Orthorexia nervosa

I found an article on MSN this morning on Orthorexia nervosa, and had to look it up on Wikipedia. The information below is from Wikipedia.com. I started my new healthy diet today and thought it was very interesting. I bet the article or study was conducted by the manufactures of junk food. LOL

Orthorexia, or orthorexia nervosa is a term coined by Steven Bratman, a Colorado MD, to denote an eating disorder characterized by excessive focus on eating healthy foods. In rare cases, this focus may turn into a fixation so extreme that it can lead to severe malnutrition or even death.[1][2]
Bratman coined the term in 1997 from the Greek orthos, "correct or right", and orexis for "appetite" [3] . Literally "correct appetite", the word is modeled on anorexia, "without appetite", as used in definition of the condition anorexia nervosa. Bratman describes orthorexia as an unhealthy obsession (as in obsessive-compulsive disorder) with what the sufferer considers to be healthy eating. The subject may avoid certain foods, such as those containing fats, preservatives, animal products, or other ingredients considered by the subject to be unhealthy; if the dietary restrictions are too severe or improperly managed, malnutrition can result. Bratman asserts that "emaciation is common among followers of certain health food diets, such as rawfoodism, and this can at times reach the extremes seen in anorexia nervosa." He goes on to claim that such "anorexic orthorexia" can be as dangerous as anorexia. However, he states, "the underlying motivation is quite different. While an anorexic wants to lose weight, an orthorexic wants to feel pure, healthy and natural. Eating disorder specialists may fail to understand this distinction, leading to a disconnect between orthorexic and physician. "[1][4]

1 a b The Orthorexia Home Page by Steven Bratman, MD
2 Health Food Junkies Essay by Bratman, reprinted from Yoga Journal, October 1997
3 S. Bratman, D. Knight: Health food junkies. Broadway Books, New York, 2000.
4 Palo Alto Medical Foundation Summary of Eating Disorders