New Developments in Orthorexia Research: Use of Social Media, Healthy Orthorexia and Testimonials from Affected Individuals
- 02.05.2023
- English Articles
- Friederike Barthels
Peer Reviewed / Manuscript (overview) received: 01. July 2022 / Revision accepted: 06. December 2022
Introduction
For about 25 years, a new variant of pathological eating behavior has been discussed: orthorexia – the fixation on healthy eating – could be useful to describe disordered eating behavior, next to anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder. Steven Bratman coined the term from the Greek words "orthós" for "right, correct" and "órexis" for "appetite," and is thus the first descriptor of orthorexia [1, 2]. However, he was not the only one who, in the late 1990s, observed an intense and obsessive preoccupation with healthy eating. Diedrichsen [3] wrote in his book on nutritional psychology, which was already released in 1990, a short chapter on the topic "overvalued ideas in eating behavior". He stated that strongly emotionally emphasized attitudes toward nutrition as overvalued ideas could determine the thinking and the eating behavior of some individuals. As examples he gave people who fasted or were "raw food fanatics", not letting their diet be guided by rational considerations, but rather pursue their one-sided ideas on a healthy diet with "tenacious and stubborn doggedness".
In this context, it is interesting that corresponding eating behavior was observed and described independently of each other in the USA and in Germany. Thus, the basic concept of orthorexia is even somewhat older1 and is not based on the sole observation of a US practitioner of complementary and alternative medicine. In this respect, orthorexic eating behavior is possibly not a recent trend in the fitness and nutrition movement [see also 4], but rather an emerging development in the field of (sub)clinical deviations in eating behavior. Complementary to the report published in 2015 in the Ernährungs Umschau [5], this article is intended to provide an overview of the more recent developments in orthorexia research. ...
Abstract
Orthorexic eating behavior refers to the fixation on a subjectively healthy way of eating and is recently being discussed as another variant of the so far classified eating disorders. New developments in orthorexia research in the last few years include a unified definition of orthorexic eating behavior and findings on correlations with illness anxiety-related thoughts, autism spectrum behaviors, and social media use. In terms of new measurement tools, the most notable is the Teruel Orthorexia Scale, which not only claims to measure "orthorexia nervosa" but also "healthy orthorexia”, which the authors define as a non-pathological way of healthy eating. Testimonials of individuals currently or previously affected by orthorexia also provide important insights into characteristic orthorexic symptoms. In summary, research is well on the way to better understand orthorexic eating behavior.
Keywords: orthorexia nervosa, orthorexia, orthorexic eating behavior, healthy orthorexia, eating disorders
