Beating Yourself Up Over Food Choices Can Significantly Harm Mental Health
Judging someone (or yourself) based on how they eat is also incredibly reductive, Lampert says. Whether you choose the salad, sandwich, or pasta dish has no bearing on your worth as a person.
“Viewing food as good or bad tends to create shame and guilt towards consuming certain foods,” Wengler says. But, despite what diet gurus may say, you’re so much more than what you eat.
In fact, fixating on eating a certain way, or berating yourself for not eating a certain way, can come with its own health implications.
“When it comes to mental health, an obsession with ‘good’ foods and ‘bad’ foods is unhealthy,” Atkinson says. For example, feeling shame and guilt every time you eat a burrito or an ice cream cone because you consider them “bad” foods can have a significant negative impact on your mental health.
Orthorexia: When Healthy Eating Becomes a Disorder
Too much focus on eating “good” foods can even be a disorder in and of itself. Orthorexia, a term coined in 1998 to describe obsession with “healthy” eating, is still on the rise, says Wengler.
Since orthorexia isn’t classified as a clinical eating disorder, we don’t have much data on its prevalence. Research suggests that while rates of orthorexia may vary widely, it could affect up to 90 percent of people in some populations.
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When we view foods as good or bad, it can create stress and anxiety that make simple tasks like grocery shopping or cooking dinner more difficult, says Wengler. This habit can lead a person further into disordered eating patterns that impact mental health, she adds.
