Picky Eating Now Recognized as an Eating Disorder

Are you or someone you know consistently shunning certain foods, repeatedly plucking off undesirable items from meals or avoiding a type of food altogether? If so, you may have what’s now been recognized in the latest edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID).

Those with ARFID are said to engage in selective eating habits so severe that they routinely fail to meet necessary energy and nutritional needs. They do it not to achieve a certain body weight or appearance, or due to body image issues, but rather because they prefer eating only specific …read more