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Glossary

Orthorexia nervosa

Defined in topic 43

Steven Bratman's term for a diet undertaken for health that has tightened into malnutrition or a life that no longer works. Its marker is impairment, not virtue. It is not a recognized DSM-5 diagnosis and no prevalence figure for it is established; if eating has become distressing or weight is falling, see a clinician, because this is treatable and treatment works.

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Where this comes from

In the reference topic that owns this term

Reference topic 43, The Mismatch Within the Mismatch, states the mismatch as a card: what the system evolved to expect, what it gets instead, and what happens in the gap.

Mismatch card

What it expects

An environment that supplies the right behavior by default, so that eating, moving, sleeping and resting require no deliberation.

What it gets

An environment that supplies none of them, plus a $6.8 trillion market selling deliberation back as the remedy.

What happens in the gap

Health becomes a permanent cognitive task; vigilance curdles into orthorexia and orthosomnia in some people, and into abandonment in many more.

The full card, and the topic behind it

What that chapter recommends

3 of the 4 graded recommendations in Reference topic 43, strongest evidence first. How the grades work.

  1. Change the environment before you change the tracker

    ProbableEvidence grade: Probable. Good observational evidence with a plausible mechanism, or small or few trials.

    One rearrangement that requires no decision later beats one reminder that requires a decision daily.

    Read it in full

  2. Treat a tracker as a conversation starter, never a verdict

    EmergingEvidence grade: Emerging. Early, small, animal-only, or actively contested.

    Bring the data to a clinician and let it open a discussion about what you are experiencing.

    Read it in full

  3. Use impairment as the warning sign, not virtue

    EmergingEvidence grade: Emerging. Early, small, animal-only, or actively contested.

    If a diet or regimen is costing you more in cognitive energy, money or social life than the health benefit it targets, that is the marker the orthorexia literature actually describes.

    Read it in full

Related terms

The argument behind this term, its studies and its notes are in Reference topic 43 of the reference library. The book gives the practical version. Get the book.