Orthorexia in social media: reflections between health and disease

Abstract

Our study analyses articles that discuss orthorexia in social media and brings reflections on the role of healthy norms and their balance in the individual's life in contemporary times. The search was conducted between 2015 and 2020 in the BVS Regional, PubMed, Embase and Scopus databases with the keywords orthorexia and healthy diet. The reference manager used was Zotero®. The material was approached by thematic content analysis. The reflections are based on the concept of health articulated with the construction of norms for life by Georges Canguilhem and on the ideas of medicalization, biopower and biopolitics by Michel Foucault. Nine articles were selected about orthorexia in social media. This analysis generated two main themes: characteristics of orthorexia and influences of social media on orthorexia. Instagram was the most used social media to study content about orthorexia, especially among young women, with an active interest in health and the body. A healthy diet in orthorexia assumes a sense of norm and normal behavior to be followed without doubt or adaptation. Denaturalizing the healthy diet opens up to different ways of living the human condition, which values the singular subject in its articulations in the social and cultural context.