Orthorexia nervosa exists, and is an unhealthy obsession with eating healthy food.

Orthorexia nervosa exists, and is an unhealthy obsession with eating healthy food.

 

Orthorexia nervosa, as I originally defined it, indicates an unhealthy obsession with eating healthy food. The term is derived from the Greek “ortho,” which means “right,” or “correct,”  and is intended as a parallel with anorexia nervosa.

I realize this sounds like an oxymoron. How can focusing on healthy food be bad for you? The apparent contradiction has led to a great deal of challenge of the concept.

But the emphasis is intended to be on “unhealthy obsession.”  One can have an unhealthy obsession with something that is otherwise healthy. Think of exercise addiction, or workaholism. I never intended the expression to apply to anything other than extreme cases of over-focus, particularly where the person themselves would rather lighten up and stop thinking about it so much.

Orthorexia nervosa exists, and is an unhealthy obsession with eating healthy food.