May 28, 2025 • 9 mins
There's nothing harmful about eating healthy, but one new disorder boosted by social media is raising concern among experts.
Orthorexia refers to an obsession with healthy eating that involves excessive self-imposed restrictions that can lead to negative health effects - and it's getting attention among the medical community.
Food writer and expert Niki Bezzant joined the Afternoons team to discuss.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from news Talk ZEDB. Follow
this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
So it's been called or thorexia, concerning disorder that's been
fed by social media influences and obsession over what we eat.
Nicky Bizantz as a food writer, author, nutrition expert. She
has penned a very good and very sobering article in
the New Zealand Listener on this and she joins us Now, Nikki,
very good afternoon to.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
You, kidder. Hi.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
What is orthorexia.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Well, it's a form of disordered eating. It is not
technically an eating disorder, although it's not technically recognized as
an eating disorder, although many of the experts in this
area are saying that it really is an eating disorder
in its own right now, and it's really around an
obsession with eating right, eating clean, eating everything perfectly. So
(01:03):
it's a very interesting one and quite you know, something
that we're seeing more and more spicial with social media.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Yeah, and do we have stats on how many Kiwis
are exhibiting orthorexia?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Have? No, we don't have sex At this point, it
hasn't really been measured because again, it's not an official
eating disorder yet, but it's probably somewhere in the in
the range of similar, maybe similar to anorexia, which is
which is around I think it's around four percent of
the population, so it's it's it's small but significant.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
So how is it different from yoyo dieting that that's
existed for a while.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Yeah, well, I mean some of the characteristics of orthorexia
can can pop up in people who are dieting, and
certainly a lot of if you see, you know a
lot of diet influences and promoters of diet will use
elements of orthorexic kind of thinking in their in their diet.
(02:00):
But the driver of this is really to be doing
everything perfectly in terms of what you're eating. And it's
not really driven by a desire to lose weight, right,
but to look a certain way. It's actually driven by
this idea that I have to be perfect, that I
have to be doing everything clean.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Yeah, and so these people, people are essentially being manipulated
by social media influencers and people posting stuff for engagement
and the next thing and the next thing and the
next thing of what you need to do is that
is that what's really pushing this at this you know,
in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Well, I think it's not that it's necessarily being driven
by social media, but it's it's being enhanced by social media.
So people have got this this tendency inside them, so
and it's becoming it's restricting their life. So it's becoming
something that's impairing the ability to live a normal life
and what they're seeing, what they're engaging with on social media,
and so then the social media algorithms are feeding them
(02:57):
more and more of this stuff is really making it worse.
So it's it's really it's something that I think social
media can really ramp up if it's already happening to you.
And that's true of all these and disorders.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Actually does this include And I've got people like this
in my life, Nick, you know, I imagine a lot of
people listening do as well. Where there is a health concern,
whatever that may be. It may be anxiety, it may
be another health concern that they someone just cannot get
on top of, and then they are told via social
media or whatever it is, that this is there's a
new product that is going to help you with that,
and they zero in on that and that potentially can
(03:33):
cause issues if they get too obsessed with that particular product.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Yeah, definitely. And I have talked to people for this
story who have started. It started for them like that,
trying to solve a health issue, maybe not getting so
much resolution from traditional medicine or you know, from regular medicine,
and then you know, latching on to a diet plan
that claims to be able to solve this issue for them,
(03:58):
and then just becoming more and more obsessed. That's definitely
a pathway into authoix here.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
I think now, I just we've always got to go
back steps here because of course we've read the article.
It's fantastic, But what is just to move back a step,
what is clean eating? A bunch of people on the
text machine are texting through asking that what actually is
clean eating?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Well, it's really around. I mean, it can mean different
things for different people. It's really you know, a kind
of extreme version of healthy eating. If you like, you know,
we know what healthy eating eating and eating a balanced
diet and white rice of food. People who are interested
in clean eating will be usually eliminating a lot of
foods or a lot of food groups from their diet
(04:38):
because of the perception that they have that there's something
you know, unhealthy about that food or that food group.
So I'm sure we all know people who don't eat
certain foods. You know, they might not eat gluten, or
they might not eat white flour, or they might not
eat meat. You know, there's all kinds of aspects to
it or different elements of it. So clean eating can
(04:59):
incorporate a lot of that kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
And what are the dangers? How does it manifest itself
as a problem.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Well, the dangers are can impair someone's life, like other
eating disorders, and so it can lead to anxiety, depression,
social isolation when it starts to impact on how because
you're eliminating so many different foods right, it can lead
(05:27):
to malnutrition. It can lead to other medical problems, and
severe weight loss can be one of them, and you know,
even things like organ damage. So it is potentially dangerous.
It's a psychological condition that has got you know, physical
impacts like other eating disorders.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
It's also annoying if you're trying to spend time with
people like this. Is it time to start shaming people
for this? In the end, aren't they just annoying fussy eaters?
And we tell kids off for this kind of fussy
eating behavior.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Well, I mean it's probably shaming is probably not the
right thing to do in this case. It is a disorder.
So probably shaming someone it's only going to make them
become more isolated and turn away from you. I guess
probably there is a difference between someone who's just a
fussy eater and someone who has a disorder that they're
not really in control of. You know, like they can
(06:18):
start out being in control, and maybe they do start
out as just being fussy, and then it can progress
down a path where they really have lost control.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
But if it's like that, if it's like the tenth
thing that they've come up with, because you know, if
you're like me, I always believe the last thing I've
read on you know, something comes up on social media
and you believe it and then you tell people about it.
And so if it's the tenth thing that someone has said,
now I'm not eating this because of this, and now
I'm not eating this because it's this, shaming might not
be the right word. But should we push back and say,
(06:48):
come on this three weeks ago it was this, and
now it was this, Come on, just have something to eat.
It's it's okay, it's fine. Just let yourself off the
hot let's go. You're making things difficult for yourself. You're
stressing yourself out with this clean, clean eating. Let's just
go for it. Eat like, eat what's in front of you.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Yeah, I mean, I definitely think that there's a lot
of disordered or orthorexic kind of thinking amongst people who
aren't who don't necessarily have acing disorders. Right, So we
see this and you probably see this in your friend
groups too, where people do get kind of a bit
fixated on particular ways of eating or diets or whatever.
And there is definitely room in our normal conversation that
(07:30):
for that kind of conversation to be a little bit
challenged because because diets, I mean, it's a whole other conversation.
But diets are nonsense. All diets, you know, any kind
of restriction in the way that you're eating is just
a marketing thing, and it's really not. They're not designed
to make us healthy. They're designed to make people money,
(07:51):
people who are promoted it promoting the diet. So so
you know, any kind of diet thinking, I'm always up
for a challenge on that.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
I mean, is that part of it, Nikki, that a
nutrition just seems so confusing and it's it hasn't got
any less confusing that you know, one week it's okay
to eat better, then it's not okay to eat butter.
Then olive oils in vogue, and then there's something else.
But eggs are bad for you, potatoes are bad for you.
Kumera is back in. There's just so much misinformation or
weird information coming through. Clearly social media is to play,
(08:21):
but should there not be kind of a central hub
where people can just get straight up easy information on
what is going to be good for you and what
is just a bit of nonsense and you probably shouldn't
go down that route.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Yeah, I mean, we actually all know what's the answer is.
We know what's healthy. And I mean I have been
running that food for like twenty years or more and
diets and I have seen it all. I've seen it
all come and go. Honestly, things come around and cut
and go around, and diets come and go, and they're
all pretty much the same thing dressed up in a
difference and a different you know, disguise or a different
(08:54):
there's good different spokesperson. But it's usually the same. But
we know what is healthy. We know that we should
eat a wide variety of food. We know that we
should eat mostly whole foods, fresh foods, you know, lots
of plants. Too much, processed food, not too much. You know,
sugar or fat or salt. We know that stuff. But
it's just that we get very distracted by all of
(09:17):
these people on social media telling us, no, I've got
the answer, you should eat this and not eat that. Yeah,
but I actually think that in our heart, we know
what's good for us.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, Nikki, great to chat with you. Thank you very
much and we'll catch up again. So that is Nicki Bizant,
food writer, author and nutrition expert. You can ever read
of that article on The New Zealand here, a website
and also in the listener.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
For more from News Talk sed B. Listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to a podcast from news Talk ZEDB. Follow
this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
So it's been called or thorexia, concerning disorder that's been
fed by social media influences and obsession over what we eat.
Nicky Bizantz as a food writer, author, nutrition expert. She
has penned a very good and very sobering article in
the New Zealand Listener on this and she joins us Now, Nikki,
very good afternoon to.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
You, kidder. Hi.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
What is orthorexia.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Well, it's a form of disordered eating. It is not
technically an eating disorder, although it's not technically recognized as
an eating disorder, although many of the experts in this
area are saying that it really is an eating disorder
in its own right now, and it's really around an
obsession with eating right, eating clean, eating everything perfectly. So
(01:03):
it's a very interesting one and quite you know, something
that we're seeing more and more spicial with social media.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Yeah, and do we have stats on how many Kiwis
are exhibiting orthorexia?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Have? No, we don't have sex At this point, it
hasn't really been measured because again, it's not an official
eating disorder yet, but it's probably somewhere in the in
the range of similar, maybe similar to anorexia, which is
which is around I think it's around four percent of
the population, so it's it's it's small but significant.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
So how is it different from yoyo dieting that that's
existed for a while.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Yeah, well, I mean some of the characteristics of orthorexia
can can pop up in people who are dieting, and
certainly a lot of if you see, you know a
lot of diet influences and promoters of diet will use
elements of orthorexic kind of thinking in their in their diet.
(02:00):
But the driver of this is really to be doing
everything perfectly in terms of what you're eating. And it's
not really driven by a desire to lose weight, right,
but to look a certain way. It's actually driven by
this idea that I have to be perfect, that I
have to be doing everything clean.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Yeah, and so these people, people are essentially being manipulated
by social media influencers and people posting stuff for engagement
and the next thing and the next thing and the
next thing of what you need to do is that
is that what's really pushing this at this you know,
in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Well, I think it's not that it's necessarily being driven
by social media, but it's it's being enhanced by social media.
So people have got this this tendency inside them, so
and it's becoming it's restricting their life. So it's becoming
something that's impairing the ability to live a normal life
and what they're seeing, what they're engaging with on social media,
and so then the social media algorithms are feeding them
(02:57):
more and more of this stuff is really making it worse.
So it's it's really it's something that I think social
media can really ramp up if it's already happening to you.
And that's true of all these and disorders.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Actually does this include And I've got people like this
in my life, Nick, you know, I imagine a lot of
people listening do as well. Where there is a health concern,
whatever that may be. It may be anxiety, it may
be another health concern that they someone just cannot get
on top of, and then they are told via social
media or whatever it is, that this is there's a
new product that is going to help you with that,
and they zero in on that and that potentially can
(03:33):
cause issues if they get too obsessed with that particular product.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Yeah, definitely. And I have talked to people for this
story who have started. It started for them like that,
trying to solve a health issue, maybe not getting so
much resolution from traditional medicine or you know, from regular medicine,
and then you know, latching on to a diet plan
that claims to be able to solve this issue for them,
(03:58):
and then just becoming more and more obsessed. That's definitely
a pathway into authoix here.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
I think now, I just we've always got to go
back steps here because of course we've read the article.
It's fantastic, But what is just to move back a step,
what is clean eating? A bunch of people on the
text machine are texting through asking that what actually is
clean eating?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Well, it's really around. I mean, it can mean different
things for different people. It's really you know, a kind
of extreme version of healthy eating. If you like, you know,
we know what healthy eating eating and eating a balanced
diet and white rice of food. People who are interested
in clean eating will be usually eliminating a lot of
foods or a lot of food groups from their diet
(04:38):
because of the perception that they have that there's something
you know, unhealthy about that food or that food group.
So I'm sure we all know people who don't eat
certain foods. You know, they might not eat gluten, or
they might not eat white flour, or they might not
eat meat. You know, there's all kinds of aspects to
it or different elements of it. So clean eating can
(04:59):
incorporate a lot of that kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
And what are the dangers? How does it manifest itself
as a problem.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Well, the dangers are can impair someone's life, like other
eating disorders, and so it can lead to anxiety, depression,
social isolation when it starts to impact on how because
you're eliminating so many different foods right, it can lead
(05:27):
to malnutrition. It can lead to other medical problems, and
severe weight loss can be one of them, and you know,
even things like organ damage. So it is potentially dangerous.
It's a psychological condition that has got you know, physical
impacts like other eating disorders.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
It's also annoying if you're trying to spend time with
people like this. Is it time to start shaming people
for this? In the end, aren't they just annoying fussy eaters?
And we tell kids off for this kind of fussy
eating behavior.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Well, I mean it's probably shaming is probably not the
right thing to do in this case. It is a disorder.
So probably shaming someone it's only going to make them
become more isolated and turn away from you. I guess
probably there is a difference between someone who's just a
fussy eater and someone who has a disorder that they're
not really in control of. You know, like they can
(06:18):
start out being in control, and maybe they do start
out as just being fussy, and then it can progress
down a path where they really have lost control.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
But if it's like that, if it's like the tenth
thing that they've come up with, because you know, if
you're like me, I always believe the last thing I've
read on you know, something comes up on social media
and you believe it and then you tell people about it.
And so if it's the tenth thing that someone has said,
now I'm not eating this because of this, and now
I'm not eating this because it's this, shaming might not
be the right word. But should we push back and say,
(06:48):
come on this three weeks ago it was this, and
now it was this, Come on, just have something to eat.
It's it's okay, it's fine. Just let yourself off the
hot let's go. You're making things difficult for yourself. You're
stressing yourself out with this clean, clean eating. Let's just
go for it. Eat like, eat what's in front of you.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Yeah, I mean, I definitely think that there's a lot
of disordered or orthorexic kind of thinking amongst people who
aren't who don't necessarily have acing disorders. Right, So we
see this and you probably see this in your friend
groups too, where people do get kind of a bit
fixated on particular ways of eating or diets or whatever.
And there is definitely room in our normal conversation that
(07:30):
for that kind of conversation to be a little bit
challenged because because diets, I mean, it's a whole other conversation.
But diets are nonsense. All diets, you know, any kind
of restriction in the way that you're eating is just
a marketing thing, and it's really not. They're not designed
to make us healthy. They're designed to make people money,
(07:51):
people who are promoted it promoting the diet. So so
you know, any kind of diet thinking, I'm always up
for a challenge on that.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
I mean, is that part of it, Nikki, that a
nutrition just seems so confusing and it's it hasn't got
any less confusing that you know, one week it's okay
to eat better, then it's not okay to eat butter.
Then olive oils in vogue, and then there's something else.
But eggs are bad for you, potatoes are bad for you.
Kumera is back in. There's just so much misinformation or
weird information coming through. Clearly social media is to play,
(08:21):
but should there not be kind of a central hub
where people can just get straight up easy information on
what is going to be good for you and what
is just a bit of nonsense and you probably shouldn't
go down that route.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Yeah, I mean, we actually all know what's the answer is.
We know what's healthy. And I mean I have been
running that food for like twenty years or more and
diets and I have seen it all. I've seen it
all come and go. Honestly, things come around and cut
and go around, and diets come and go, and they're
all pretty much the same thing dressed up in a
difference and a different you know, disguise or a different
(08:54):
there's good different spokesperson. But it's usually the same. But
we know what is healthy. We know that we should
eat a wide variety of food. We know that we
should eat mostly whole foods, fresh foods, you know, lots
of plants. Too much, processed food, not too much. You know,
sugar or fat or salt. We know that stuff. But
it's just that we get very distracted by all of
(09:17):
these people on social media telling us, no, I've got
the answer, you should eat this and not eat that. Yeah,
but I actually think that in our heart, we know
what's good for us.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, Nikki, great to chat with you. Thank you very
much and we'll catch up again. So that is Nicki Bizant,
food writer, author and nutrition expert. You can ever read
of that article on The New Zealand here, a website
and also in the listener.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
For more from News Talk sed B. Listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.
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