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When Healthy Turns Harmful: Increasing Understanding Of Potential Risk Factors And Approaches To Decreasing Orthorexic Behaviors, Elizabeth King

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Orthorexia Nervosa (ON) is a relatively new term used to describe individuals who place an excessive value on consuming a “pure” or healthful diet, so much so that their psychological, and potentially physical, health is negatively affected. ON is driven by a focus of consuming high-quality foods rather than limiting the quantity of food. This has sometimes been referred to as “clean eating”, or only consuming “clean” foods. A commonality between ON and other eating disorders (EDs) is that the behaviors are rooted in restriction, where an individual with ON would focus on restricting specific foods, or even entire food …