Why I’m Not Going Vegan | My Orthorexia Story

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Position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: Vegetarian Diet – LINK HERE:

As my channel as grown over the past year, I’ve learned a huge amount of my followers are plant based so I’ve been creating a lot of recipes to cater to my demographic. I see a value in eating plant based, and I make an effort to eat more plant based ingredients and think beyond how I was raised.

Benefits of Eating Plant based

One of the big ones is sustainability and environmental considerations. Recently a plant rich diet was recommended as the fourth most important strategy for global warming.

So why don’t I just go vegan?

Simply put, following any strict set of dietary rules is just not healthy for me based on my personal history with disordered eating.

When I was 17, I was told by a homeopathic practitioners to go on a complete sugar detox which is when my diet when from being balanced to unbearably restrictive and “clean”. From there, most of my diet consisted of big salads with no dressing, steamed vegetables and sugar free jello.

With orthorexia, it’s less about weight loss and the quantity of food and more about the quality. While I’m lucky to be alive, the most disturbing part of all this is that I was being praised for my malnourished body and my dedication to clean eating.

The result of this style of eating is that it prevented me from wanting to go out with friends which enabled my disordered eating and depressive thoughts.

Today, the popularity of clean eating and various wellness diets are becoming signs of moral superiority, economic privilege and class. First of all, I don’t want anyone to think that veganism causes orthorexia. However there’s a fine line between wanting to eat healthy and orthorexia. It all comes down to intentions. If you go out to dinner and the lack of control panics you, then you may have an issue. If your diet is starting to interfere with your emotional, psychological or social wellbeing, there’s a problem.

What works for me is eating foods that make me feel satisfied and good without explicit labels. I eat how I want to eat in that moment, meal or day. I still believe that a lot of the benefits – for the environment, animals and our bodies that we see associated with plant based living can still be applied if we simply consume animal products in more modest ways.

I’m not preaching for anyone to change their diet, you do what works for you. But again I want abbeys kitchen to be a respectful place for a variety of diets and everyone to eat in ways that feel intuitive and healthy to them.

For more tips on staying healthy, recipes, dieting, and information fit for consumption by foodies everywhere stop by Abbey’s blog.

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