Teresa Palmer Opens up About Her Battle With Orthorexia

Australian entertainer Teresa Palmer is opening up about her struggle with orthorexia.

Although the 34-year-old star has graced the screen in such programs as Warm Bodies and Hacksaw Ridge, Palmer has generally kept her life private. With a vast and prolific career in entertainment, Palmer has kept the public focus on her acting, modeling, writing, producing, and entrepreneurship. But in a recent episode of the podcast Mamamia Me Before You, Palmer opened up about her three-year struggle with orthorexia.

Characterized by an obsession with consuming nothing but “clean” and highly nutritious food, orthorexia is a restrictive eating disorder. Although the condition has similarities to anorexia nervosa, the latter is characterized by limiting caloric intake (regardless of how nutritionally ‘clean’ the food is).  “I was incredibly clean with my eating, so I didn’t have anorexia or bulimia, but I had something different,” Palmer explained in the podcast. “I wouldn’t eat anything stripped of its nutritional value.”

Explaining her orthorexia to listeners, Palmer detailed that she developed the disorder as a result of the media’s negative scrutiny. As the eating disorder began encompassing Palmer’s daily life, the actress took to logging her food intake, cutting out certain foods, and spending hours on meal-planning.

For Palmer, saving grace came in the form of three beautiful children. Palmer proudly admits that having children with her husband (Mark Webber) aided her recovery. “I was finally liberated from these judgments that I had surrounding my body (…) Since being a mom, I’ve embraced it all. The lumps and the bumps and the stretch marks… it’s a map of my journey of bringing my babies into the world.”

Teresa has shed light on an uncomfortable topic that many young girls deal with in silence. Be sure to follow Teresa Palmer’s Instagram to keep up with her.