There’s been some new buzz circulating lately about a disease called Orthorexia. According to one source, the term was created by “Stevan Bratman, MD, in 1997, the term stems from the greek worth ortho meaning straight and correct.” In other words, those afflicted with Orthorexia don’t just want to be thin, they want to be as healthy as a person can possibly be – in fact, more so.

Apparently the disease is a “hybrid of anorexia and obsessive compulsive disorder” with suffers losing a lot of weight because they “practice almost ritualistic eating.” They are obsessed with every …read more

If you’re not from the “world” of eating disorders, you might think that all disordered eaters treat one another the same.
Not so.
You see, like any other “clique”, those with EDs have a caste system, a heirarchy of sorts.  It’s not usually discussed, but it definitely exists. 
Allow me to explain (and feel free to let me know if any of this has changed recently or if I’m missing something)…

I freely (and gladly) admit that I’m not an all-knowing person, but I thought I had heard of every eating disorder. 
Wrong. 
It turns out that I’m am woefully ignorant of some “new” EDs (or at least finally named/discovered ones) including orthorexia.
What is orthorexia?  I’m glad you asked…
On his (now un-maintained) website, Dr. Steven Bratman, M.D., author of Health Food Junkies explains the condition:
“It’s great to eat healthy food, and most of us could benefit by paying a little more attention to what we eat. However, some people have the opposite problem: they take the concept of healthy eating to such an extreme …read more