Exploring the intricacies of food disgust: Unveiling links between gender, healthy eating obsession, and disgust propensity

Abstract

Disgust sensitivity refers to how unpleasant a disgusting experience is to an individual and plays a role in the development of many psychiatric conditions. Given its connection to food intake, there is interest in understanding how an individual's sensitivity to disgust relates to their eating habits. We set out to explore how the disgust emotion affected adults’ obsession with healthy eating. Eight hundred fifty-two (852) volunteers between the ages of 19–55 years participated in the study. We sent them a list of socio-demographic questions and four instruments to fill out online: the Disgust Scale-Revised (DS–R), Disgust Propensity and Sensitivity Scale (DPSS), Food Disgust Scale (FDS), and ORTO-15. Our results showed that more than half of them had normal BMIs. The women exhibited higher disgust tendencies than the men did. ORTO-15 scores were higher among men (p < 0.05), meaning men had a lower tendency toward healthy eating obsession. We found an inverse correlation between BMI and DPSS in that higher BMI values corresponded to lower to lower DPSS scores (p < 0.05). We also found a positive correlation with the DS-R, DPSS, and FDS scales, and a negative one with the ORTO-15 scale (p < 0.05). People’s DS-R scores also increased with age (p < 0.05). Food disgust seems to be influenced by age and gender. More research is needed that explores the effects of other demographic factors on food disgust in a larger population. Otherwise, few studies have been done on orthorexia nervosa. Nevertheless, people also need to take measures that would ultimately prevent them from obsessing about healthy eating.