Popular Diet Blogger Reveals Eating Disorder to Her Followers

iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — For Jordan Younger, going vegan began with a simple goal — to get healthy.

Little did she know her blog, “The Blonde Vegan,” chronicling her food choices, would soon amass a huge fan base with more than 70,000 followers on Instagram.

However, an even bigger surprise came when after just a year of living and touting that vegan lifestyle, Younger, 23, says things went sour.

“I would just stand in front of the refrigerator for 20 minutes totally panicking that I wasn’t going to be eating the right thing for my body,” she told ABC News. “I was a slave to food.”

Confessing in a blog post titled, “Why I’m Transitioning Away from Veganism,” Younger, of New York City, explained she had developed orthorexia, an obsession with eating righteously.  

“A lot of people haven’t heard of orthorexia, which is not surprising to me at all,” she said.

Younger said she restricted her own diet so much that she developed a strange rash, grew weak and even stopped having her period.

“I started realizing that I had vitamin deficiency,” she explained. “I was malnourished. … I was very much restricting myself through the shield of veganism.”

But after coming forward, Younger was shocked to be bombarded with negative comments from people saying that she wasn’t a true vegan and much worse.

“I got death threats, I did,” she said. “But on the opposite side of the spectrum I just had so much support from so many people.”

Now, Younger has changed her diet, adding fish and eggs. She’s also changed her Instagram name, from vegan to veggie, focusing now on a new direction and a new venture — her clothing line.

“The new message is all about balance,” she said. “Do whatever you’re doing in moderation.”

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