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Actor Teresa Palmer reveals motherhood healed her eating disorder orthorexia

Headshot of Lily Hoffmann
Lily HoffmannThe West Australian
Teresa Palmer pictured at the Valentino Rodeo Drive Flagship store opening on March 27, 2012, around the same time she was suffering from an eating disorder.
Camera IconTeresa Palmer pictured at the Valentino Rodeo Drive Flagship store opening on March 27, 2012, around the same time she was suffering from an eating disorder. Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images, Frazer Harrison

Actor Teresa Palmer has revealed the surprise ‘cure’ that helped her heal her eating disorder.

The Adelaide born Hollywood star told Mamamia podcast Me After You that she suffered from orthorexia, a type of yet-to-be-classified eating disorder that sees sufferers obsess over food.

People with orthorexia have an unhealthy focus on the nutritional makeup of food, and in many cases people end up obsessively calorie counting.

Palmer said she would only consume things of “the highest quality”.

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“I wouldn’t eat anything (that had been) stripped of its nutritional value,” she confessed.

“And it was exhausting, utterly exhausting, to log every calorie and be so overly conscious of the food I was putting into my body.”

Palmer revealed that her eating disorder started in 2009, after her agent at the time made an offhand comment about her figure.

She said the comment stayed with her for years to come.

“She said, ‘Do you know what? you should start working out, because that’s a part of your job. You need to make sure that you look really good,’ and I was like, ‘oh I thought I did look good’.”

But with the benefit of 2020 hindsight, Palmer admits that she was “so little still” despite her agent’s comments.

“Yes, I wasn’t perfectly sculpted, but that really set off this huge whirlwind of unhealthy obsession surrounding food,” she said.

But that all changed when she embarked on a journey she felt destined for — becoming a mother — which she said healed her mindset and approach to her body.

“My body just blossomed and I had this big belly and I could feel life within me,” Palmer explained.

“It was just incredible seeing what my body could do, I was getting stretch marks on my boobs and cellulite all over my bum and the backs of my thighs.

“My bum has never been this shapeless ever in my life, but actually, I just don’t care.”

Palmer — who has now given birth to three children — said that motherhood helped her “embrace” all of her imperfections.

“(My body is) a map of my journey of bringing my babies into the world,” she said.

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