Selective attentional bias to food-related stimuli in healthy individuals with characteristics towards orthorexia nervosa

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.