Jornal de Distúrbios Alimentares e Nutricionais

The Relationship between Preoccupation with Diet and Orthorexia Nervosa: An Integrative Review

Amanda Pereira de Freitas* , Luana da Silva Baptista Arpini and Gina Torres Rego Monteiro

Introduction: Orthorexia Nervosa (ON) is the term that defines a pathological obsession with healthy eating and relevant extreme behaviors, which can have physical and psychosocial consequences. Knowing the boundary between a healthy habit and an eating disorder is challenging.

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between excessive behaviors in pursuit of healthy eating and the tendency to develop orthorexia nervosa.

Methods: An integrative review aimed at answering the question: Is there any relationship between concern about diet and orthorexia nervosa? The search for publications was performed in the IBECS, LILACS, PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus databases using descriptors in English and publication dated between 1997 and 2022. Studies that evaluated the tendency to develop orthorexia nervosa in individuals older than 18 years of age, except for pregnant women, were eligible for analysis.

Results: The studies address some determinants of orthorexic behavior, the motivations for healthy eating, the consequences of (pathological) ON, its obstacles and treatment, and the definitions of ON and healthy eating.

Conclusion: Special diets seem to be a trigger for ON. However, these may be linked to the diagnosis of chronic noncommunicable diseases, food intolerances or concerns with the prevention of morbidities. That said, it is possible to observe that the tendency to ON is not triggered by eating healthy, albeit obsessively, but the factors related to healthy eating. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the etiology of obsessively healthy eating to better understand ON.