Organivore or organorexic? Examining the relationship between alternative food network engagement, disordered eating, and special diets.

The alternative food network (AFN) refers to connections between consumers, producers, and sellers of organic, local/regional, "sustainably grown," and other artisanal and niche food not produced by the conventional system (Goodman & Goodman, 2007). Alternative foods are often viewed as the "right" consumption choice while conventional counterparts are positioned as ethically "wrong." A moral positioning of food, avoidance of certain food groups, and anxiety elicited by food consumption choices bears similarities to disordered eating behaviors (Hesse-Biber, Leavy, Quinn, & Zoino, 2006), including a newly proposed eating syndrome, orthorexia nervosa (ON; Vandereycken, 2011; Zamora, Bonaechea, Sánchez, & Rial, 2005).