Orthorexia nervosa and healthy orthorexia as new eating styles

PLoS One. 2019 Jul 10;14(7):e0219609. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0219609. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

It was recently proposed that healthy orthorexia (HeOr) and orthorexia nervosa (OrNe) should be differentiated. The aim of the present study was to analyze whether the two dimensions of orthorexia can be considered new eating styles or basically equivalent to restrained eating behavior. Two samples of university students (sample 1, n = 460; sample 2, n = 509) completed the Teruel Orthorexia Scale (TOS), the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ), and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Factor analysis with the TOS and DEBQ items together revealed an adequate fit for the preexisting five-factor solution (TOS: OrNe and HeOr; DEBQ: Restrained Eating, Emotional Eating, and External Eating). This result points out that these factors are conceptually distinguishable. Moreover, we tested whether the different eating styles presented different patterns of correlations with gender, body mass index (BMI), and age, and whether OrNe and HeOr predicted Positive and Negative Affect after controlling for Restrained, Emotional, and External Eating. Whereas Restrained and Emotional Eating were higher for women and increased with BMI in both samples, HeOr and OrNe presented much lower associations with these variables. OrNe was positively related to Negative Affect and negatively to Positive Affect, whereas HeOr was positively related to Positive Affect. Again, this result supports the assumption that OrNe is a new variant of disordered eating, whereas HeOr could possibly be seen as a protective behavior.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Affect / physiology*
  • Age Factors
  • Aged
  • Body Mass Index
  • Diet, Healthy / psychology*
  • Feeding Behavior / physiology
  • Feeding Behavior / psychology*
  • Feeding and Eating Disorders / diagnosis*
  • Feeding and Eating Disorders / physiopathology
  • Feeding and Eating Disorders / psychology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Psychometrics
  • Sex Factors
  • Spain
  • Surveys and Questionnaires / statistics & numerical data
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Government of Aragón (Group S31_17D), Department of Innovation, Research and University and FEDER, "Building Europe from Aragón". The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.