At the height of Doni Viljoen's eating disorder she was using calorie counting apps to control her every bite, working out to the point of exhaustion, and her weight and happiness were plunging. But she didn't see a problem.

"I thought I was the most healthy person in the world. I was, you know, going to the gym every day, restricting my food. I would walk with my chin held high, I thought it was amazing."

But her mum did spot the warning signs, and took 15-year-old Doni to four different GPs looking for help, without success.

"They said 'it's all good, it's normal for teenagers to go through that'," said Doni.

Doni was also trying not to get caught. She'd become secretive, and wanted to avoid a showdown with medical experts over her weight.

"The eating disorder changed me. I was deceitful, lying. I became absent at every social event because I couldn't plan for the food."

"Instead I would stay home to make my own food, count my own calories. I started to lose friends, and that triggered the eating disorder more."

Doni ended up in hospital on her 16th birthday, with a diagnosis of anorexia and excessive exercising. She said doctors also talked to her about orthorexia.

The doctors had a thought that I had also suffered from [orthorexia], because I always wanted to go for the most natural things and and freak out about chemicals."

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Whatsapp Doni's instagram feed

Orthorexia, coined by US physician Dr Steven Bratman in 1996, is not currently a formal clinical diagnosis.

It literally means a "fixation on righteous eating" and it can create a host of health problems. Unlike anorexia, the focus is not entirely on weight loss; it's about eating the 'right kinds' of healthy food.

Some sufferers limit their diet until they've cut out entire food groups. That can lead to malnutrition, severe weight loss, and osteoporosis.

There's also some severe mental health consequences. People's self esteem can become dependent on their diet, and they can become compulsive, anxious, and overly scared of illness. Strict food controls can also mean people with orthorexia become isolated from friends.

Some experts, like dietitian Tania Ferraretto say a modern obsession with clean eating is fuelling more cases of it.

We are seeing an increasing incidence of orthorexia and this seems to be parallel to the increase use of social media."

"People are getting their information from lots of different sources, and most of these sources are actually very un-credible, and providing potentially dangerous information."

She says orthorexia often falls under the radar, because people who have it look healthy, when really they aren't.

"I think we need to look at really what the consequences of orthorexia are, and keep that conversation going, so that we can potentially include that in diagnostic criteria for eating disorders."

Tom Grainger agrees. He's always struggled with his weight, first an overweight child and then an anorexic teenager. He thought he'd found a balance with a strict diet based around healthy food and "clean" eating.

"People get swept up in this and I found myself doing the same thing... taking photos constantly of what I'm eating. Like, who actually cares about what I'm eating!"

"But at the time you think people care, and people are commenting and it's this feeling of self worth that is generated from it as well."

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Whatsapp Tom (left) when he was unwell.

But like many people who have orthorexia, he had no idea how unhealthy his eating habits were.

"From orthorexia I developed inflammatory bowel disease, something that I am still trying to deal with today. It's caused a lot of problems with my weight and health, it's quite ironic that being so rigid with my health actually caused long term damage to my body - something that I am still paying for today."

Because there's little research into orthorexia, doctors and dieticians don't know how common it is.

Dr Sloane Madden, the director of The Eating Disorder Service at the Sydney Children's Hospital network, says he is seeing more people with signs of it.

"Previously we had seen children trying to limit calories and now we are seeing children limiting the types of foods they are prepared to eat."

"There aren't really clear figures about how common orthorexia is. Figures range from about 5 to 6 percent up to 30 or 40 percent, of those people who you might consider at risk," said Dr Madden.

Tom now spends his time helping other people recognise and recover from eating disorders.

One of the warning signs I see is that if people are taking photos of their food and they are starting to constantly blog about their body and exercising. Nine times out of ten, they are the one developing eating disorders."

"I feel like today a lot of people have that void inside they want to fill, and it seems to be these almost religious food movements are the way people are trying to fill that."

If you're struggling with your mental health or an eating disorder, there's always someone you can talk to at the Butterfly Foundation on 1800 ED HOPE or Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Check out Hack's TV special 'Hack Live on Body Obsession' in full on iview.