Alike and different: Associations between orthorexic eating behaviors and exercise addiction

Symptoms of exercise addiction, a state of compulsively engaging in intense exercise, and orthorexic eating attitudes, the obsession with eating only healthy foods, often occur together. It is assumed that some more general psychological traits underlie this association. Main aim of this report was to examine similarities and differences between orthorexic eating and addictive exercising.

Six hundred and eight individuals completed an online survey (mean age: 27.5, SD = 11.0 years; 76.5% women) measuring exercise addiction (Exercise Addiction inventory, EAI), orthorexic eating (Düsseldorfer Orthorexie Skala, DOS), personality domains (Big-Five Inventory-10), anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale).

Correlations between the DOS and EAI were .43 in women and .62 in men. Structural equation models identified gender-specific as well as behavior-specific psychological correlates. Among women, anxiety correlated with both EAI and DOS. In addition, the DOS correlated with depression and neuroticism while the EAI correlated with conscientiousness. In men, both scales were associated with conscientiousness and the EAI also correlated with extraversion. Clusterability analysis provided no evidence for clusters based on DOS and EAI.

Present results showed a substantial correlation between addictive exercising and orthorexic eating, however, coefficients were smaller than expected and appeared higher in men. Both behaviors shared few psychological traits (anxiety in women, conscientiousness in men) thereby questioning the assumption of a similar origin. Additionally, gender-specific psychological correlates point to the need for different disease management approaches in women and men.