Orthorexia during the pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on the mental health of many people. For some, the circumstances have prompted or aggravated eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, and the lesser-known but increasingly common condition called orthorexia. If you’ve been increasingly preoccupied with healthy eating, here’s what you should know.

What is orthorexia?
With so much information about nutrition readily available, people who want to adopt a healthier diet may feel guilty about eating food with too much salt and sugar or not enough nutrients. However, for people with orthorexia, healthy eating is an obsession. Among other things, it can cause them to develop behaviors like:

• Banning specific foods or ingredients, such as gluten, without medical justification
• Planning meals in great detail
• Thinking about food for several hours a day
• Feeling guilty about eating unhealthy food, even on occasion
• Eating purely for the sake of nutritional intake rather than enjoyment
• Spending a lot of time analyzing and comparing product labels at the grocery store

For many people with orthorexia, the pandemic worsened their obsession with healthy eating, either by preventing them from going to the gym, giving them more free time to research the topic or simply making concerns about their health a higher priority.

In a society that highly values healthy eating, this disorder can be particularly insidious. People often take pride in being able to control what they eat, and they’re frequently praised for their discipline.

If you think you may be struggling with an eating disorder, or you want to improve your relationship with food, take advantage of the free resources available online and consult a psychologist or doctor.