By Staff Reporters
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Orthorexia is an obsession with eating healthy food. For people who develop the eating disorder, the intention to eat nutritious food turns into a fixation. Instead of generally striving to eat more healthy foods, people with OCD orthorexia cut out entire food groups they feel aren’t healthy, which can result in nutritional deficiencies, mental health challenges, and social isolation.
The signs of orthorexia can also be very difficult to identify, says Sadi Fox, PhD, a licensed psychotherapist who has been working with people with eating disorders for 10 years. Since eating healthy is generally perceived as a good thing, people with orthorexia might be praised for their disorder, not know they have a problem, and not end up getting the help they need—which is the case for some patients who work with Fox. “A lot of people are just like, ‘Whoa, I didn’t even realize how deep [into my eating disorder] I was,’” she says.
People with orthorexia might make food choices based on different approaches they see on social media, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s backed by science, says Fox. Narrowing down the foods you eat, especially based on misinformation, is a “slippery slope” for other disordered behaviors, she adds.
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Filed under: "Doctors Only", Experts Invited, Glossary Terms, LifeStyle | Tagged: eating disorder, fixation, food, healthy eating, healthy food, mental health, OCD, orthorexia, orthorexia nervosa, Sadi Fox | Leave a comment »














