Social stigma associated with clean eating
THE VAST majority of nutritionists, doctors and health experts will tell you that completely cutting certain food groups out of your diet if you’re not intolerant to them isn’t good for you.
Yet, many people continue to try and follow a diet free from gluten, refined sugar, animal products, and all processed food.
However, clean eating still has a social stigma around it, and if you value your friends, you may want to cut down on the chia seeds, maca powder, and kale.
For decades, researchers have studied well-established eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, and we all know there’s a stigma attached to it.
But whether these social consequences apply to ‘clean dieting’ hasn’t really been assessed, until now.
To find out how people perceive clean eaters and those with orthorexia nervosa (obsessively pursuing a healthy diet), researchers Suzanne M. Nevin and Lenny R. Vartanian asked volunteers to read about a specific individual then evaluate the person.
They were told to do so in terms of their attitudes and beliefs about the individual, as well as their desire for social distance from the person.
The researchers found that people evaluated someone more negatively if they found she or he was a clean eater, compared to someone whose diet wasn’t mentioned.
Even more negatively judged, however, were those described as having a clinical eating disorder (anorexia nervosa).
The second study looked into perceptions of orthorexia. They found that a woman suffering from anorexia nervosa was judged just as harshly as someone with orthorexia.
Nevin and Vartanian concluded that there definitely are social ramifications associated with clean eating, and obsessing over a healthy diet.
They say the social stigma could be associated with control and blame in social settings – anyone who’s ever attempted even to eat slightly healthily probably has experienced friends telling them they’re being boring because they don’t want to go out for pizza.
“The present research supports the suggestion that there may be social ramifications for clean dieting behaviours, and found that this effect was particularly pronounced when the behaviours were described in a more extreme manner (orthorexia nervosa),” the researchers wrote.
“Developing a better understanding of the stigma towards various forms of disordered eating is an important step towards alleviating the social burden endured by individuals with those conditions.” – The Independent