Jason Wood, 38, recalls being taught in a high school health class that eating disorders normally only happen to women, and that people have to be thin to have one. Around then, at age 15, Wood says he started to diet and exercise and became obsessed right away.
At the time, Wood thought he was just being healthy. He had no idea that men could develop eating disorders. But his obsession escalated over time, and about two decades later, he was diagnosed with an unspecified eating disorder.
Wood says he used to be picked on by some of his classmates about his body, which led him to try to lose weight. “I was labeled the fat kid as soon as I walked into class and often called humiliating names about my weight,” says Wood, who lives in Michigan and now serves as the director of community engagement with the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD).
When those same people around him saw he was losing weight and started to praise him for it, that fueled his disordered relationship with food and exercise, says Wood.
These habits continued for many years until Wood was 35. His husband encouraged him to reach out for help after an incident in a restaurant while on vacation, when Wood became upset after a waiter was unable to substitute fresh vegetables for pita bread in a dish he ordered.
Although initially diagnosed with an unspecified eating disorder, Wood — after researching his symptoms and talking to his healthcare team — learned his symptoms better matched those of an eating disorder called orthorexia nervosa.
Although not yet a formal diagnosis recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the guide professionals use to diagnose mental health conditions, orthorexia nervosa is generally understood to be characterized by rigid, intrusive thoughts about and intense preoccupation with healthy eating, as well as restrictive behaviors related to eating, according to research.
Possible signs and symptoms of orthorexia nervosa, according to Center for Discovery Eating Disorder Treatment, can include:
Obsession with avoiding foods containing sugar, salt, fat, animal products, pesticides, or food coloring or dyesIntense concern with certain health consequences like allergies, asthma, or gastrointestinal issues that can result from consuming foodPreoccupation with vitamins and supplementsExtreme limitations on consuming certain food groupsAvoidance of food purchased or prepared by othersObsession with meal preparationAllowing food to influence one’s daily scheduleIntense guilt or shame when consuming foods perceived as unhealthy
Wood later wrote a book, Starving for Survival, about his experiences as a man with orthorexia, as well as the stigma around mental health issues like eating disorders among men. Eating disorders are under-recognized and undertreated in men, according to research. That’s due in part to persistent misconceptions and stereotypes about eating disorders, including the false notion that they only affect “skinny, white, affluent girls” (known as the SWAG stereotype), per research.
Because of misconceptions like these, many clinicians are not well aware of how eating disorders may appear distinctively in people of different genders, says Cynthia Bulik, PhD, the founding director of the University of North Carolina Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders in Chapel Hill.
“Drive for thinness in girls and women might express itself as drive for muscularity or low body fat percentage in males,” she says. Dr. Bulik believes that more professional training settings, such as medical schools, need to give more robust instruction on how eating disorders can appear in different populations.
Wood spoke with Everyday Health about his experiences with orthorexia, the diagnosis and treatment challenges he faced as a man with an eating disorder, and why sharing his story has been so important for his recovery.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Everyday Health: As a man with an eating disorder, was it difficult for you to recognize the symptoms in yourself and decide to get help?
Jason Wood: I never thought it could happen to me. I remember learning about eating disorders in high school and thinking, “Oh, that’s a female thing. That’s not anything I’m going to have to worry about.”
I think this misconception later led to a delay in the diagnosis and treatment of my eating disorder because I wasn’t looking for eating disorder symptoms in myself. My friends and my family weren’t looking for them, and I don’t even think my medical professionals were really looking for them, either. Oftentimes, I was praised for my dieting and for my exercise when I would go to the doctor for different checkups.
EH: What resources helped you start to confront how orthorexia nervosa was impacting your health and well-being?
JW: For some background, I was initially diagnosed with an unspecified eating disorder, and to me, that diagnosis kind of felt like an “other” category. That terminology made me feel like my diagnosis wasn’t that important.
A couple of months into my recovery, I was reading a book called Almost Anorexic: Is My (or My Loved One’s) Relationship With Food a Problem? by Jenni Schaefer and Jennifer J. Thomas, PhD, and I first saw the word “orthorexia” in that book. I googled it and learned that the term referred to a fixation with healthy, clean eating, dieting, and exercise. To me, that was exactly what I’d been facing. It was not this “unspecified” eating disorder. It was actually orthorexia.
I brought it up to my treatment team right away as soon as I came across the term, and the funny thing is, I had to teach them what orthorexia was. We were all learning at the same time. When I told my primary care physician, my therapist, and my nutritionist, we all learned more about orthorexia, and they all agreed that that was exactly what I had been battling. Unfortunately, since it’s not mentioned in the DSM yet, it’s not a formal diagnosis.
EH: How has sharing your story helped you in your own recovery from an eating disorder?
JW: I remember the first time I was getting ready to share my story with my friends and tell them that I had been battling this eating disorder for 20 years. I felt like I was going to seem like a fraud or a liar, like I’d hidden this from them. My therapist told me to write my story out, and that maybe that way, I’d be better able to share it. So I did just that. As I was reading it to myself, I started to gain self-compassion.
Then, through the art of being able to share that story with other people, I healed a little bit more, because I continue to build that self-compassion and build that forgiveness toward myself. Later, I decided to speak with a group of male students at the University of Arkansas, and that was a life-changing experience for me. It was such a healing experience for me because I was able to break through the stigma that kept me silent for so long and realize that there is nothing to be ashamed of when opening up to other guys.
EH: You also wrote a book, Starving for Survival, to share your experiences as a man with orthorexia with others. What made you decide to write it, and how did that affect your recovery journey?
JW: I made the decision to write my book before sharing my journey with my friends because it seemed easier to write my story out as I searched for the words to describe it. I wrote my book because I wanted to raise awareness about orthorexia and also let other men out there know that it’s okay to ask for help.
I also get to make these amazing connections with people across the world. When my book came out, I was hearing from people as far away as New Zealand, who were going through the same things I was going through, and we were able to connect over that. It’s definitely deepened a lot of my relationships, and it’s also allowed me to build new relationships.
EH: What made you decide to become an eating disorders advocate at ANAD?
JW: I decided to become an advocate to challenge the stigmas, stereotypes, and diet culture norms that allowed me to suffer unaware for years. I wanted other men and individuals to know that eating disorders can happen to anyone, but healing is possible.
EH: If you could go back in time, what would you tell yourself about the harms of excessive dieting and exercise?
JW: The first thing I would tell myself is that I am enough. It doesn’t matter what my diet and exercise program is. I am enough just the way that I am. I tell a lot of the young boys and girls I speak with now that, along with your physical health, you also have to prioritize your mental health, your social health, and your emotional health.
