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Have you ever heard that because of social media people get mental and eating disorders? It is absolutely true! In this blog post, I’d like to talk about Instagram and its influence on one of the eating disorders — orthorexia nervosa.

What is Orthorexia Nervosa?

The term orthorexia nervosa describes people with an unhealthy obsession for appropriate nutrition who pursue this obsession through a restrictive diet, a focus on food preparation, and ritualized patterns of eating. Researchers have found that weight loss is not a primary motivation for those who suffer from orthorexia.

According to professor Bratman, orthorexia has two stages. The first stage is a healthy diet that is an innocent, laudatory choice. The second stage is when the pursuit becomes an unhealthy obsession. It is only at this later stage that pathology is involved. The Moroze Criteria — “obsessional preoccupation with eating ‘healthy foods’ regarding the quality and composition of meals.” 

Symptoms of orthorexia

People with orthorexia are typically concerned by the quality, as opposed to the quantity, of food in one’s diet, spending considerable time scrutinizing the source. For example, checking if the vegetables have been treated with pesticides, and checking if dairy products are from hormone-supplemented cows. They are also concerned about processing. For example, checking how much of the nutritional value was lost during cooking and if any artificial flavoring or preservatives were added. 

In addition, they also tend to pay close attention to packaging. For example, if food may contain plastic-derived carcinogenic compounds, and whether labels provide enough information to judge the quality of specific ingredients of foods that are then sold in the marketplace.

People care about food quality because they want to be healthy and have a good life, not because of religious beliefs or worries about protecting the environment or animals. A focus on health from food may lead to eating especially complicated patterns. For example, rules that control which foods can be paired together during a meal or at certain times of day. Or rules that require long periods of time (that are unusual) to perform. Another example is that people think that one food type takes a certain amount of time to digest after eating another food type. 

Before eating, people spend more time looking at food, weighing and measuring it, and planning what to eat next. They also think about food a lot when they are not eating.

Instagram and orthorexia

I have found an interesting research study “Instagram use is linked to increased symptoms of orthorexia nervosa” by Turner and Lefevre.  

They begin by stating that social media use is ever-increasing among people. Researchers previously have shown to have negative effects on body image, depression, social comparison, and disordered eating. 

Personally, I’ve noticed that many people I follow on Instagram emphasize that they eat healthy food. Some even state that they grow it by themselves. 

За словами професорів Marsh and Campbell say that overall this “healthy movement” has been positive. People strive to eat more fruits and vegetables and fewer processed foods. However, there is a growing concern around it triggering negative behaviors and eating disorders. 

The booming popularity of the healthy eating community on social media is an example. The overall vibe of this movement has been positive. People aim to consume more fresh produce and less processed foods. However, doctors worry that it could lead to negative behaviors and eating disorders. Previous studies on similar disorders suggest that social media usage might lead to an ‘echo-chamber’ effect. An ‘echo-chamber’ effect happens when people on social media think they have the same values and views as other people who think the same way. The healthy-eating movement is most popular on Instagram, but researchers also study other social media channels in a study. 

Instagram is the third-largest social media platform with 2000 mil users in October 2023.

Other researchers have been studying content analysis of #fitspiration images on Instagram. They have found that when people see an image or a video of a slim woman. It might affect their body image and self-esteem negatively.

Influence of images

Another significant aspect is that Instagram is a platform that is primarily focuses on images. There is a research study “Green is the new black: the unstoppable rise of the healthy-eating guru” by Freeman. Researchers found that people feel a more personal connection to Instagram influencers. It makes them more likely to follow the advice and imitate their diets.

Furthermore, this advice may provoke psychological issues related to food, and in some instances. It may even result in eating disorders such as anorexia or orthorexia. [According to the study “Clean eating trend can be dangerous for young people, experts warn” by Marsh S., Campbell D.]

Diagnostic criterion

Another important aspect is the diagnostic criterion of orthorexia nervosa. 

Professor Moroze proposed that people

•who don’t know much about food spend a lot of time reading about and buying it. In addition, they tend to spend much time cooking certain types of food based on how good they taste and how they look. 

• allocate a lot of money relative to one’s income on foods because of their perceived quality and composition.

Furthermore, they eat food that is not balanced in nutrients because people worry about it being “pure.” Also, they have anxiety about eating unwholesome or unwholesome foods, and about the effects of food quality and composition on bodily or emotional well-being.

Many people avoid foods that are bad for their health. This includes foods with fat, preservatives, food additives, animal products, or other ingredients that people think are bad.

In the picture, we can see that orthorexia and anorexia have in common: 

• high trait anxiety, 
• perfectionism, 
• a high need to exert control, and 
• likely significant weight loss. 

People with orthorexia and anorexia are achievement-oriented. They value adherence to their diet as a marker of self-discipline and construing deviation from the diet as a failure of self-control. 

Individuals with obsessive–compulsive disorder and orthorexia show certain obsessive–compulsive tendencies such as intrusive thoughts about food and health at inappropriate times, inflated concern over contamination and impurity, and a strong need to arrange food and eat in a ritualized manner. Similar to people with obsessive–compulsive, orthorexics have limited time for other activities. Because adherence to a strict eating style interferes with normal routines.

Researchers Koven and Abry add that from a psychiatric perspective, elevated magical ideation, regardless of its content, is a common symptom of schizotypal personality disorder and a good predictor of future psychosis.

Food beliefs and food movements

These are some examples of erroneous food beliefs associated with certain food movements (according to Koven and Abry). 

•Approximately 70% of our food should be high in water content since our bodies are 70% water (living water diet);

• Chewing food too fast can make it hard for your stomach to digest proteins and absorb amino acids (raw foodism);

•Eating yellow food strengthens the spiritual center and focuses one’s energy on productive activities (chakra-focused eating);

• Buying unprocessed plant-based food, which increases your spiritual frequency. It helps you connect to the divine (veganism);

• Eating fruit 30-60 minutes before a meal helps the stomach absorb nutrients better (trophology);

• Consuming food that matches your blood type. It can help prevent illness and make you feel more energetic and healthy (blood type diet);

• Dodge bodily degeneration and illness, no more than 30% of the diet should consist of acidic foods (alkaline diet);

• Having meals at the wrong time of day upsets the autonomic nervous system, limiting one’s ability to handle stress (warrior diet).

Висновок:

Overall, we should be careful of whom we follow and whose advice we take. I would appreciate it if you could share this blog post with your friends and colleagues. I think we need to know about orthorexia and how Instagram can cause it. 

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Використані джерела:

Bratman, S. Orthorexia vs. theories of healthy eating. Eat Weight Disord 22, 381–385 (2017).  [PMC free article]

Bratman, S. (2017, July 24). Orthorexia vs. theories of healthy eating – eating and weight disorders – studies on anorexia, bulimia and obesity. SpringerLink. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40519-017-0417-6

Marsh S, Campbell D (2016) Clean eating trend can be dangerous for young people, experts warn. Guardian

Koven NS, Abry AW. The clinical basis of orthorexia nervosa: emerging perspectives. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2015;11:385–394. doi: 10.2147/NDT.S61665. [PMC free article]

Turner PG, Lefevre CE. Instagram use is linked to increased symptoms of orthorexia nervosa. Eat Weight Disord. 2017;22:277–284. doi: 10.1007/s40519-017-0364-2. [PMC free article]

Ryan M. Moroze, Thomas M. Dunn, J. Craig Holland, Joel Yager, Philippe Weintraub, Microthinking About Micronutrients: A Case of Transition From Obsessions About Healthy Eating to Near-Fatal “Orthorexia Nervosa” and Proposed Diagnostic Criteria, Psychosomatics, Volume 56, Issue 4, 2015, Pages 397-403, ISSN 0033-3182, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psym.2014.03.003. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0033318214000504)

Koven, N., & Abry, A. (2015, February). The clinical basis of orthorexia nervosa: Emerging perspectives. ResearchGat. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273156296_The_clinical_basis_of_orthorexia_nervosa_Emerging_perspectives/fulltext/54fcfb610cf270426d1085ad/The-clinical-basis-of-orthorexia-nervosa-Emerging-perspectives.pdf

Lin, L. Y., Sidani, J. E., Shensa, A., Radovic, A., Miller, E., Colditz, J. B., Hoffman, B. L., Giles, L. M., & Primack, B. A. (2016, April). Association between social media use and depression among U.S. young adults. Depression and anxiety. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4853817/

Moroze, R. M., Dunn, T. M., Holland, J. C., Yager , J., & Weintraub, P. (2014, March 19). Microthinking about micronutrients: A case of transition from obsessions about healthy eating to near-fatal “orthorexia nervosa” and proposed diagnostic criteria. Psychosomatics. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0033318214000504