Feeding, body and image: eating disorders among female academics in the area of health education

The present narrative review had the goal to comprehend the relationship between dissatisfaction with body image and the risk of development of feeding and eating disorders and orthorexia nervosa in young female students in the health field. For such purpose, a bibliographic review was performed using the databases of the electronic libraries MEDLINE, LILACS, BDENF, SciELO e IBECS. The criteria for inclusion of studies were: articles published with full text in the last five years (2016 to 2021), in Portuguese, English and Spanish, in Brazil and abroad. The following descriptors were used: body image, feeding and eating disorders, anorexia nervosa, bulimia, feeding behavior, students, health occupations. There were selected 11 articles. Results have revealed multiple factors involved relative to the dissatisfaction with body image and eating disorders and orthorexia nervosa, being: nutritional status, body-checking, depression, internalized weight bias, media influence, rumination, selective attention for body images, omission of meals, phase in the graduation course and whether the higher education is a public or private institution, cognitive restriction, emotional eating e uncontrolled eating. It is highlighted an important occurrence of dissatisfaction with body image and the risk of development of feeding and eating disorders and orthorexia nervosa in female Nutrition students. It is concluded that there is a need for implementation of preventive actions and health promotion in academic spaces.