Unique Impact of Intuitive Eating on Physical Indicators of Health

Abstract

Current obesity treatment strategies have made progress in addressing the obesity epidemic, but still obesity rates are not declining and follow-up studies sometimes present less-than-satisfying results (e.g., failure to achieve lasting treatment effects, development of eating pathology). As a response to these issues, intuitive eating (IE), a weight-neutral approach to obesity treatment, has emerged. The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether IE is related to multiple indicators of health independent of body mass index (BMI) among a diverse sample of adults. IE was measured with the Intuitive Eating Scale-2 (IES-2) and measured health indicators included blood pressure, fasting glucose, fasting insulin, triglycerides, and total, LDL, and HDL cholesterol. A series of hierarchical linear regressions was performed in order to analyze the associations between total and subscale IE with health indicators after controlling for BMI and other relevant covariates. 248 adults (32 ± 14 years old, 73% female, 64% white) participated in the study. After adjusting for BMI no significant associations between IE (total or subscale scores) and health indicators were observed. Implications for the use of IE in obesity treatment/health promotion and areas of future research are discussed.