Healthy Eating Taken To The Extreme

Follow CBSDFW.COM: Facebook | Twitter

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - There's a new eating disorder you might not have heard before. It's called orthorexia and it's all about eating healthy.  Doctors say patients with the disorder have an unhealthy obsession of eating too healthy.  They avoid that have artificial colors, fat, sugar and salt.

Jordan Younger's career as a vegan food blogger took an unexpected turn when she realized she was suffering with the disorder. "I would embark on these 10 to 30 day juice cleanses where I would only be drinking vegetable juice. That's not veganism, that's just not even eating."

Younger says she lost 25 pounds in two months. The 24 year old took veganism to an extreme, cutting out more than just meat and animal byproducts."I would never eat white bread, refined flour. I didn't eat any flour, there were a lot of things. You should rather ask, what I did eat."

Nutritionist Sondra Kronberg, a spokesperson for the National Eating Disorders Association says patients with traditional eating disorders like anorexia are now increasingly showing signs of orthorexia. "What they start out doing to feel better, begins to control them because of other traits. Perhaps they are OCD or their anxiety, and it becomes more and more compulsive."

Younger turned to a therapist and nutritionist, and says she is getting better. In addition to vegetables, she now eats more protein, including meat and fish. "I'm not vegan anymore. I don't believe in labels anymore." Younger said.

She's changed the name of her blog from "The Blonde Vegan" to "The Balanced Blonde."

The American Psychiatric Association doesn't officially recognize orthorexia, but those in the medical community say they are seeing a rise in the number of people showing signs of the disorder.

(©2015 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)