What is Orthorexia?
Ortorexia or Orthorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that consists of a pathological obsession with eating food considered healthy.
The person suffering from this disorder lives obsessed with eating food considered “pure” or uncontaminated. He spends a lot of time and spends a lot of energy and money to obtain what is supposed to be more “healthy”, but his obsession leads him to such extremes that he even rejects food that is totally healthy and nutritious if he considers that it is not adequate enough.
Subjects with orthorexia are dogmatic, and in many cases very eccentric. It is advisable to eat healthy and exercise to have a healthy life and avoid many diseases, but these people take it to an extreme that sometimes end up being poorly nourished, by unjustifiably rejecting certain foods that the human body needs.
Etymologically the word Orthorexia comes from the Greek prefix “ortho” which means correct, straight, according to the norm, and from the Greek word “oregsia” which means to desire.
(Edited by Dr. María Moya Guirao, MD)