Orthorexia nervosa: Who is at risk for a healthy and obsessive diet?

A balanced diet is as important as a balanced lifestyle, but researchers in Toronto say some people may push it too far and develop an unhealthy obsession with eating healthily.

In a review published in Appetite magazine, researchers at the York University School of Health examined numerous studies of a condition called orthorexia nervosa (ON), described as a pathological obsession with healthy eating.

"For some people, they may become obsessed with eating pure or clean to the point of becoming agonizing and annoying in certain areas of life," Jennifer Mills, lead author of the study, associate professor at the department of psychology from York University, told CTV News Channel.

The team looked at how some psychosocial risk factors might make a person more vulnerable or more likely to develop into ON, and she discovered that likely to develop a pathological obsession for a healthy diet. They also discovered that vegetarians and vegans were at higher risk.

According to the study, lacto-vegetarians, those who do not eat meat or eggs but continue to eat dairy products, and those who follow a strict meal schedule, ran the greatest risk.

"What the document highlights is:" Really, we should think about it in terms of mental health "and for the people who really push it to the extreme, they may have trouble managing their health mental, "said Mills.

Although eating disorders are generally associated with young women, the researchers reported finding equal rates of men and women struggling with the symptoms of ON.

Mills said that ON can lead to malnutrition and that it can be difficult for people with the condition to socialize in contexts involving eating.

"For vulnerable people, they can adopt the trend of consuming clean food, then push it to the extreme, to the point of spending a lot of time looking for and buying food (and preparing them ). , "she says." This makes it difficult to eat with other people, it makes it difficult to go out to eat and it can be really painful. "

Unlike people suffering from anorexia nervosa, who limit their caloric intake to lose or maintain a certain weight, people with Alzheimer 's disease are obsessed with the quality and preparation of food that' s right. they consume. The researchers said the growing time spent on buying, planning and preparing healthy meals could eventually become a "consumer obsession" that interfered with other aspects of life.

The team reported that they did this because previous research on ON was limited and this state was not recognized in standard psychiatric textbooks for health care providers.

"It was surprising to find that the vast majority of articles in this area were neutral. [to] poor quality, which indicates that the results of these studies should be interpreted with caution, "said Sarah McComb, a master's student at Mills' lab and first author of the study, in a press release.

"This really suggests a call to more valid orthorexia measurement tools, in order to draw more reliable conclusions about the true prevalence of orthorexia in the population and about the psychosocial factors that actually put a person at risk of developing orthorexia nervosa. "

The authors of the study stated that a "consistent definition" for ON will make it easier for health researchers to provide better diagnosis and treatment of the disease.