Between trendy diets, protein being added to nearly every food product on the market, and new tech gadgets tracking every possible biometric, it has never been easier to become completely consumed by the idea of healthy living. The internet and social media are overflowing with videos declaring certain foods “bad” or claiming they contain “fake ingredients,” which only adds fuel to the collective fixation on clean eating. While caring about what you eat is obviously a good thing, experts warn that there is a point where that focus can tip into something far more troubling, a condition known as orthorexia.
Orthorexia does not yet appear in the official diagnostic manual for mental disorders, but specialists in the field widely recognize it and expect it to receive an official diagnosis in the future. “It’s a subclinical eating disorder that doesn’t yet have an official diagnostic code, but it is widely recognized in professional circles dealing with eating disorders,” says Beth Auguste, a registered dietitian based in Philadelphia. Auguste describes it broadly as a preoccupation with healthy eating and a fixation on the purity of food. Beth Heise, a licensed dietitian with OnPoint Nutrition, puts it simply as “an obsession with what a person perceives as the correct or healthy way of eating.”
One of the trickiest aspects of orthorexia is how difficult it is to identify, even for trained professionals. Many people carefully monitor their diet for legitimate health reasons, like managing cholesterol or blood sugar levels, which can make it hard to distinguish between a genuinely healthy habit and a disorder in the making. “The condition is so difficult to spot that even experts struggle to identify it, wondering whether a person is simply leading an exceptionally healthy lifestyle or is on the edge of a disorder,” Auguste notes. She and Heise shared four key signs that healthy eating may have turned into something more serious.
The first warning sign is placing extreme restrictions on what you eat. “Orthorexia can manifest similarly to anorexia, through food restriction, eliminating entire food groups, and experiencing intense anxiety if you don’t have complete control over what you eat and where it comes from,” Auguste explains. Heise adds that people with orthorexia often create rigid rules for themselves, such as deciding they will only ever eat brown rice and never making exceptions for white rice. “In the end, it becomes less and less about healthy eating, as it usually starts out, and more and more about an unhealthy obsession with food purity or ‘eating correctly,’” Heise says.
The second red flag is when your eating habits start interfering with your social life. Auguste is clear that a line has been crossed “when that way of eating begins to disrupt your everyday activities.” If anxiety about food causes you to avoid social gatherings because you are unsure what will be served, that is a genuine cause for concern. “When it affects your ability to participate normally in social life, then it is something you need to address,” Auguste adds. Heise agrees, noting that at that point it is no longer about a person who simply cares about healthy food, but rather “a real obsession that becomes almost part of your personality.”
The third sign is spending hours analyzing ingredient labels and nutritional values. Occasionally checking what is in your food is perfectly normal, especially if you have allergies or specific health goals. However, a person with orthorexia “compulsively, constantly analyzes every single ingredient,” according to Heise. This can spiral into hours of meal planning or researching the nutritional content of every item that goes into your body, which is a significant departure from a healthy relationship with food.
The fourth sign involves feeling anxiety or guilt whenever you break one of your own rules. “I think the line is crossed when you realize you are constantly thinking about healthy eating,” Heise says. “If you feel anxious, if you are nervous about eating something, and if you feel that way most of the time, that could be a sign you are overthinking it.” Auguste adds that any disruption to mental health caused by thoughts about food is a signal to seek help, and if physical health is also being affected, that is an absolute alarm bell.
The good news, according to both experts, is that orthorexia is very much recoverable with the right support. “It is really important to speak with someone who specializes in eating disorders, like a dietitian or therapist, who can help you figure out whether it is a problem,” Auguste advises. Heise encourages people not to wait if something feels off. “You can definitely recover from orthorexia with the right support. So as soon as you sense something is wrong, address it before it grows into something that controls your life,” she says. Auguste also emphasizes the importance of letting go of all-or-nothing thinking, noting that many of her patients hold onto it and then feel devastated when they can not maintain it. “You can tell yourself, ‘I generally eat healthily.’ You do not need to say, ‘I always eat healthily,’” she explains, because using the word “always” introduces the concept of failure and self-criticism into the equation.
Orthorexia was first described by American physician Steven Bratman in 1997, who coined the term from the Greek “orthos” (correct) and “orexis” (appetite). Unlike anorexia, which centers on the quantity of food consumed, orthorexia revolves around perceived food quality and purity. Research suggests it is more prevalent among athletes, health professionals, and individuals who spend significant time on social media. While it shares features with obsessive-compulsive disorder, it is primarily classified within the spectrum of eating disorders. Treatment typically involves a combination of nutritional counseling and cognitive behavioral therapy, helping individuals rebuild a flexible and balanced relationship with food.
If any of these signs sound familiar to you or someone you know, share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.
