Selective attentional bias to food-related stimuli in healthy individuals with characteristics towards orthorexia nervos
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Selective attentional bias to food‑related stimuli in healthy individuals with characteristics towards orthorexia nervosa Ian P. Albery1 · Monika Michalska1 · Antony C. Moss1 · Marcantonio Spada1 Received: 10 April 2019 / Accepted: 18 July 2019 © The Author(s) 2019
Abstract Purpose It has been argued that orthorexia nervosa (ON) is a unique type of disordered eating of food considered by the individual to be healthy. Given that in other eating disorder populations attentional preference for food-related cues influences eating behaviours, is it also likely that these biases may be a characteristic of ON tendency. Methods Eighty healthy individuals completed the ORTO-15 questionnaire (ON tendency), a modified Stroop task containing words related to healthy and unhealthy foods and perceived hunger levels pre- and post-testing. The ORTO-15 was used to identify participants within this sample who demonstrated more or less of the characteristics of ON. Results Results suggest that the presence of attentional bias to healthy, but not for unhealthy food-related stimuli independently predict increased ON tendency. Increased attentional bias towards healthy food-related stimuli is associated with increased scores on the ORTO-15. Conclusion Attentional bias, as a deficit in information processing, towards healthy food-related stimuli accounts for variability in ON characteristics. Level of evidence Level I, experimental study. Keywords Orthorexia nervosa · Attentional bias · ORTO-15 · Stroop-task
Introduction Orthorexia nervosa (ON) is characterized by obsessive and selective eating behaviour which may lead to malnutrition and significant negative effects on social and occupational functioning [1]. ON tendencies have been measured in a variety of populations including medical students [2], nutritionists [3], dietitians [4], medical doctors [5], performance artists [6], athletes [7] and yoga practitioners [8]. Orthorexia nervosa does not appear to be age-related [9] and the evidence base with respect to gender disparities is at present equivocal [7, 10, 11]. The symptomatology of ON varies across the literature, but diagnostic criteria generally include severe dietary This article is part of topical collection on Orthorexia Nervosa. * Ian P. Albery [email protected] 1
Centre for Addictive Behaviours Research, School of Applied Sciences, London South Bank University, London, UK
restrictions, excessive time spent on preparing and shopping for food, increased spending, preoccupation with purity and provenance of ingredients, eating alone, feelings of guilt if non-adherent, and perceived superiority over others when adherent [12]. With a significant increase of ON-specific issues being reported by eating disorder professionals [13], calls have been made for the formal inclusion of ON into diagnostic manuals [14]. Whilst it has been argued that ON is a unique and specific eating disorder [12, 15, 16], a number of studies have identified common affective and cognitive agents operating in ON, obsess
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