by Dr.Harald Wiesendanger– Klartext
What the mainstream media is hiding
They poison what we eat and drink – and when we express concern about this, they label us mentally ill. There is now a diagnostic label for this: “orthorexia.” Ultimately, it protects the food industry – strictly scientifically, of course – from legitimate questions from consumers.
Orthorexia – it sounds like the Latin name for a toothless dinosaur with a stick of celery in its mouth. In fact, it refers to a supposed “eating disorder” characterized by an ‘obsession’ with healthy eating. Those affected are almost compulsively preoccupied with “pure,” “natural” foods. How unreasonable, how pathological – in an age of glyphosate in wheat, nanoplastics in tap water, titanium dioxide in chewing gum, and nitrosamines in sausages.
“Orthorexia” is what you get when you actually read ingredient lists, using a magnifying glass if necessary. What emerges when you ask yourself why children in 2025 will no longer be allowed to drink whole milk, but will be allowed to drink energy drinks with 43 additives?
It is the uneasy feeling that comes over you when “sugar-free gummy bears” contain sorbitol, maltitol, and erythritol.
It’s the vague horror of products labeled “Now even healthier – with sweet whey powder and hydrolyzed pea protein!”
It’s the reflex to take note when you hear the word “ultra-processed” for the third time – and you’re not sure whether it refers to the product or the customer.
It used to be called “critical thinking.” Today, the diagnosis is orthorexia—a condition that afflicts “pathological healthy eaters.” (1)
Yes, this “disorder” can be associated with considerable psychological distress.
But this pressure does not arise from the depths of a neurotic soul – it comes from outside, generated by shameless profiteers of a civilizational aberration. Those who sadly recognize this and resist it do so out of a clear understanding of facts that have been proven to endanger health. Wanting to avoid them as much as possible is not pathological, but deeply reasonable. Yes, it is essential for life. If everyone knew as much about the true quality of industrial food and the long-term consequences of consuming it as the “orthorexics” you encounter in Alnatura stores, vegetarian restaurants, and organic farms, mass panic would break out, followed by a consumer boycott.
And yes, this “disorder” can lead to social isolation. Those who indulge in it uncompromisingly are instantly considered stubborn, masochistic killjoys at the dinner table of “normal” eaters and are shunned. They are also accused of arrogant know-it-all behavior—but they actually do know more. And that’s why they put up with exclusion, especially since they are not alone.
“Very personal, subjective standards are applied to this healthy diet,” claims a psychologist from the Institute for Therapy and Health Research in Kiel. (2) With all due respect, that’s nonsense: What standard should one apply to food in the first place, in a completely impersonal and general way, if not that of serving life?
Those who ask questions endanger the system
“He pays meticulous attention to organic origins, eats only fresh vegetables, avoids sugar, doesn’t process anything from aluminum packaging, checks every label, believes that nutrition influences disease—a serious case!”
So says the doctor. Not about a conspiracy theorist, but about an “orthorexic.”
A person who prefers still water to Coke Zero.
A person who doesn’t want yeast extract flavor enhancers, acidity regulators, emulsifiers, calcium propionate, and sorbic acid in their bread, but… bread.
A person who asks why the food industry has 17 different names for glutamate – but none for honesty.
Orthorexia is the ultimate sin in the modern diet.
The sinner is not only annoying because they smell moral. They are dangerous because they ask questions. The more of them there are, the more likely it is that the WHO will issue a warning about an emergency called epidemic self-responsibility – and that Pfizer will develop a vaccine against healthy skepticism.
Why do children’s chocolate bars contain palm oil from deforested rainforests?
Why is yogurt allowed to be called “with strawberries” when the red color comes from lice and the strawberry content is lower than the IQ of a marketing team?
Because you can’t silence the wholefood eaters, you label them. ‘Orthorexia’ – that’s the T-shirt with the slogan: “Crazy because informed.”
Eat what’s on the table – or we’ll put you in therapy
It’s remarkable: never before has the choice in supermarkets been so vast – and so artificial. A shelf with 27 types of muesli. All “natural.” All in plastic. All with flavors that only grow under laboratory conditions.
Anyone who, out of necessity, acts like a CIA agent searching for clues while shopping is considered mentally unstable – just like the mask refusers, PCR test phobics, and vaccine refusers in these times of coronavirus paranoia.
Because we don’t want to eat colorants that are suspected of causing cancer.
Because we don’t buy frozen pizza that has 67 ingredients but no real cheese.
Because we don’t believe that a “clean label” will save the world when the contents look like chemical waste with tomato sauce.
We are called “extreme” – yet we only eat what our grandmothers would have served us.
Orthorexia is the only medical condition you can acquire by reading ingredient lists.
You read “monosodium glutamate” one too many times.
You google “carrageenan.”
You question why pesticide residues are allowed in baby food—but don’t ask any questions about that.
And before you know it, you’re sitting in the psychiatrist’s waiting room.
It starts with organic eggs.
Then comes giving up aspartame.
Then gluten-free bread.
And before you know it, you’re sitting in a circle of a self-help group: “Anonymous Ingredient Readers – Help for Sufferers and Their Families.” Nothing but food nostalgics in denial.
The German Medical Journal suggests the following “treatment”: https://www.aerzteblatt.de/archiv/orthorexie-sinnvoll-oder-pathologisch-a5131756-02c3-4b65-8b32-0f34cd06088e “Psychoeducation with nutritional counseling, cognitive restructuring, or exposure therapy to reduce fear of supposedly unhealthy foods.”
Industry protects itself – with a diagnosis made to order
Isn’t it a fundamental human right to be free to decide what you eat and avoid?
But in the name of a prostituted “science,” anyone who thinks before they chew is now considered a risk.
A medicine that declares orthorexia a disorder requiring treatment does not protect the patient – it protects the product.
Because if you classify legitimate concerns about plasticizers, nitrates, heavy metals, or ultra-heated trans fats as “pathological,” you don’t have to deal with their causes.
The new normal: breadcrumbs with microplastics and processed cheese with liver value triggers
Anyone who eats “normally” today lives like a garbage collector on a diet.
Almost everything is flavored, extruded, refined, homogenized, stabilized, sterilized – and optimized for marketing.
What looks like food is often just a simulation: the deceptive surface of a taste-reconstructed illusion.
And anyone who wants to escape this matrix is written off as sick.
The diagnosis: orthorexia.
The prescription: more trust in Nestlé, Bayer, Danone & Co. – and a bottle of Diet Coke to calm the nerves.
The irony of the therapy: “Just eat normally again.”
The therapies for orthorexia consist of relearning how to eat “normally” without worrying.
Back to meat from factory farms.
Chips with palm oil, canned ravioli with aluminum, and antibiotic-optimized roast chicken.
E110 carcinogenic Aperol Spritz, sweets with allergenic E124, sodium nitrite-cured sausage, instant soup with inflammation-promoting carboxymethylcellulose.
Again, breakfast cereals with more sugar than a gang of gummy bears in distress.
This is supposed to be a “return to normality.”
And woe betide anyone who says, “But I feel better without these things.”
Then you’re told, “Classic defensive behavior—typical of orthorexics.”
Conclusion: Orthorexia is what happens when consumers fight back.
When the body wants more than E numbers and hidden sugar.
When the mind is not satisfied with: “Everything is legal, everything is tested, everything is safe – otherwise it would be banned!”
When it sees through the limit value scam.
What now?
We demand:
• The abolition of the diagnosis “orthorexia” – or at least its renaming to “reality perception syndrome.”
• Mandatory labels with the following statement: “This product could shake your belief in the safety of industrial foods.”
• And above all: a certificate for everyone who, despite E numbers, phosphates, glyphosate, and flavorings, still manages to eat healthily—which is quite a feat. Almost Olympic. Anyone who still dares to do so these days and persists in doing so does not have a mental health problem—they have backbone, courage, brains, and good reasons.
Orthorexia is not a disease. It is the healthy reflex of a body that refuses to become a container for hazardous waste.
No, “it is not a sign of mental health to be adapted to a deeply disturbed society.” So taught Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986), Indian philosopher and spiritual teacher. (3) Incidentally, he preferred simple, natural, fresh food throughout his life. “The body must be sensitive, alert – not made dull by what we eat,” he taught. (4) As an influencer for Nestlé & Co., someone like that would be rather unsuitable.
Too polemical? Polemics are sometimes the last refuge of clarity and truthfulness in a world that prefers to rot in the fog of consensus rather than face shocking facts.
Comments
(1) This is how orthorexics are defined by the Austrian medical portal “Gesundheit.gv.at”: https://www.gesundheit.gv.at/krankheiten/psyche/essstoerungen/orthorexie.html
(2) (2) Zit. nach https://www.t-online.de/gesundheit/ernaehrung/id_100665096/orthorexie-gesundes-essen-kann-auch-krank-machen.html
(3) (3) Krishnamurti Foundation Trust: Commentaries on Living https://store.kfoundation.org/books/books-by-j-krishnamurti/books/commentaries-on-living-series-iii, Series 3 (1960).
(4) (4) Aus Der Flug des Adlers, Originaltitel: The Flight of the Eagle, 1971.