When Healthy Becomes Harmful: Understanding Orthorexia and the Wellness Trap

How Over-Focus on “Clean Eating” and Health Can Take Over Your Life—And What to Do About It

At Go Long, we're always drawn to voices that dig deeper into the complexities of modern life. That's why I'm thrilled to introduce you to Vanessa Scaringi, PhD and her brilliant Substack, "A Side of Freud".

As a licensed psychologist, Vanessa approaches our cultural landscape with the same curiosity that defined Freud's work. Her analysis of how psychology intersects with phenomena like mass polarization, declining birth rates, and our collective loneliness epidemic offers unique insights worth reading about.

What particularly resonates with me is Vanessa's exploration of Orthorexia—that slippery slope where health consciousness transforms into unhealthy obsession. Her insights perfectly complement our mission at Go Long to examine wellness beyond superficial headlines and quick fixes. Both Vanessa and I believe in looking beneath the surface, whether it's our relationship with food, aging, or the cultural forces shaping our what we’re consuming in the media.

In addition to her Substack, you can also find Vanessa on LinkedIn.

Why You Should Care About This

• In our "information overload era" with constant messaging about health, orthorexia can develop unnoticed as people fall down rabbit holes about diet, UPFs (ultra processed foods), and "improving health"

• Orthorexia can severely limit your life experiences when health fixations prevent you from attending social events, enjoying meals with family, or participating in activities that don't fit rigid health routines

• What begins as legitimate health improvement can become problematic when weight loss becomes the primary goal or when healthy intentions lead to increasingly restrictive behaviors

• Even people with genuine health concerns (like autoimmune conditions) need to balance legitimate dietary modifications with flexibility to avoid developing an unhealthy obsession with "perfect" eating

Caring Too Much About Health: Understanding Orthorexia

So, can you care too much about health? Well, MAYBE. Consider the following common factors that might predispose you to becoming fixated on health.

• Perhaps you have a history of disordered eating

• Or a tendency to become overly rigid and obsessive

• Maybe you just find yourself spending a lot of time and money on "how to reverse signs of aging."

What is Orthorexia?

You might already be familiar with the concept of "Orthorexia", but in a nutshell this just means being obsessed with health. Steven Bratman coined the term in 1997 to describe the restrictive nature of becoming hyper fixated on one's health.

To be clear, I am very pro feeling good in your body. There is nothing wrong with seeking new approaches to feeling better. I advocate trying to slow down and get more curious within yourself before jumping into any new health practice. This is important in order to:

1. Not blow through tons of money buying into worthless gimmicks

2. Prevent you from engaging in dangerous disordered eating behaviors rooted in Orthorexia

Understanding Orthorexia is especially important in this information overload era. The UPF (Ultra Processed Foods) war is upon us. Health and science journals as well as click-bait media have recently placed tremendous focus on UPFs. Red dyes might be public enemy number one at this moment, but the UPF smear campaign will pivot to other foods soon.

How Does This Look in Real Life?

Perhaps you would like to sleep better. A quick google search takes you down a rabbit hole where you find that focusing on your diet might improve your sleep. You begin to find more connections. Reduce carbs, eliminate sugar, focus on proteins—you know the drill. While none of these practices are bad, if you have a history of body image issues, the slippery slope leads to more and more restriction. It's further complicated when maybe you even start to "feel better." In a weight-obsessed culture, when folks lose weight, they tend to "feel better." There could be a connection to the actual reduction in weight but it is a super grey area.

But the issues start to pile up when life becomes restricted. When your energy and time are so dedicated to maintaining "health" that you miss out. People can get stuck in a loop of reasons to not participate in life experiences.

• I can't go to my friend's birthday party because I don't eat anything on the menu at the chosen restaurant

• I am grumpy and distracted when I can't do my morning workout.

• I don't eat with my kids because we all eat different things.

A Professional Perspective

As a certified eating disorder specialist, I have worked with plenty of clients who struggle with orthorexia. This particular subset of symptoms is personally some of the hardest to treat because health is incredibly subjective. Everyone has a different internal compass guiding them on what might feel good in their bodies. And that internal compass is almost always impacted by thoughts hijacked by disordered eating behaviors or misguided diet culture beliefs.

I was trained to work with eating disorders through the lens of all foods fitting. I was taught to be skeptical about one's "health journey" because so often an eating disorder was the motivating factor. I was also taught to remain skeptical about eliminating entire food groups from one's diet, outside of ethical or religious reasons.

I haven't had a total change of heart, but I've allowed myself to hold more space for nuance. This was influenced by a dear friend with lupus and watching her journey of trying to reduce painful inflammation in her body. Witnessing her trials opened my eyes to the needs individuals have to experiment with different diets.

Warning Signs and Self-Check

What if you find yourself approaching a danger zone and you have been down all the rabbit holes, started elimination diets, and signed up to meet with a pricey nutritionist who makes bold promises? Pump the brakes.

• Check in with the underlying motivation and be honest with yourself.

• At the end of the day do you just want to lose weight?

• If this is a yes, abort the mission. If you can honestly say you are hoping for something more nuanced, proceed with caution.

Many have discussed the need to try to slow down and get more curious about specific foods, like those containing Red-Dye #3 and even certain seed oils. Doing our homework could be really useful AND it is a great moment to reflect on our tendencies to fixate on health and wellness, specifically when this fixation turns into its own major problem.

Finding Balance

Again, there is obviously nothing wrong with feeling good. Absolutely no issues with being in sync with your body's needs. No red flags with finding foods and movement that satisfy you.

The slippery slope of a fixation with health is still something I am very aware of. Noticing certain foods impact your body differently is not disordered eating. But it is worth being mindful of the pitfalls of black and white thinking when it comes to food and movement. Allowing space for flexibility is one hands-on way to avoid an obsession with health.

When we completely abstain from any foods, we open the door to placing moral judgements on foods.

Foods are not good or bad, but they can affect your individual body negatively. It is far different to approach food as neutral and not something that sits well for you than to judge it indefinitely.

Practical Solutions

I think when we focus on intentionality, we avoid much of the slippery slope into an unhealthy fixation on health. If our intention is to have a full and rich life—there are less Orthorexic tendencies.

Additionally, there is still space for flexibility even when we must abstain. Flexibility might not come in the form of food choices. Perhaps there is space for more malleable behaviors in spending time with friends or family. Maybe your health routine has wiggle room. If a friend invites you to go for a walk but you usually take a fitness class at that time, can you pivot?

Orthorexia is again, a slippery slope. One doesn't just land in this disordered behavior by eliminating dairy because it contributes to your inflammation. When there is a small build up of restrictive practices there might be the need to pump the brakes and reflect on what you might be missing out on that could bring better holistic health.

Some Thoughts From Go Long

As I explore the wellness landscape at Go Long, I keep encountering a troubling paradox: the very pursuit of "perfect" health often leads to its opposite - orthorexia.

This reminds me of Bryan Johnson, the tech entrepreneur spending millions yearly on his extreme anti-aging regimen. While his Blueprint protocol represents the ultimate expression of health optimization culture, it also raises questions about when dedication to longevity becomes its own form of restriction. At what cost do we pursue perfect health?

Me? I don’t want to live forever. I want to live a life that is full of love and experiences with people who matter most to me.

Vanessa perfectly articulates what I've observed. What begins as an innocent Google search for better sleep quickly cascades into an overwhelming web of dietary restrictions. In our information overload era with constant messaging about UPFs and "clean eating," we're particularly vulnerable to this slippery slope.

The most telling sign? When health becomes the barrier between us and life's meaningful moments - missing friends' celebrations, disrupting family meals, and creating rigid daily routines that leave no room for spontaneity.

The line between healthy choices and unhealthy obsession remains frustratingly blurred. Through her clinical practice and watching a friend navigate lupus, Vanessa acknowledges this complexity.

What resonates most is her emphasis on intentionality - asking whether our health practices facilitate a fuller life or restrict it. True wellness requires flexibility in a culture that increasingly equates restriction with virtue.