WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

Irem Olcay Emınsoy* and Muzaffer Gokhan Eminsoy

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Street foods are ready-to-eat food and beverages prepared and/or sold by vendors on the streets and similar places. Street foods are generally preferred by a lot of people. Its popularity is increasing because of its low cost and offers a gastronomic experience. Healthy orthorexia is a healthy interest in diet, healthy behavior related to diet, and healthy eating as part of one's identity. Orthorexia Nervosa (ON), on the other hand, includes inflexible dietary rules for healthy eating, persistent and repetitive preoccupation with food, obsessive focus on dietary practices, medical or psychological complications, anxiety about eating unhealthy foods, and compulsive behaviors. Method: The research was carried out in two stages among university students between April and June 2022. In the first stage, a 14-question survey questioning the reasons and frequency of street food consumption was applied to 945 university students and Teruel orthorexia scale (TOS), Orthorexia Nervosa scales and questionnaires were applied to 175 university students. Results: From 945 students (66.5% women and 33.5% men) 85.9% of the participant ate street food, 22.3% ate street food that can be reached quickly, and 39.8% ate street food for breakfast. Participants who didn’t eat street food have higher TOS and healthy TOS scores. Conclusions: Although there was a negative correlation with some street food consumption in terms of orthorexia slope in the TOS scale, no significant correlation was found between the frequency of street food consumption and ORTO-11. Funding: Supported by Baskent University Research Fund.