Orthorexia Nervosa
Orthorexia, or orthorexia nervosa, is an eating disorder that involves an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating. Unlike other eating disorders, orthorexia mostly revolves around food quality, not quantity. Unlike with anorexia or bulimia, people with orthorexia are rarely focused on losing weight (1).
Cluster Number:
Wiki Number: PW146
Diagnosis: Orthorexia Nervosa
US Patients:
World Patients:
Sex Ratio:
Age Onset:
Brain Area:
Symptoms: obsessive preoccupation with eating healthy food; the quality of food vs. amount of food eaten; more restrictive over time
Progression: may lead to excluding different classes of foods to unhealthy eating and weight “over-control”
Causes: increased viewing of Instagram where “food” is a frequent choice of topics, vs. other electronic messaging platforms
Medications:
Therapies: This is not (yet?) recognized in the 2013 “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual” as a disease.
Youtube Video: Orthorexia Explained (Orthorexia Nervose)
Amazon or Library Book: Health Food Junkies
Click the book to link or order from Amazon.
Support Group: eatingdisordersfoundation.org; 303-333-3364
(The Eating Disorder Foundation)
4 CURRENT ARTICLES
FROM PUBMED
The world-wide medical research
reports chosen for each diagnosis
Clicking each title opens the
PubMed article’s summary-abstract.
- Eating Behaviors, Lifestyle, and Ischemic Stroke: A Lebanese Case-Control Studyby Elise Maalouf on January 21, 2023
CONCLUSIONS: Ischemic stroke patients were more likely to have disordered eating attitudes and orthorexic behaviors. Furthermore, the MeD has been found to be beneficial in reducing ischemic stroke risk. Despite the study's focus, outdoor pollution, waterpipe dependence, and passive smoking were linked to ischemic stroke. In summary, this review suggests that improving one's nutritional status and making a few lifestyle changes are key stroke prevention and treatment methods.
- The Prevalence of Orthorexia Nervosa among Greek Professional Dancersby Dafni Athanasaki on January 21, 2023
The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of orthorexia nervosa (ON) among professional dancers in Greece, as well as its relationship with nutrition, body mass index (BMI), body image flexibility, and parental bonding. The participants were 96 professional dancers, with a mean age of 23.41 ± 5.13 years, who completed a battery of questionnaires recording sociodemographic, clinical, and anthropometric characteristics; adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet); indications of ON,...
- The indirect role of orthorexia nervosa and eating attitudes in the association between perfectionism and muscle dysmorphic disorder in Lebanese male University students - results of a pilot studyby Georges Merhy on January 20, 2023
CONCLUSION: Awareness campaigns among the university students could be adopted at the national level to increase the level of knowledge on the concepts of obsessive self-destructive perfectionism, orthorexia nervosa and muscle dysmorphia.
- Psychometric properties of the ORTO-R in a community-based sample of women and men from Polandby Anna Brytek-Matera on January 19, 2023
CONCLUSION: The 6-item ORTO-R is valid and reliable method to assess orthorexic thoughts and behaviors among Polish-speaking population and could be applied in future research. Using revised version of the items is strongly preferred to using the items in their original ORTO-15 form.