The Wellness Trap: How Orthorexia Takes Hold

A “healthy” diet can turn into a cage so slowly you don’t notice until your world gets smaller. After seeing orthorexia pop up in Scrubs, we pull the camera back and talk about what orthorexia actually looks like in real life, why it’s so easy to praise at first, and why the harm is still real even though orthorexia isn’t an official DSM diagnosis.

We unpack the overlap between orthorexia and anorexia nervosa, including restriction, body image pressure, and the relentless anxiety that comes from rigid food rules. We also dig into the details that make orthorexia feel unique, like the obsession with “clean eating,” ingredient labels, processed food fear, and the way flexibility disappears. Then we talk about the medical side that gets overlooked, including how severe restriction can lead to nutrient deficiencies that sound rare today, like vitamin C deficiency and scurvy.

From there, we get honest about the social media problem: Instagram diets, trend plans, and Skinny Talk content that weaponizes words like intuitive eating to disguise restriction. We share practical ways to protect your brain from search spirals, why we’d rather you talk to a registered dietitian or qualified therapist than Google or ChatGPT, and how recovery gives you your life back, not just “better willpower.” If you’re ready for more grounded, evidence-based support around eating disorder recovery, nutrition, and body image, subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a rating and review.

Show notes:

Trigger warning: this show is not medical, nutrition, or mental health treatment and is not a replacement for meeting with a Registered Dietitian, Licensed Mental Health Provider, or any other medical provider. You can find resources for how to find a provider, as well as crisis resources, in the show notes. Listener discretion is advised.

Resource links:

Alliance for Eating Disorders: https://www.allianceforeatingdisorders.com/ 

ANAD: https://anad.org/

NEDA: https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/

NAMI: https://nami.org/home

Action Alliance: https://theactionalliance.org/

NIH: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/

How to find a provider: 

https://map.nationaleatingdisorders.org/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us

https://www.healthprofs.com/us/nutritionists-dietitians?tr=Hdr_Brand

Suicide & crisis awareness hotline: call 988 (available 24/7)

Eating Disorder hotline: call or text 800-931-2237 (Phone line is available Monday-Thursday 11 am-9 pm ET and Friday 11 am-5 pm ET; text line is available Monday-Thursday 3-6 pm ET and Friday 1-5 pm ET)

If you are experiencing a psychiatric or medical emergency, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.

Transcript

Intro, Sponsor, Safety Notes

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Join us as we redefine, reclaim, and restore the true meaning of health. Let's dive into the tough conversations about mental health, nutrition, eating disorders, diet culture, and body image. This is Nourish and Empower. This episode is brought to you by Hilltop Behavioral Health, specializing in eating disorder treatment. Hilltop offers integrated therapy and nutrition care in one compassionate setting.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Visit www.hilltopbehavioralhealth.com because healing happens here.

Scrubs Revival Sparks Orthorexia Talk

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Hello everyone, and welcome to this week's episode on the Nourish and Empowered Podcast. Today we are going to talk about orthorexia, specifically from how we saw it recently in media. And Maggie and I thought it was going to be a really great podcast episode. Trigger warning for today, we are identifying the following triggers that will be discussed but are not limited to eating disorders, orthorexia, social media, and body image. Listener discretion is advised. This show is not medical nutrition or mental health treatment and is not a replacement for meeting with a registered dietitian, licensed mental health provider, or any other medical provider. You can find resources for how to find a provider as well as crisis resources in the show notes. Hey, hey, hey. Hello. Hi, everybody. So Scrubs is back.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Yes. Yeah. If anybody is like curious about this episode, so Scrubs is back. They're doing like a revival, which I'm super excited about because I love Scrubs and I love so many of like the actors and characters in it. So they're doing a revival, and in one of the episodes, they have a patient who they diagnose with orthorexia. And so my husband watched the episode and then brought the idea to us of like, hey, this is, you know, obviously something that came up in Scrubs and they're promoting the new Scrubs revival. And maybe this would be a good podcast topic for you guys. So thank you, Nick.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Yes, thank you. Listen, the husbands always come through, you know, the support systems that we have. But I was really glad that we were able to, and I know there are other shows and movies, and I know we also did this with America's Next Top Model. Like I like doing these, essentially is what I'm saying. But I I think it's good that you, you know, we're having these conversations and we're seeing it in the media. I think it was just so interesting. And I know I said this to you off the record, if you will, but there, I thought it I was not a Scrubs girly, right? Like I never watched the show. So I, but I always knew who the characters were because they're also for T-Mobile. I always see those commercials, so I know who they are. But I didn't realize how short the episodes were. So I literally was like getting myself together to pump this morning. And I was like, all right, we're just gonna be like a half hour, 45-minute episode. Like I'm cozy. And all of a sudden it like ended and went into another one. And I was like, wait a second. I was like, that was it. So I was, I like that it brought in orthorexia. I just thought it was interesting how short of a stint, if you want to call it that, of orthorexia that they talked about. Like I thought it was gonna be like Gray's Anatomy, and which I didn't really watch Gray's Anatomy either, but I saw some episodes. But I thought it was gonna be like this like in-depth medical whatever. And then it was just like, oh yes, great catch doctor. I think it's orthorexia, and then pans to somebody else, and I was like, Oh. It began and it ended. But I do like that they're talking about it, was just shocked at the whatever you want to call this of my movement of hands. That's the length.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Thank you so much, and like the depth of it, like the lack of, you know. I could see that. I mean, and you're right. I think I I like a lot of medical shows, and Scrubs is more comedy than it is like factual medical show, you know. Like I know we were talking about doing this with an episode of The Pit, too, and like The Pit is obviously like a very in-depth, you know, medical show. And I feel like Grayson Admi to a certain extent is like that too, where Scrubs is like, you know, a little bit more comical. And so I would say the amount of time that they gave to this is pretty consistent with the way like a Scrubs episode goes because it is only 20-something minutes to begin with, and they normally are following probably like three or four different storylines at the same time. Yeah. So I don't think like they they're they intentionally maybe had less on the orthoraxia topic. I think that was just like normal for the show, but could totally see where you were like, oh, I was expecting a lot more.

Orthorexia Vs Anorexia Explained

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Because I've like I said, right? Like I've never watched Scrubs. And so if I'm thinking medical shows, I'm thinking Gray's Anatomy, from what I've heard about from the pit, all that stuff. So it was just, it was so different, but it was a jarring difference. But again, I am just so happy that they brought up something within the eating disorder realm. But even within, you know, even within that, I'm very shocked they picked orthorexia over any other diagnosis, especially because orthorexia technically isn't a diagnosis. Like it's not in the DSM. So you can't, like, if someone comes to me with orx orthorexia, I don't know if this is the right way to say it, but like I I can't diagnose them with that. Like I have to choose another one because it's not insurance-wise, code-wise, DSM-wise, like it it medically doesn't exist. Right. But clinically it does.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

Yeah, so and and totally agree, because I mean, I think on one hand, right, great that they brought this to light, especially because we'll get into this. Like, there was a big social media component that they brought, and yeah, you know, and how common that is that people are going to social media for like medical advice, nutrition advice, therapeutic advice, which we, you know, like of course want to caution like what are the sources and who who's, you know, who are you getting that advice from? So it was great that they brought it up, but then also two, it was so interesting to me because, like you said, one orthorexia isn't a defined diagnosis. Two, I can't diagnose anything as a dietitian, but I felt like that that patient that they were following presented with another diagnosis. So it's interesting that they just said orthorexia.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

What did you think he was presenting with? Anorexia. Oh, yay, say, but I was just curious. I was like, because we didn't talk about that. So now I was like, ooh, real time, tell me what you were thinking, because we didn't talk about that. But I agree with you. But I also think if we're thinking clinically about it, they do look very similar in nature.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

Yeah, could you explain that a little bit of like what like what clinically anorexia presents as and versus like what orthorexia presents as?

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Yeah. So anorexia, right, is the restrictive nature of an eating disorder, right? You you have a fear food, you have a perceived body image that you are, or body type that you are trying to obtain, but there are also a lot more emotional components to it, right? Of what is like, is it a punishment trigger warnings to all the things that are about to come out of my mouth too? But you know, is it a punishment thing? Is it a communication style, right? Because some people communicate through their behaviors. Is it a self-worth component, right? Like clinically, anorexia is if we're looking in the DSM, right? It's you restricting your intake and or having a binge-purge relationship with food as well, with the restriction in tow, right? And so, and it's that cycle. When it comes to orthorexia, there isn't a cyclical nature to it with any other diagnosis or any other behaviors. It's truly just like clean eating, right? Is how people are naming it. And with anorexia, I'll be jumping back and forth. So I hope everybody follows my thought process. You truly are getting the therapist Jessica watching how the ping pong match happens in my brain. But you're when it comes to anorexia, like I've had clients, right, who are restrictive. However, maybe they're still having the cookies or the brownies and things of that nature while they are actively restricting. Whereas orthorexia is you're identifying that you're having a certain amount of calories. You might be calorie counting, you might be presenting with a certain restriction and behaviors like anorexia, but there is no room, there is no allowance, there is no anything of a fun food, as I like to call them. And it is just very much keeping it to what you are identifying it as clean eating. So, like, and in this episode, for instance, right, he wouldn't even allow himself to eat fruit, right? Like he was like, I can't have anything citrus, this, that, or the other, because he was trying very hard to keep his body in a certain percentage, his body to look a certain type of way, which presents as anorexia, right? Like if you're being that restrictive and I that restrictive and that uh body focused typically is more with anorexia. However, it's not mutually exclusive to anorexia. Like it you can see that in some orthoraxic uh clients, but it is just on a it they're just like I said before, there isn't room for any uh fun foods at all. And there is a spiral in such a different nature from both of them.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. Thank you for the the like kind of definitions and the the differences, but also obviously there's a lot of overlapping, which is why you said earlier, right? It's like somebody coming in who has orthorexic behaviors and tendencies, like oftentimes meets criteria for one of the diagnosable eating disorders because those orthorexic tendencies, like as we saw in the episode, like can lead to nutritional deficiencies, for example, right? So this patient in the episode who was played by Matt Reif, FYI, if anybody, you know, knows him. It was phenomenal to see that face on that screen.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

I was like, I know him. I thought it was so that was that was a shock to me.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

I did not know that Matt Reif was in this episode.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

I also didn't know that he acted. I don't know if he does or if this was just like a cameo for like a hot 2.5 seconds, which literally I think is the amount of time that he was actually in the episode. Like it was very quick, but I was very shocked that it was him also.

Scurvy And The Cost Of Restriction

SPEAKER_00 10:54

Yeah, yeah, no, agreed. And so his character gets diagnosed with scurvy, right? Which is vitamin C deficiency, which the timing of this was so interesting because with my students last week, we were doing our micronutrient chapter and we were going through all the different vitamins, and we literally talked about like a vitamin C deficiency, you know, a scurvy and like what some of the symptoms are. And then we talked about how like basically nobody gets scurvy at this point because, you know, oftentimes scurvy was seen like historically to be, you know, more so occurring when people were like trans transporting by ship and were like on these voyages for like months and months and months and didn't have access to fresh fruits and vegetables because of refrigeration and like the time and everything. And like that's when we saw people getting scurvy. So it's like pretty unheard of that anybody's getting scurvy now. Yeah. And so then, like, that to me just brought in such an interesting layer in that episode too, where it was like, then they diagnosed them with scurvy, which I'm just like, oh, like that to me really emphasized the severity. I don't know if everybody else would catch that, but as a dietitian, I was like, oh, that's so severe that like this is not something that people are typically being diagnosed with. Like most people may not even have ever heard of scurvy at this point because of, you know, just the access to food that we have.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

Yeah. Was there anything with like the the differences, right? Even from your lens, because I know I I went more clinical, but even from your lens of a dietitian, did what would you like? Was there anything I missed or anything you wanted to add in the bet like in regards to the difference between anorexia and orthorexia and like what you saw in the episode?

Labels, Food Rules, And The Life Thief

SPEAKER_00 12:32

Yeah, no, I appreciate you asking that. I mean, I always view like when I think about a Venn diagram, that's where I oftentimes see like orthorexia and some of the other eating disorders, where again, like there's kind of individuality, but there's like a very large middle section of the Venn diagram where there's a lot of overlap. Because I don't think this really came up in the episode, but this comes up often when I work with people with orthorexic tendencies, is like we're doing a lot of like education and myth busting, especially when it comes to like ingredient labels, for example. Like there's a lot of fixation. I you use the words like you said, like clean eating, right? Yeah. Like I see a lot of fixation on like packaged food, processed food, the degree of processing, you know, labels. Like I that's constantly like what I have clients kind of asking about when they have a lot of orthorexic tendencies, and a lot of that being fueled from social media, where I'll have clients come in, you know, being like, hey, I saw XYZ about like this food product, and I was eating this, and oh my gosh, you know, and like like that really kind of starts the the cycle of thoughts. Yeah. And the other thing I feel like I see a lot when it comes to orthorexia, but also I see this with a lot of eating disorders, but just the impact that it has on somebody's like social relationship with food. Because, you know, especially when we're thinking orthorexic with like those really like quote unquote clean tendencies, like oftentimes then people feel like they can only eat if it is from their kitchen where they know every single ingredient, every single thing going in the food. And so that eliminates a lot of like social eating, holiday eating, going out to eat, like spontaneity with food, flexibility with food. So I always talk about it as like the life thief, right? Like, you know, the life thief is that's a Christy Harrison. She's a like, I was gonna say she's a famous dietitian, but my husband always makes fun of me when I say things like that because he's like famous to you. It's not like she's like famous to everybody. They are famous. That's the thing. So she's a she's a famous dietitian to me. But she has like coins the term the life thief, but I love it and I use it all the time, which is just like if your eating disorder or your orthoraxic tendencies or whatever it might be is like stealing these life moments away from you, then like recovery is reclaiming your life to be your own. And I talk to clients a lot about that because I feel like I especially see that with orthorexia of like the no, I can't go out, no, I can't eat that, no, I, you know, I can't be spontaneous and flexible, and like you wind up missing out so much on life.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Yeah. And I feel like, right, like, not that this is the point of the episode, so I don't want to go like down this rabbit hole, but and I feel like that is to our point similar with anorexia, right? Like, how many clients do we know that are anorexic that go through the same thing of, well, I don't know what's going to be in there, or I need to, you know, what other behaviors are they using when they're cooking and things of that nature to ensure that they know exactly what it is that they're having. And so, yes, there are all these similarities. However, there are those distinct differences, just like anorexia and RFID. There's a lot of similarities, there's a lot of crossover with the two of them as well, but there's also huge discrepancies and differences, which can identify why they are so different and the different diet, like definitions of their diagnoses for what it is, too. But I know another part of the episode that I thought was really great that they brought into the fold was how he found out about the diet he was on. And I also found it was interesting of like the old and the new ways of being a doctor, not being a doctor, that's probably like the wrong way to say it. But I thought it was so interesting how they brought social media into the fold, right? And how all of a sudden Matt Reif's character was like, Oh, I'm on the Tarzan diet, because I saw it on Instagram. Also, I love Tarzan. And when Sibi was like, Well, he is kind of famous because they made a movie about him, and I was like, Yes, they did, Sibi. That was Disney, and thank you so much, Phil Collins. Love that soundtrack, anyways. But I thought it was great that they brought it in and they made it like so today that it made sense. And how like the old doctor was like, You can't be on your phone, and what are you gonna find from the internet and like all these things? But then the newer doctor, the younger one who was just a resident, was just like, Yeah, but if you look at his page, like there's so much more to it, which is why I think it's an eating disorder, which is why I think it's this and that, and da-da-da-da-da. And then the doctor was like, Wow, that was actually a really good catch. I would have missed it if I didn't see the whole holistic picture to the case. And unfortunately, social media is part of the cases. And so I was so glad to see that they did have that perception and that picture of social media is causing so many issues in people's lives. Now, listen, I love I love a good post, I love a good reel. I get lost in the sauce when I'm on social media. I get it. And it is so toxic and it can be so harmful. And I just appreciate how they brought that to light in the three seconds that was in this. I feel like that was very impactful and empowering, and I would very much appreciate that too.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Yeah, and I and I also appreciated too the part where they had said, like, people are going to social media though for their medical advice. Like in the interaction between the resident and the doctor, they were going through that, where it was just like, but people are going here for medical advice. Like, we can't ignore that, right? We have to acknowledge that. And then I always think back to we interviewed Katie Cornwall from Balanced Nutrition, like literally years ago, like one of our first episodes. And she had this amazing idea where she was saying how, like, on Instagram, just like how people get verified with the blue check mark, there should be a green check mark. Do you remember this?

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Yes, for people who like actually have degrees and like went to school and like had the education to truly give advice and insight on these things. And like exactly. Yes, I remember.

Skinny Talk And Growing Up Online

SPEAKER_00 19:00

Yeah, like you have to put your NPI number in, right? Like our provider number, in order to be like, I'm a registered dietitian and this is my page, or I'm a medical doctor and this is my page. Because, you know, again, people are going there for, you know, for advice or to find providers or whatever it might be, and then, like you said, get lost in the sauce of like, there's a lot of not so good stuff that pops up though, when this is what your algorithm looks like, or even certain hashtags that like you look at. You know, I mean, we know that that's like a big tactic of skinny talk is like using hashtags like intuitive eating or using hashtags of healthy, you know, like supposed to be like healthy recovery-focused things. Yeah, and now people are, you know, trying to go to social media to even find, you know, hey, like I'm just looking to find recovery-focused accounts or connect to something and are unfortunately then getting sucked in with all of this negativity. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

It makes me laugh, and I just made like such an aggressive face, which was not a laughter face, but it always just makes me laugh when people weaponize language. Like you just said, like people on Skinny Talk would be like, Oh, intuitive eating. It's like now listen can I completely identify that they are not intuitively eating? No, however, as a professional who does what I do, you see patterns in people, and when you see patterns of the types of foods and things of that nature, you do start to question why are you doing what you're doing? And when where are the other foods, right? Like exactly like this episode showed and what Maggie and I have been saying, when you notice patterns and when you notice certain things with other with people's relationship with food, typically what brings them into our offices. You know what I mean? And so, like, we have to be honest about that. And so it may it just makes me so mad when people are trying to portray intuitive eating or, you know, health at every size, or you know, everybody is accepted and they don't. They're just weaponizing the language, and it always irritates me when that happens.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

Yeah, it's scary. I mean, I was just I one of my friends who's a dietitian, we were talking about this the other day. Just like, it is terrifying to see some of the stuff that's out there on you know, on social media, especially like this this quote unquote skinny talk. And and I was saying too, it reminds me of like being a clinician earlier in my career and having people come in and talk about like things that they were seeing on Tumblr that were really, really triggering. And, you know, showing me things on Tumblr that were just like gut wrenching of how scary it was that that information is out there for people. So, I mean, you know, my take I'm I'm very anti TikTok for a whole host of reasons, but the primary one being that. Like I have truly seen the damage like it can cause. And it's just, it, you know, it like literally I feel like I feel like a pain in my stomach right now. Like it hurts me physically to like think about some of the the stuff that's out there and how scary it is and how young people are seeing that, right? Like I couldn't imagine what it's like to be 12, 13, 14 years old seeing this stuff on social media and like how impressionable people are. Like I could not imagine growing up with that.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

I always say that to clients, and I am uh I always say to clients, I don't know how I would have survived middle school, high school in this day and age with cyberbullying, text messages, Snapchat, like all the different things. Like clients love to teach me things that listen, I'm all here for it, keep me young. But the amount of what's the word I'm looking for? Information. Not even just the information of like what is a famous person doing, or you know, what is a fad diet, or you know, whatever have whatever the famous people are doing, whatever have you. You have so much information about the people around you, right? Like Snapchat has maps, so you can see everyone's location of what they're doing, or you can see how many Snapchats they're sending in a day. So then you can identify, or you can then know, oh, are you ignoring me? You're not opening mine, but I see your numbers are increasing. So you're then, you know, I see that you're like there's so much information about people that it's just I don't know how people's anxieties, I don't know how people's well-beings, I don't know how people's feeling secure in relationships. Like I understand why people feel the way that they do. I would not have survived. I can say that. It's and I don't mean that in any like dramatic terms. I'm just saying like a mentally, it would have been like my anxiety as like an individual with anxiety would have been very, very bad with all of this at such an impressionable, developmentally like big time of my life if I were going through all of that.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

Yeah. No, it's scary. It's so overstimulating, and and it's so, I mean, it's so much as an adult, right? Now, again, imagine, like you said, right? Being a teenager going through so much more and you know, and also having to deal with like all of those added pressures that come in too.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Yeah, like going through puberty while I'm watching all these people on TikTok and Instagram and doing whatever the no, no, no, thank you. Hard pass. Throw me into the future so I don't have to do like I no, no, no, thank god it wasn't me. And I'm so sorry to all of the individuals that it is because uh no, yeah, no, it's uh to be a downer, but it is it is rough stuff out there. We validate, we hear you, and we see you is what we're saying.

How To Get Help Safely

SPEAKER_00 25:21

Yeah, no, absolutely 100%. So if somebody is listening and they feel like they have food rules, they have fears and anxieties around certain food, they feel like orthorexy, you know, resonates with them, what would you say? What would you recommend?

SPEAKER_01 25:46

Oh my god, come on down to Hilltop and let you come work with us. Because thinking, right, like you and I were just talking about like social media posts and things like that. And of course, my brain always goes to French fries, and it just, you know, if you are struggling with allowing yourself to say that I can have fries or I can have a burger or I can eat what I want without the anxiety and things like that. If you feel like you truly can't be as free with your food as you would be of going to the bathroom is like one that I always love to compare it to, right? Like you get the urge to go to the bathroom, you go. If you get the urge to eat something, go and eat it. And if you feel like it is that difficult, I would say find someone you can talk to, but make sure that person is someone who knows what they're talking about, not just like jumping onto right social media and being like, oh, well, this person is going through recovery or this person deals with the same thing because you don't know how they're healing. You also don't know their entire story. So their healing journey also might not be healthy for your healing journey. So it is important to just, you know, find someone that can be your own. Find, you know, tell your parents and say, like, mom, dad, this has been going on, or, you know, I think that I need some extra help. And find a team that's going to be the best for you. And you can, like we always say, you can shop for a team. You don't have to go with the first people that you find. It's just so crucial for you to get help because you, like Maggie was saying, it's it steals your life, regardless of the type of eating disorder that you struggle with. It's a it's a life thief. So being able to enjoy those things and you know, going out to dinners or lunch or breakfast or you know, having a late night food whenever you want, or especially like those late college nights, and you're like ordering food and you're all in the library and you know, stress now, but you're eat like having a good time, you want to be present for all those things. So if you feel like you really are struggling, hit us up at Hilltop. Hey. Or if you, you know, find someone that a provider you feel like you can talk to.

SPEAKER_00 28:03

Yeah, totally agree. And I would also add, too, that especially with orthorexic thought spirals around food, like stay off of Google, stay off of Chat GPT. Like, I feel like that's becoming the new, like a new thing now, too, of just like looking up nutrition information there. And, you know, like we were just talking about this earlier today, of just like ask me instead, right? Like, I, you know, like let me be the dietitian who can answer the nutrition questions for you and help you myth bust and fact check and like give you the good, accurate scientific information that's evidence-based, not like the thought spiral continuing, because once you open up the door to like looking up stuff, I mean it just like the information is endless, right? It's it's just going to flood your brain, maybe make you feel more confused, more overwhelmed, more overstimulated. So totally agree. Like finding somebody that you trust and you can talk to is so, so important. Crucial.

SPEAKER_01 29:02

And I I love that you brought that up about Google and ChatGBT because I never realized how much people went to those forms of would you consider that social media? I don't really know if you would, but like social, I don't know, like computers, whatever you would call that. Media media. I don't know. Yeah, I don't really know, but the fact like search engines, right? Like, yeah, that's the one. Like, there's I never realized how often people went to them, right? And listen, culprit, and I will always be honest, right? Like, I remember being pregnant and Googling, can I have this and can I have that? And like, da-da-da-da-da. I also remember it getting overwhelming and it getting and spiking my anxiety. And I remember I started going to you and I was like, Mags, help my brain. Or I would go to my cousins or pe or my friends who had been pregnant and they were like, You're overthinking things, just take a chill pill, right? Because it was so much better to go into people that either had the life experience or the education. And it wasn't just like being flooded with because again, search engines, social media, they're going to give you doomsday. They're not gonna like try and calm you and help you and give you realities. They're just gonna be like warning, warning, warning. So, like, I agree. Standing 10 toes behind Maggie, don't go on search engines. Ask people who have the education. Thank you so much.

Listener Requests And Final Takeaways

SPEAKER_00 30:23

Yeah, absolutely. And we we are trying to be a safe corner of the internet for people too. And so, you know, kind of going off this topic of like orthorexia and you know, skinny talk and clean eating and all of that, like we have tons of content planned for this week, you know, to kind of be like a safe supportive environment for people when you are online. Cause like just said, right? We totally get it. Like we're on social media too, and and we understand. And again, we'd rather people just find like the good information and have social media be like what it was originally intended for, right? Like a way to be social and be connected and like relieve stress, not cause stress. And if it's causing stress, like that's a big red flag.

SPEAKER_01 31:09

Oh, click that one there to relieve stress, not cause it. Oh, I loved that one. That was a good one. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:19

So we have some other episodes like this in the works because we, you know, we think it's super interesting when we're seeing stuff in media, on TV, documentaries, whatever it might be, that are kind of related to these topics. But if you have any recommendations of episodes of shows that you've seen where you feel like there was like a therapy portrayal or something about eating disorders or something about a dietitian, even though I feel like there's never anything about a dietitian, but that's a whole other, a whole other topic that I would love to talk about one day. Oh, I'm in because it is rude. There's never, there's literally never dietitians portrayed in any of these shows. It's wild to me.

SPEAKER_01 32:05

I know I don't understand how.

SPEAKER_00 32:07

Yeah. So, but anyway, but please send us episode ideas. More we're happy to watch and discuss.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

I mean, yes, we are, yes. Yes, yes, yes. But thank you everyone for listening to this week's episode and we will catch you on the next one. Bye. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Nourish and Empower Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 32:32

We hope this episode helped you redefine, reclaim, and restore what health means to you.

SPEAKER_01 32:39

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