New Eating Disorders: Orthorexia

Respected publications like JAMA and Psychology Today are recognizing another new eating disorder ORTHOREXIA, an obsession with healthy eating. Orthorexia was first identified in 1997 by Colorado physician Steven Bratman, MD. Orthorexia is Latin for “correct eating.” The focus isn’t on losing weight. Instead, sufferers increasingly restrict their diets to foods they consider pure, natural and healthful. Some researchers say that orthorexia may combine a touch of obsessive compulsive disorder with anxiety and warn that severely limited “healthy” diets may be a stepping stone to anorexia nervosa, the most severe - and potentially life-threatening - eating disorder. Neither adult picky eating disorder nor orthorexia is included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), the American Psychiatric Association’s “bible” of mental disorders.

Like kids, adult picky eaters limit themselves to an extremely narrow range of foods. Unlike those who suffer from anorexia nervosa or bulimia, adult picky eaters are seemingly not worried about calorie counts or body image. Researchers don’t know if adult picky eaters just haven’t outgrown childhood patterns or if their eating habits are a new twist on OCD.

Adult picky eaters food preferences tend to be bland, white or pale colored - plain pasta or cheese pizza are said to be common foods along with French fries and chicken fingers. Some picky eaters stick to foods with a common texture or taste. Orthorexics start by eliminating processed foods, anything with artificial colorings or flavorings as well as foods that have come into contact with pesticides. Beyond that, orthorexics may also shun caffeine, alcohol, sugar, salt, wheat and dairy foods. Some limit themselves to raw foods.

So as we all walk down the aisle at the grocery store and scrutinize food labels AND try to make healthy choices when we go out to dinner,I found a few apps for the phone. Check them out!

Fooducate, which has more than 200,000 items in its product database, essentially puts a nutritionist in hand when you’re at the grocery store.