Orthorexic eating behavior in vegans is linked to health, not to animal welfare

Friederike Barthels; Saskia Poerschke; Romina Müller; Reinhard Pietrowsky

doi:10.1007/s40519-019-00679-8

Orthorexic eating behavior in vegans is linked to health, not to animal welfare

Eat Weight Disord. 2020 Jun;25(3):817-820. doi: 10.1007/s40519-019-00679-8. Epub 2019 Apr 9.

Authors

Friederike Barthels¹, Saskia Poerschke², Romina Müller², Reinhard Pietrowsky²

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Experimental Psychology, Department of Clinical Psychology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany. friederike.barthels@uni-duesseldorf.de.
² Institute of Experimental Psychology, Department of Clinical Psychology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany.

PMID: 30968370
DOI: 10.1007/s40519-019-00679-8

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to analyze the association between the importance of several reasons to follow a vegan diet and the degree of orthorexic eating behavior in a sample of vegan individuals (N = 65, 53.8% women, age: M = 28.22 (SD = 9.13) years, BMI: M = 22.91 (SD = 3.44) kg/m²).

Results: The results reveal that orthorexic eating behavior is associated with the importance of the underlying motives health, esthetics and healing, whereas animal welfare, politics and ecology are not linked to orthorexia.

Conclusion: Hence, this study reveals that a vegan lifestyle is not per se associated with orthorexic eating behavior, but rather that it varies with the underlying motivation for following a vegan diet.

Keywords: Health; Motives; Orthorexia; Orthorexic eating behavior; Veganism.

MeSH terms

Adult
Animal Welfare*
Diet, Vegan*
Feeding Behavior / psychology*
Feeding and Eating Disorders / psychology*
Female
Food Preferences
Health Behavior*
Humans
Male
Motivation*
Vegans / psychology*
Young Adult