In today’s wellness-obsessed culture, it can be difficult to distinguish between occasional concerns around food, picky eating, a diet, and an eating disorder. Where can you draw the line between health and harm?

Signs that picky eating or a diet may be shifting into a fuller disorder may include planning meals days in advance, consulting nutritional information and weighing ingredients, feeling guilty or anxious when eating “forbidden” foods, becoming dependent on diet for self-esteem, and using moral convictions to justify rules around rigid eating to others. Overall, a disorder encompasses the inability to eat according to one’s appetite—eating patterns are instead dictated by rules and specifications.

In a clinical context, a mental health professional can determine whether someone has a disorder or not by assessing the diagnostic criteria in the DSM. But even if someone’s struggles with eating or body image don’t meet the clinical threshold, that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth understanding and addressing.