The Clean Eating Paradox: Investigating the Relationship Between Clean Eating Beliefs, Orthorexic Tendencies and Dietary Quality Among Young Adults
Clean Eating Paradox Between Clean Eating Beliefs and Orthorexic Tendencies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54393/df.v7i2.218Keywords:
Orthorexia Nervosa, Clean Eating, Dietary Quality, Social Media, Young Adults, Eating PracticesAbstract
Orthorexia nervosa is an unhealthy obsession with eating “pure” or “healthy” food. Obsessive adherence to clean eating can cause dietary rigidity, emotional distress, and poor nutritional balance, and young adults are especially vulnerable to social media wellness trends. Objectives: To examine the relationship between clean eating beliefs, orthorexic tendencies, and dietary quality among young adults, and to explore the influence of social media and psychological factors on eating behaviors. Methods: A pilot-tested, self-constructed online questionnaire was administered over four months to 200 young adults (18–30 years) via non-probability convenience sampling from the University of Lahore and Social Security Hospital, Lahore. Data on demographics, clean eating beliefs, orthorexic tendencies, dietary quality, social media influence, and psychological correlates were analyzed in SPSS v25.0 using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and chi-square tests. Results: Clean eating beliefs correlated positively with dietary quality (r=0.268, p=0.001) and Orthorexic Psychological Experience domain scores (r=0.246, p=0.001), but not with orthorexic tendencies directly (r=0.099, p=0.163). Orthorexic tendencies correlated with dietary quality (r=0.282, p=0.001) and psychological correlates (r=0.236, p=0.001). Social media influence showed no significant associations, and no gender differences emerged. The paradox-in-practice variable was bimodally distributed, suggesting two distinct subgroups. Conclusions: Clean eating beliefs were not directly associated with orthorexic tendencies; psychological factors such as perfectionism and anxiety appeared more strongly related, consistent with an associative rather than predictive or causal interpretation given the cross-sectional design. Moderate clean eating supports dietary quality, but excessive rigidity may become pathological, highlighting the need for individualized psychological assessment.
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