“Orthorexia”: when healthy eating becomes an obsession

Worrying about what’s on your plate to stay healthy is healthy behavior, and even encouraged. But for some, the search for a healthy and balanced diet turns into an obsession. To describe for the first time this quest for food purity, the American physician Steven Bratman coined the term “orthorexia”, a portmanteau word derived from the Greek terms “orthos” (“right”) and “orexia” (“appetite”) , or literally the “eat right”.

People with orthorexia follow a very strict diet and adopt a dichotomous view of diet. On the one hand, there is what is good – organic, seasonal products, unrefined foods, steaming – and on the other side the toxic – industrial dishes, fat, sugar … It there is no place for the burger with fries, or a good chocolate eclair. And even less, both on the same day! And if they break their rules or allow themselves “a deviation”, they do everything to