While several college students concern themselves with going green, recycling and eating healthy, a disorder called orthorexia could be the latest result of seemingly positive actions.

Faculty and staff were told to look for signs of the disorder in their students at the first event of Feed Your Body and Soul Week on Monday. Orthorexia, which is not officially classified as a medical condition, is characterized as the obsession of eating healthy food.

While orthorexia, unlike anorexia and bulimia, is not based on a negative body image, college students don’t typically have the broadest range of foods from which to select. Some students could even become so picky about food that they abstain from eating at all rather than eating what they deem to be unhealthy.

Raising faculty awareness is a good first step. It now falls to the students to be aware of what they and their peers are consuming.

Like all things, moderation is key. It’s one thing to eat only free-range meat or to have a protein bar on a busy day. However, any kind of obsessive behavior is unhealthy. Though every student dreads the idea of putting on weight in college, the discussion of this possible disorder is a wake-up call to all students.

News editor Libby Davis for the editorial board.