Religiosity Does Not Increase the Risk of Anorexia Nervosa

Religiosity is the connection between religious fasting practices as a form of religious duty or loyalty. This practice of abstaining from foods or liquids for a set time period lasting for hours, days, weeks including a fast to death from nutritional abstinence for the religious cause.

According to asociate professor Anna Keski-Rahkonen at the University of Helsinki in Finland researched the historical practices of medieval saints making the ultimate sacrificial fast by perishing due to nutritional abstinence. Most notable example linking religious fasting death was the late Saint Catherine of Siena who made the ultimate sacrifice for her religious duty. Although religious fasting has been historically common form of mainstream religious practice with various times, forms, and methods it’s still a pillar in the world’s largest religious groups most known would be the Muslim holy month of Ramadan or the Christians Ash Wednesday better known as the six weekend of Lent.

The act of religious fasting isn’t a new phenomena nor a counter cultural practice which gained the important correlation between fasting and anorexia especially among the young women’s demographic group. The University of Helsinki gathered a statistical research project comprised of 3,000 young women between the ages of 18 into mid twenties. The thorough investigative research found no direct link between between religious fasting and anorexia concluding with confidence that the two human choices don’t affect each other in scientific realms.

Key Points:

  • 1The tendency to associate self-starvation with religious cults might lead many to assume that wasting via an eating disorder is more likely among the devout.
  • 2A recent study, occurring in Finland, however, debunks the idea that there is a link between a religious lifestyle and the disease.
  • 3The study was the first to try to unravel the potential link between the disease and the lifestyle.


Being raised in a highly religious family is also not associated with an increased risk of anorexia nervosa.
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HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our health risk assessment, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years.

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