ORTHOREXIA

orthorexia: translation

(OR.thoh.rek.see.uh; th as in thin)

n.

An extreme desire to eat only healthy food.

Orthorexiaalso can be induced by a host of extreme diets: raw foodism, with the mantra "The greatest enemy of man is the cooking stove"; macrobiotics, which mandates that vegetables be sliced in a certain fashion; the self-explanatory fruitarianism; and breatharianism, extreme fasting.

— Leslie Goldman, "When almost no food is right,"Chicago Tribune, October 14, 2001

This transference of all of life's value into the act of eating makesorthorexiaa true disorder. In this essential characteristic,orthorexiabears many similarities to the two well-known eating disorders anorexia and bulimia. Where the bulimic and anorexic focus on the quantity of food, theorthorexicfixates on its quality. All three give food an excessive place in the scheme of life.

— Steven Bratman, "Health Food Junkie,"Yoga Journal, October 31, 1997

This word is based on the more famous (and, so far, more widely recognized) eating disorder,anorexia. The latter combinesan-, without, and-orexia, appetite.Orthorexiamodifies this by substituting the prefixortho-, correct or proper. And in the same way that a sufferer of anorexia (also:anorexia nervosa) is called an (or is described as)anorexic, a sufferer oforthorexia(orthorexia nervosa) is an (or is described as)orthorexic.(A synonym for anorthorexicisfood-fraidy.)

The term was coined by Steven Bratman, and he provides the earliest citation.

ape diet

bigorexia

bleachorexia

breatharian

carborexic

deprivation cuisine

diabulimia

drunkorexia

exercise bulimia

flexitarian

functional food

pescetarian

pro-ana

rawist

salad dodger

tofurkey

unturkey

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