Anthropological perspective of a case of orthorexia nervosa

Abstract

In this work, the anthropologic perspective has allowed us a deep understanding and interpretation of this case, without which the sociocultural factors that have affected the phenomenology of the case would NOT HAVE BEEN CONSIDERED OR would HAVE BEEN OVERLOOKED. A new eating disorder is emerging, the socalled "Orthorexia Nervosa(ON)". Orthorexia is related to the extreme worry in the search for health concentrated in eating as healthily and purely as possible. It consists of an excessive obsession and worry for healthy, natural or biological intake, which leads the individual to exclusively consume food coming from ecological agriculture, free from transgenic or artificial components, pesticides or herbicides. In the developed societies, where the problem is not the lack of food but the excess, eating disorders are becoming more common. ON seems not to affect the marginal sectors but rather on the contrary since this type of food is much more expensive than the usual one and also more difficult to obtain.

Keywords

• Ortorexia nerviosa
• Vegetarianismo
• Religión
• Hinduismo
• Yoga
• Evolución del hombre