The Social Construction of a Concept—Orthorexia Nervosa: Morality Narratives and Psycho-Politics

Our article explores orthorexia nervosa (ON)—an extreme fixation with healthy eating—from a social construction perspective. Interviews with people self-identified as “obsessed” with healthy eating or having ON (“Identifiers”) and nonmedical professionals working with ON (“Professionals”) were comparatively analyzed, along with orthorexia threads from an eating disorder website (“Posters”). Participants made sense of and rationalized their attitudes and feelings concerning healthy eating and aligned themselves according to their interests. Identifiers and Posters applauded “healthy eating” and regarded consumption of “impure” foods as leading to ill-health. Some framed their dietary discipline within an ethically motivated lifestyle, while others were preoccupied with appearance or weight management. Professionals expressed concern for, and disapproval of, extreme views and behaviors in clients and parental and social influences supporting them. Debates surrounding orthorexic practices are tangled; some individuals need help, yet dangers lie in over medicalizing or “troubling” what may be a preferred lifestyle.

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Orthorexia Nervosa and the Use of Exposure and Response Prevention to Treat Eating-Related Obsessions and Compulsions

10.1093/med-psych/9780190052775.003.0007 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 103-124

Author(s):

Hana F. Zickgraf

Keyword(s):

Anorexia Nervosa ◽

Eating Disorder ◽

Healthy Eating ◽

Eating Behaviors ◽

Food Additives ◽

Orthorexia Nervosa ◽

Obsessive Compulsive ◽

Restrictive Eating ◽

Compulsive Checking ◽

Clinically Significant

Orthorexia nervosa (ON) is a proposed diagnosis involving rigid, intrusive thoughts and unusual beliefs about healthy eating, associated with restrictive eating behaviors. People with ON may avoid specific foods, food additives, dyes, or preservatives, and non-organic or genetically modified foods seen as “impure” or “unnatural,” often engaging in compulsive checking, reassurance seeking, decontamination, or other rituals to ensure that food “rules” are followed and that food is “healthy” and “pure.” ON is distinguished from healthy orthorexia, a non-impairing interest in healthy eating and nutrition. The distinction between ON and eating disorders involving obsessions about weight and shape and restrictive eating motivated by fear of weight gain is less clear. In this chapter, ON and related eating disorder symptoms associated with the diagnoses of anorexia nervosa, atypical anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder are conceptualized as obsessive-compulsive phenomena. Special considerations for exposure and response interventions for patients with clinically significant restrictive eating are described, including recommendations for when to refer patients to eating disorder specialists.

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Making an expert: Sources and their contributions in news coverage of orthorexia nervosa

Journalism ◽

10.1177/1464884919859709 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 146488491985970

Author(s):

Amy A Ross Arguedas

Keyword(s):

Mental Illness ◽

Eating Disorder ◽

Healthy Eating ◽

Media Coverage ◽

News Coverage ◽

Healthcare Providers ◽

Orthorexia Nervosa ◽

Source Selection ◽

Medical Journalism ◽

Nuanced Understanding

In 1997, Steven Bratman, a physician specializing in alternative medicine, proposed he had identified a new eating disorder, a pathological fixation with healthy eating. Soon after, orthorexia nervosa, as he called it, began appearing in newspapers – long before it did in scientific venues. Using a mixed-methods analysis of 492 articles published between 1998 and 2016, I examine the various actors who have participated in orthorexia coverage, including those who were assigned expertise on the unofficial diagnosis. The findings demonstrate a variety of credentialed and non-credentialed sources contributed to media coverage in different ways. Experts in mental illness appeared less often than other healthcare providers, including Bratman and dietitians. Based on the findings, I argue for a more nuanced understanding of expertise to better evaluate source selection in medical journalism and propose a typology that considers both the nature of the claims and the qualifications of the person making them. I conclude with several hypotheses about news coverage of novel conditions undergoing biomedicalization.

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Pathological Preoccupation with Healthy Eating (Orthorexia Nervosa) in a Spanish Sample with Vegetarian, Vegan, and Non-Vegetarian Dietary Patterns

Nutrients ◽

10.3390/nu12123907 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (12) ◽

pp. 3907

Author(s):

María Laura Parra-Fernández ◽

Maria Manzaneque-Cañadillas ◽

María Dolores Onieva-Zafra ◽

Elia Fernández-Martínez ◽

Juan José Fernández-Muñoz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Healthy Eating ◽

Food Choice ◽

Weight Control ◽

Online Survey ◽

Vegetarian Diet ◽

Orthorexia Nervosa ◽

Attitudes And Behaviors ◽

Healthy Nutrition ◽

Demographic Questionnaire ◽

The Social

Orthorexia nervosa (ON) has been defined as an obsessive and pathological attitude towards healthy nutrition. The aim of this study was to compare individuals who followed a vegan, vegetarian, and omnivore diet in terms of ON behaviors and to examine their prime motivations, attitudes, and behaviors towards food. The Spanish version of the ORTO-15 test — ORTO-11-ES — and the Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ-SP) were used with a demographic questionnaire in an online survey disseminated among the social networks of different vegetarian associations and the general population. Of 466 individuals, 55% followed an omnivore diet, 23.5% were vegetarian and 21.7% were vegan. Results revealed relationships between type of diet and FCQ-SP dimensions for: health and natural content (H = 8.7, p < 0.05), sensory appeal (H = 11.4, p < 0.01), weight control (H = 40.4, p < 0.01), and familiarity (H = 37.3, p < 0.01). Our results confirm the findings of recent studies showing that individuals who follow a vegan or vegetarian diet are more likely to develop a pathological preoccupation with healthy eating versus omnivores. Further studies are required to determine the potential lines of action for the prevention of ON.

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