Orthorexia Nervosa While not yet an official diagnosis, orthorexia nervosa involves an obsession with eating proper food. The exact type of food varies from individual to individual, but the orthorexic individual has a fixation on only eating food they consider to be healthy or “pure.” The orthorectic spends increasing amounts of time thinking about food and planning meals according to a rigid regime. Unlike the anorexic individual, the orthorexic individual is not concerned with losing weight or the quantity of food consumed, rather she is preoccupied with the quality of the food consumed. Consequences depend on the diet consumed. Orthorexia can lead to social isolation due to the large amount of time spent planning and buying food. The orthorectic may have difficulty maintaining a conversation that doesn’t involve food.