Analysis of eating behavior of health science students in terms of emotional eating and restrained eating

Abstract

Background. Two eating phenomena are associated with emotions and chronic stress: restrained eating and emotional eating. Restrained eating is defined as restricting food intake to control weight and mainly refers to the amount of food eaten. Emotional eating, on the other hand, focuses on eating in response to negative emotions. the literature emphasizes that people with orthorexia have significantly higher levels of stress, depression, and anxiety and lower life satisfaction than healthy individuals. Objective. The purpose of the conducted research was to assess the prevalence of emotionally driven eating behavior and restrained eating among health science students. The premise of the study was also to test whether there was a significant relationship between emotional eating and restrained eating and orthorectic behavior. Material and methods. The study was conducted among 200 randomly selected students of health sciences (dietetics and physical education). The TFEQ-13 and DOS scales were used in the study. Results and conclusions. Based on the study, it was concluded that there is no relationship between the occurrence of emotional eating and orthorexia in the studied group of people associated with health sciences. However, the hypothesis of the existence of these associations between restrained eating and the occurrence of orthorexia was supported. The group of restrained eaters was shown to include individuals with severe behaviors indicative of orthorexic tendencies or a full picture of the disorder.

Keywords

• orthorexia
• emotional eating
• restrained eating
• eating disorders