Symptoms of orthorexia
Although orthorexia does not have official diagnostic criteria, it does have common signs and symptoms, including experiencing intense fear of “unhealthy” foods and avoiding those foods having an obsession or preoccupation with healthy foods, nutrition, and eating being unable to deviate from a specific eating style or dietary regimen without feeling extreme anxiety obsessively checking ingredient lists and nutrition labels cutting out large groups of food despite having no medical, religious, cultural, or ethical reason for doing so (e.g., gluten, sugar, all carbs, all fats, animal products) spending unusually large amounts of time planning, buying, and preparing meals they perceive as healthy, to the point that it interferes with other areas of life having an unusual interest in or excessively critical view of other people’s eating habits spending an unusual amount of time reviewing menus or thinking about the foods served at events avoiding social events and foods prepared by other people bringing premade meals to events as a result of the belief that other people’s food will not meet their standards of “healthy” experiencing unintentional malnutrition or weight loss as a result of severe food restrictions fixating on preventing or curing disease with food or “clean eating” For people with orthorexia, violating the healthy eating “rules” they set for themselves or “caving” to cravings for foods they perceive as unhealthy leads to severe emotional distress and a decreased sense of self-worth. Often, people with orthorexia feel that their self-worth depends on their ability to meticulously follow a lifestyle that they consider healthy. That said, the most common sign of orthorexia is an obsession with healthy eating that negatively affects your life.