As we’ve come to find out, perhaps as a result of living away from home or just through growing older, our body is perfectly capable of telling us when we’re wreaking havoc on it. A few simple changes to our diet and lifestyle could mean we wouldn’t have to suffer. Making time for breakfast in the morning, incorporating a fruit or vegetable with every meal, and consuming smaller portions, for example, are well known body-boosters.

Melissa Busch, a senior at SF State, has perfected her own health routine, which consists of oatmeal for breakfast, balanced snacking, and home prepared meals. She is tall and lean, and although it seems as if she works hard for her fit appearance at the gym, most of her effort goes into her eating habits.
In today’s culture we are ready to diagnose every person with over-indulgent behaviors like eating too much or too often. Now, though, a new obsession has entered the fold. Eating “too healthy,” orthorexia, has been labeled as a disorder. Although it isn’t a real medical condition just yet, orthorexia has been showing up in headlines across the globe.

First coined by Dr. Steven Bratman in 1997, orthorexia is the obsession with eating healthy. As explained in his 2001 book, Health-food Junkies, orthorexia is quite different than other food-related issues. While anorexia is a disorder regarding the quantity of food ingested, orthorexia is a preoccupation regarding the quality of food a person eats. It includes symptoms of self-righteousness about health habits, inability to eat out at restaurants that don’t serve a menu curtailed to dietary concerns, and, similar to anorexia, the feeling of control in deciding what to eat. In the health-conscious Bay Area, orthorexia would seem nearly impossible to diagnose.

Back at the 4th and Geary Farmer’s Market, Busch makes the rounds at a corner store that sells cheap and fresh produce. She does admit that she may go a little overboard with the produce, but she can’t help it, she says; she likes fresh food and enjoys cooking.

With a full bag of brussel sprouts, Busch divulges the fact that her boyfriend specifically requests the typically unpopular veggie on days she shops for produce.

“I think I’m going to wipe out their inventory,” she chuckles as she reaches into the now nearly empty box for one last handful. She manages to twist the bulging bag closed and lobs it into her cart.

She admits that she got her beau hooked on the treat packed with fiber and Vitamin C and thinks her healthy habits rubbed off on him, especially since she’s the shopper and the chef. Today her cartload includes the brussel sprouts, beets, cucumbers, tofu, bok choy, sweet potatoes, rosemary, fennel, eggplant, and two full bags of oranges. The grand total is $30.67, considerably low compared to produce at large supermarkets such as Safeway or Whole Foods. But for the average starving student, thirty dollars a week on fruits and veggies can add up pretty quick.

The growing obsession with healthy eating, already prevalent in the Bay Area, makes health authorities wonder where the line should be drawn. Just like any over-indulgent behavior, the key is to find balance and maintain it.