• Orthorexia is a disordered pattern of eating where individuals have a preoccupation/obsession with healthy eating. This is more extreme than other individuals’ desires to eat “better,” “eat organic,” etc. because it impacts an individual’s functioning.
  • Even though it is not a formal diagnosis in the DSM-5, it contributes to significant distress for individuals and often interferes with social and professional interactions.
  • Individuals with orthorexia often experience:
    • Fixation on food quality and purity
    • A desire to maximize the health benefits of foods
    • There may or may not be an emphasis on weight or body shape
    • Feelings of anguish when not eating “healthfully”
    • Obsessiveness with planning and preparing healthy meals
    • A sense of superiority over others regarding diet and food intake
    • Changes to where they will purchase food or where they dine in/get take-out from based on perceived food quality
    • A distorted sense of feeling clean or polluted
    • A drive for dietary “perfection”
    • Avoidance of:
      • Artificial colors, flavors or preservatives
      • Pesticides or genetic modification
      • Fat, sugar or salt
      • Animal or dairy products
      • Other ingredients considered to be unhealthy
    • Other anxiety disorders, OCD, or rigidity in thinking
    • Concerns because of food allergies leading to avoidance of foods without formal medical advice
    • Noticeable increase in consumption of supplements, herbal remedies or probiotics
  • Individuals can experience medical complications of restriction of specific food groups and nutrients leading to nutritional deficiencies, Nutritional Deficiencies, anemia, focus and concentration/thinking challenges, low heart rate and other physical effects of restriction if also losing weight, bone changes or loss (osteopenia or osteoporosis).