Sarah Cornia

BIO 1090
Hudson
Taking Sides #2
Can Overemphasis on Eating Healthy Become Unhealthy?
Author of Orthorexia: When eating Healthy Becomes and Unhealthy Obsession, Lindsey Getz
is bringing to light another eating disorder plaguing the world, Orthorexia. Orthorexia is a
condition that causes a person to strive for the perfect diet.
For decades there has been a huge amount of negative food talk in media. Once attention was
brought to the poor diet problem, the amount of attention has snowballed. Americans are
bombarded with messages telling them to eat better. Getz believes that all these messages are not
just inspiring healthy choices, but also causing obsession. This obsession causes people to not
live their lives, they stay in instead of going out with friends because they worry that they wont
be getting their healthy foods. Over concerned parents are passing the worry on to their
children, it goes as far inspiring an unhealthy fear of certain foods.
Chris Woolston author of Whats Wrong With the American Diet? addresses the American or
Western diet. The western diet is widely known to be unhealthy and to be the cause of heart
disease.
American portion sizes are hugely overdone, sometimes one meal could provide the
recommended daily 2,000 calories. Calories is the major problem with the American diet.
Woolston calls Americans into action to take control and eat healthier and smaller meals.

These two articles didnt really seem to be arguing the same issue. Lindsey Getz never said that
the American diet was a good thing, she was bringing attention to the consequences of being
over worried or obsessed with healthy eating. Chris Woolston didnt say that an over obsession
with healthy eating or Orthorexia didnt exist, he highlighted the well-known problems with the
American diet.
Both issues seem important, there are obviously major issues with unhealthy eating in America
and there are defiantly people who are obsessed with only eating healthy food. Everything needs
to be done in moderation.
Chris Woolston painted the typical scary health image of unhealthy eating but just because you
eat dessert doesnt mean you are going to die early from heart disease. Lindsey Getz also
depicted a sort of scary image of malnutrition and lost opportunities but not everyone striving for
a better diet has Orthorexia.
Everything isnt black and white and even though Getz article did have some fallacies, she did
the best of portraying this. It was also refreshing to hear that you dont have to be crazy obsessed
with health foods to have a healthy life.