Introduction:

Anorexia nervosa is a psychiatric disorder of high prevalence in women that commonly begins in adolescence. It is defined on the basis of three criteria: energy restriction in relation to nutritional requirements accompanied by underweight, intense fear of weight gain and altered perception of their weight or constitution, as described by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Objective:

To describe feeding in adolescents diagnosed with anorexia nervosa.

Material and Methods:

A narrative literature review of observational studies reporting dietary characteristics in adolescents diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, in a period without dietary intervention, was conducted. The literature search was conducted in the PubMed interface of MEDLINE and the Web of Science Core Colletion interface. Articles published in English, Spanish and Portuguese, between 2010 and 2020 were included.

Development:

Some studies analyzed the diet of adolescent patients with anorexia nervosa (AN), showing a restriction of energy intake and certain micronutrients. On the other hand, studies have found that protein intake was above the daily recommendations for the age group.

Conclusions:

This review detected energy restriction and high protein intake. In contrast, lipid and carbohydrate intake is lower in subjects with AN compared to the healthy population, even though they remain within the daily recommendations for age.

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