IGX

This sub-classification of orthorexia is marked by a peculiar and nonsensical fear of carbohydrates. Sufferers often believe in unscientific and easily disprovable theories regarding the hormone insulin, such as the belief that insulin increases appetite (false), that carbohydrate consumption will raise your basal insulin levels (false), that spiking insulin causes insulin resistance (false), that insulin is the “fat-storage hormone” (false) and many other scientific fairy tales. It’s as if carborexics live in a parallel universe in which carbohydrates, instead of increasing longevity, lowering appetite, lowering body fat levels, lowering basal insulin levels, reducing insulin resistance, and improving overall body composition like they do in the real world – somehow perform the opposite function in all categories. Obsession with weight, condescending attitude toward mainstream nutritional beliefs, irrational fear of type 2 diabetes and advanced glycation end products, infatuation with the short-lived arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson and the prematurely-aging Eskimos he studied and reported on (as aging prematurely), and more are common facets of the disorder. Some are so out of touch with reality that they tell people who have round faces like Eskimos that they have “carbo faces.” Perhaps the most frightening symptom of carborexia is over-reliance on a useless and misleading tool known as the Glycemic Index, which leads to the highly irrational equating of high-fructose corn syrup in Pepsi with the starch in potatoes, corn, and several whole grains. Repetition of the phrase “sugar is sugar is sugar” is a serious red flag that can almost be used single-handedly to diagnose the disease.