Diya M. needed to gain weight—that’s what the doctors told her. She was in eighth grade and had been hospitalized for anorexia, an eating disorder that involves severe calorie restriction and, often, unhealthy weight loss. “I had been struggling for months,” Diya says. “Then my health got to a point where I was rushed to the hospital and placed into recovery.” Part of her recovery meant working to regain the weight she had lost.

Like many teens looking for guidance, Diya turned to social media. There she found posts about “high-protein bulking” and tips about gaining weight without gaining fat. The more content Diya watched, the more these videos crowded her feed. Soon her entire “For You” page was filled with gym influencers and “What I Eat in a Day” clips—endless content claiming that with “clean” eating and intense workouts, Diya could gain weight only as muscle.

Inspired by these posts, Diya cut out entire food groups from her diet, including sugar and almost all sources of fat. She stopped eating family dinners because she couldn’t control every ingredient, choosing instead to make all her own meals. Hanging out with friends got harder, because so many plans involved food she refused to eat. Soon much of her time revolved around searching for and cooking “clean” recipes. Diya thought her diet was healthy, but inside, she felt exhausted, anxious, and increasingly alone.

It wasn’t until Diya visited her doctor that she realized her recovery had gotten seriously off track. Her blood work revealed her sugar and calcium levels were far below normal. And her estrogen—an important hormone for girls during puberty—was undetectable. “I thought I was being super healthy, but my body was telling a different story,” she says.

Diya’s experience has a name: orthorexia. It describes an extreme focus on eating only “clean” foods or following very strict food rules. And more and more teens are dealing with it, often without realizing that their supposedly healthy lifestyles have quietly turned into something dangerous.

We hear messages about healthy eating all the time: “Eat more fruits and vegetables.” “Drink water.” “Don’t skip breakfast.” (You may have read some of these messages in this magazine!) Following trustworthy nutrition advice can help you maintain a balanced, nutrient-rich diet that gives your body what it needs to be strong and active, focus in school, and fight off illness. So what makes orthorexia different?

“Orthorexia isn’t about health—it’s about anxiety and control,” says Melodie Simmons. She’s a therapist and eating disorder specialist at Equip Health, an eating disorder treatment center. “Someone with orthorexia becomes fixated on eating only what they believe to be pure and “clean,” and that perfectionism begins to take over.”

For example, eating in a healthy way can mean trying to eat a wide range of foods you enjoy, including sweets and other treats sometimes, and being flexible about what you eat for dinner.

Orthorexia, on the other hand, might look like spending hours every day planning meals, feeling panicked if a certain “safe” food or brand isn’t available, and cutting out whole food groups for no medical reason. You may be thinking that it sounds difficult to eat this way—and it is. People with orthorexia often become socially isolated, because their food choices control so much of their life.

Eating disorders, including orthorexia, anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating (which involves eating a large amount of food in a short period of time), are on the rise. One study found that from 2018 to 2022, eating disorders more than doubled for people under age 17. Experts are seeing more orthorexia-like symptoms among middle and high school students.

Eating disorders like orthorexia don’t discriminate. “There’s this stereotype that eating disorders only affect girls,” Wood says. “But we’re seeing orthorexia in boys and girls equally: athletes, nonathletes, everyone.”

The disorder can have disastrous effects on a person’s physical and mental health. Teens may feel tired all the time, experience stomach problems, have trouble concentrating in class, and struggle to keep up with sports or other activities. And if left untreated, orthorexia can lead to health complications, like dangerous weight loss, heart issues, and weakened bones. In many ways, these effects are similar to what doctors see in other eating disorders.

But the challenges of orthorexia are different. Unlike anorexia or bulimia, orthorexia isn’t yet an official medical diagnosis. That means there’s no standard checklist of symptoms for doctors to look out for. Without that, early warning signs can be easy to miss. Sometimes, people may even praise a person’s strict eating habits, because they look healthy on the surface.

That’s why it’s important for teens to take an honest look at their relationship with food, says Jason Wood, the director of community engagement at the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD). “The line is when it becomes an obsession and starts getting in the way of the rest of your life,” says Wood. If you’re constantly thinking about food, ingredients, and rules—and if it’s hard to focus on school, hobbies, or friends—that’s a sign your “healthy eating” has crossed into unhealthy territory.

Many experts believe that a major reason more teens are developing eating disorders like orthorexia is the huge amount of food and lifestyle content on social media. If you’ve spent time on TikTok or Instagram, you may have seen videos of “perfect” meals, “clean” grocery hauls, and influencers who swear they’ve found the healthiest way to eat. Maybe you’ve even tried to copy some of their habits: cutting out sugar, skipping snacks, or avoiding all processed foods.

The more of these videos you watch, the more social media platforms show you similar content. That’s because the apps are built with technology that tracks what you interact with and then fills your feed with more of the same. If you’ve ever liked a few cute cat videos and then suddenly your whole feed becomes feline-focused, you’ve seen how it works. The same thing can happen with content that fuels orthorexia. “When I had orthorexia, if you opened my Explore page, you’d think I was a professional chef,” says Diya. “Every single video was food-related.”

Simmons says that’s how these platforms pull teens into disordered eating patterns. “Social media celebrates restrictiveness,” she says. “‘Clean’ eating, glow-up posts, and ‘what I eat in a day’ videos glamorize lifestyle habits that are unrealistic and repackage them as wellness.”

The problem is that the more you interact with these posts, the more you see them, and the more these extreme eating rules can begin to seem normal. You may start to believe that there are “good” foods and “bad” foods (reality check: There aren’t!) or that you have to track every calorie or ingredient to be “healthy.” (The truth is you don’t!) Over time, consuming this type of content can create a constant background noise of stress and shame about food.

One thing that helped Diya was trying to look at the bigger picture. “These companies and influencers make money by convincing you there’s only one ‘right’ way to be healthy,” she says. “They profit from your insecurities.”

If any of this story sounds uncomfortably familiar—either for you or someone you care about—know this: You’re not overreacting, and recovery is absolutely possible. The first step is to reach out to a trusted adult, like a parent, teacher, coach, or school counselor. You can say something like, “I’m feeling really anxious about food lately, and it’s affecting my life. Can we talk about it?”

With the help of a therapist, teens can start to untangle the anxiety and feelings of perfectionism they have about food. It’s also important to work with a dietitian or nutritionist to rebuild a balanced way of eating—especially if your body hasn’t been getting enough nutrients.

Experts stress that if you’re starting to notice patterns of orthorexia, you shouldn’t wait to get support. “When orthorexic behaviors are caught early, outcomes are better,” says Simmons. “You don’t have to wait until it’s ‘bad enough’ to ask for help.”

Equipped with new information and support, Diya started to recover again. Her blood work went back to normal, and her mood and energy improved. Today she works as a student ambassador for ANAD. She also founded an organization called Eating Disorders Support & Awareness (Project EDSA) to help other teens build healthy relationships with food.

Even if you’re not affected by orthorexia today, it’s a good idea to be mindful of how you talk to yourself about food (see Check Your Food Self-Talk, below). For instance, telling yourself “I’m going to be ‘good’ and just get a salad” may seem harmless. But that kind of thinking can reinforce the idea that food choices make someone good or bad. “Healthy eating isn’t healthy if it harms your mental health,” Diya says. “Food is there to nourish your body, not decide your worth.