourish my body back where it started..

[samuelp]

Great video! I think it prevented me from developing orthorexia <3

[bobaisbomb]

I wonder what her take is on sugar and high carb foods impact on diabetes.

[samanthacheng]

i might have that but periodically..
I usually have half a year orthorexia, then lost control, depressed, eat junk food for half year, then repeat……

[alessandrac]

15:33 I was told that when i found out i was allergic to chocolate!
Anyways thanks i am writing a report on orthorexia and this was very helpful.

[polinap]

I left when she started talking about how ''milk is healthy''. Leave it for the baby cows! There's a reason why half of the world population is lactose intolerant.

[edendurham]

I agree and disagree with your point on sweeteners. When you talk about sugars, you need to think about how complex the sugar is and how many minerals, vitamins and different nutrients the sugar possesses. The brand of the sugar and the way it is processed plays a factor. Different people are more sensitive to different kinds of sugar. I would suggest that you don't through the baby out with the bath water. I completely see your point as well, a dessert is still a dessert and should not be put in the place of a meal and does not mean you can eat as much as you want of it because its "healthy".

[happyhealthylifeever]

„Milk for recovery“...Based on what evidence? ....on clinical studies sponsored by the milk industry?

[jennyandminnie]

LOL at all the negative comments on this session... and reading people actually wishing they had orthorexia? Wtf...?

Obviously all of these peoplr haven't bother to research who this woman is.

[talksick]

What do I do
Told prediabetic 4 hours glucose 2011
I started cutting out white flour frozen fast food fried foods soda and candy

Been dealing with health issues year before I cut that out
Meds don’t help docs can’t find the answer

So in 2016 a natural doc said remove dairy gluten eggs and meat nightshades
Barely lasted without meat and eggs
But did no gluten dairy nothing helped

Then I read online cruciferous and histamine foods
Now I’m scared I can’t function I hate these symptoms no answers and I feel I have to find right diet now