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relative-energyon Who’s at risk for obsessive healthy eating? Toronto research sheds light

I was in the same place until recently. I put together a list of things [1] that helped me get a handle on this stuff. There does seem to be a way out; this is the first time in my life where I've been able to focus on non-food and exercise things.

[1] https://sites.google.com/view/the-no-nonsense-guide/guide#h....

relative-energyon Who’s at risk for obsessive healthy eating? Toronto research sheds light

I think the answer you got is correct: this is what a lot of people who are semi-recovered from an eating disorder wind up with. That aspect is what distinguishes it from other obsessions.

Interestingly, eating disorders and chronic semi-starvation lead to rigid, OCD-like behaviors. For me it was rituals around walking and movement - they have faded away during eating disorder recovery.

relative-energyon Who’s at risk for obsessive healthy eating? Toronto research sheds light

I'm glad there's a label for this that's not attached to the previous connotations of "anorexia." I'm a guy who struggled with eating disorder symptoms for most of my life, and hid them for fear of attaching AN stigma to myself.

Last year I got serious about researching the biology of eating disorders, and I'm convinced now that in 40 years we'll think of anorexia and its cousins more like type I diabetes than a mental disorder.

For example: did you know that it's possible to induce self-starvation and hyperactivity (hallmarks of eating disorders) in mice [1]? It's been known to science since the 1950s, but this fact is curiously absent in popular understanding of eating disorders.

This new understanding led me to start a recovery project, and happily it's working out: I've finally got relief from the awful mental fixations (like those described in this article).

[1] https://relative-energy.tumblr.com/post/183390573416/activit...