No biological cause for orthorexia nervosa has been identified yet. The eating disorder is presently not included in the fourth edition of DSM and there are no proposals for its inclusion even in the fifth edition of this manual due to be published in May 2013.
This makes diagnosis of the symptoms of orthorexia nervosa a difficult and controversial task. However, based on experiences of medical practitioners, certain signs of this eating disorder are known.
Symptoms of Orthorexia Nervosa:
It is learnt that the signs become apparent only because of the starvation rather than due to any cause of the disorder. A person suffering from this disorder develops an obsession for eating only healthy foods.
It is developed from several sources like family habits, economic problems, society trends and recent illness. Sometimes, just hearing any thing negative about a food can lead to its permanent exclusion from the foods in the patient’s diet. Such extremities eventually lead to starvation and malnutrition from where the signs begin to emerge.
Men especially with a lower level of education are mostly affected by these influential factors according to a 2004 study published in PubMed, a service of the National Institutes of Health.
Diagnostic Questionnaire for Symptoms of Orthorexia Nervosa:
- Which is the aspect more preferred while eating – Virtue of the food or Pleasure while eating?
- Is social isolation experienced due to the diet?
- Are more than 3 hours spent thinking about healthy foods on a daily basis?
- Is a sense of total control experienced while eating in a certain manner?
- Ha the menu for tomorrow’s meal already been prepared?
- Did the quality of life decrease with raise in the quality of diet?
- Did the extent of strictness of diet increase?
- Was their a rise in self-esteem by eating healthy?
- Is there a sense of contempt for those who do not eat healthy food?
- Is there a tendency to avoid the foods once enjoyed in the past for maintaining the present diet?
- Does the diet compel the patient to have food only at home and leads to isolation from family and friends?
- Does guilt or self-loathing prevail when the diet is avoided?
Answering YES to two or more of these questions implies that a patient is suffering from this eating disorder at least mildly.
