Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Dec;27(8):3279-3288.
doi: 10.1007/s40519-022-01457-9. Epub 2022 Aug 2.

Dietary patterns and eating behaviors on the border between healthy and pathological orthorexia

Erman Şentürk  1 , Begüm Güler Şentürk  2 , Suat Erus  3 , Bahadır Geniş  4 , Behcet Coşar  5
Affiliations

Dietary patterns and eating behaviors on the border between healthy and pathological orthorexia

Erman Şentürk et al. Eat Weight Disord. 2022 Dec.

Abstract

Purpose: The obsession with healthy eating associated with restrictive behaviors is called Orthorexia Nervosa (OrNe). Nevertheless, some studies suggest that orthorexia can also be a non-pathological interest in healthy eating which is called Healthy Orthorexia (HeOr). First, one of the main objectives of this study is to compare HeOr, OrNe and eating behaviors in different dietary patterns (vegan, vegetarian and omnivore). Second is to reveal the relationship between HeOr, OrNe and eating behaviors (cognitive restraint, uncontrolled eating, and emotional eating). Lastly, to determine the potential predictors of HeOr and OrNe.

Methods: Participants (N = 426 with an omnivorous diet; N = 415 with a vegan diet, N = 324 with a vegetarian diet) completed a web-based descriptive survey, the Teruel Orthorexia Scale and the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire-R 21.

Results: HeOr and OrNe were more common in individuals following both vegan and vegetarian diets. Individuals following a vegan or a vegetarian diet had lower body mass index and higher body image satisfaction than individuals following an omnivorous diet. Cognitive restraint and following a vegan or a vegetarian diet were the two main predictors of both HeOr and OrNe. Cognitive restraint was positively associated with both HeOr and OrNe (more strongly correlated with OrNe), whereas uncontrolled eating and emotional eating behaviors were positively related to OrNe and negatively related to HeOr.

Conclusion: The present study contributes to a better understanding of the some similarities and differences between HeOr and OrNe. It also points to higher rates of orthorexia in individuals following a vegan or vegetarian diet and represents a further step towards developing prevention and intervention programs by identifying risk factors for OrNe. Level V Cross-sectional descriptive study.

Keywords: Diet; Eating behaviors; Eating disorders; Orthorexia nervosa; Vegans; Vegetarians.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Cena H, Barthels F, Cuzzolaro M, Bratman S, Brytek-Matera A, Dunn TM, Varga M, Missbach B, Donini LM (2019) Definition and diagnostic criteria for orthorexia nervosa: a narrative review of the literature. Eat Weight Disord 24(2):209–246. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-018-0606-y - DOI
    1. Strahler J, Stark R (2020) Perspective: classifying orthorexia nervosa as a new mental illness-much discussion, little evidence. Adv Nutr 11(4):784–789. https://doi.org/10.1093/advances/nmaa012 - DOI
    1. Varga M, Dukay-Szabó S, Túry F, van Furth EF (2013) Evidence and gaps in the literature on orthorexia nervosa. Eat Weight Disord Stud Anorex Bulim Obes 18(2):103–111. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-013-0026-y - DOI
    1. Varga M, Thege BK, Dukay-Szabó S, Túry F, van Furth EF (2014) When eating healthy is not healthy: orthorexia nervosa and its measurement with the ORTO-15 in hungary. BMC Psychiatry 14(1):1–11. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-14-59 - DOI
    1. Erkin Ö, Göl I (2019) Determination of health status perception and orthorexia nervosa tendencies of Turkish yoga practitioners: a cross-sectional descriptive study. Prog Nutr 21(1):105–112

LinkOut - more resources