Gone Bad
Because orthorexia is not a clinically recognized eating disorder, it does not have diagnostic criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-R), the manual used by mental health professionals to diagnose mental disorders.
Orthorexia Self Test
Dr. Steven Bratman, author of Orthorexia Nervosa: Health Food Junkies Overcoming the Obsession with Healthy Eating, coined the term orthorexia and developed the following Orthorexia Self Test.
Answer the following questions to see if your healthy diet has taken too large a role in your life. 
1. Do you spend more than 3 hours a day thinking about healthy food (for four hours, give yourself 2 points)?
2. Are you already planning tomorrow's healthy menu today?*
3. Do you care more about the virtue of what you eat than the pleasure you receive from eating it?
4. Has the quality of your life decreased since the quality of your diet has increased?
5. Do you keep getting stricter with yourself?
6. Do you feel an increased sense of self-esteem when you are eating "right” and look down on others whose diets are not, in your eyes, healthy?
7. Do you skip foods you enjoy just to eat the "right" foods?**
8. Does your diet make it difficult for you to eat away from home?
9. Are you becoming socially isolated?
10. Do you feel guilty or hate yourself when you stray from your diet?
11. When you eat the "good" foods, do you feel a peaceful sense of total control?
Scoring: Give yourself one point for each YES answer.
2-3 Points: You may have a mild case of orthorexia. Be aware of your behavior.
4+ Points: You may have a modest case of orthorexia. You may need to relax your diet standards.
10 Points: You are obsessed with your healthy diet. You may need to seek professional help.
*This does not mean planning a week’s menus so that you can shop for food once a week. Many people who work full-time must do this to make time for other activities.
** This means compulsively, whether there is a good reason or not. Obviously someone who is trying to lose 20 pounds of body fat will need to use some self-control.
Any obsession, whether it be with food or otherwise, can be mentally and emotionally crippling. When dieting is taken to an extreme, it can start as orthorexia but eventually develop into more debilitating eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. Strive to eat healthy but don’t let it consume and limit your enjoyment in life.
For more information on orthorexia or healthy eating taken to the extreme, visit these links:
Orthorexia: Healthy eating may be hazardous to your health
Orthorexia: Unhealthy consequences of eating too healthy
