Altered Food Behavior and Cancer: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Daniele Nucci, Omar Enzo Santangelo (), Sandro Provenzano, Mariateresa Nardi, Alberto Firenze and Vincenza Gianfredi
Additional contact information
Daniele Nucci: Nutritional Support Unit, Veneto Institute of Oncology IOV-IRCCS, Via Gattamelata, 64, 35128 Padua, Italy
Omar Enzo Santangelo: Regional Health Care and Social Agency of Lodi, ASST Lodi, Piazza Ospitale, 10, 26900 Lodi, Italy
Sandro Provenzano: Local Health Unit of Trapani, ASP Trapani, 91100 Trapani, Italy
Mariateresa Nardi: Nutritional Support Unit, Veneto Institute of Oncology IOV-IRCCS, Via Gattamelata, 64, 35128 Padua, Italy
Alberto Firenze: Department of Health Promotion, Mother and Child Care, Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties (ProMISE) “G. D’Alessandro”, University of Palermo, Via del Vespro, 133, 90127 Palermo, Italy
Vincenza Gianfredi: Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health, University of Milan, Via Pascal, 36, 20133 Milan, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 16, 1-15

Abstract: There is evidence of an association between cancer and certain types of altered eating behaviors, including orthorexia, food cravings, and food addiction. Given the growing interest in the topic throughout the scientific community we conducted a systematic review to summarize current evidence on the development of altered food behavior, including food addiction and cancer. The Cochrane Collaboration and the Meta-analysis Of Observational Studies in Epidemiology guidelines were followed to perform this systematic review. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement was used to report the process and results. The structured literature search was conducted on 19 April 2022, on PubMed/Medline and Scopus, combining free-text terms and medical subject headings. A total of seven articles were included once the selection process was completed. Food craving has been associated with different types of cancer in adults and young patients, as well as with orthorexia; conversely, compulsive eating has only been explored in patients with prolactinoma treated with dopamine agonists. This systematic review explored a new area of research that warrants further investigation. More research is required to better understand the relationship between cancer and food behavior.

Keywords: cancer; food addiction; orthorexia nervosa; cancer survivors; food craving; compulsive eating; food behavior; systematic review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/16/10299/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/16/10299/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:16:p:10299-:d:891946

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().