Intuitive eating is inversely associated with body weight status in the general population‐based NutriNet‐Santé study

Abstract

Objective: To examine the relationship between intuitive eating (IE), which includes eating in response to hunger and satiety cues rather than emotional cues and without having forbidden foods, and weight status in a large sample of adults. Methods: A total of 11,774 men and 40,389 women aged 18 years participating in the NutriNet-Sant e cohort were included in this cross-sectional analysis. Self-reported weight and height were collected as well as IE levels using the validated French version of the Intuitive Eating Scale-2. The association between IE and weight status was assessed using multinomial logistic regression models. Results: A higher IE score was strongly associated with lower odds of overweight or obesity in both men and women. The strongest associations were observed in women for both overweight [quartile 4 vs. 1 of IE: odds ratio, 95% confidence interval: (0.19, 0.17-0.20)] and obesity (0.09, 0.08-0.10). Associations in men were as follows: for overweight (0.43, 0.38-0.48) and obesity (0.14, 0.11-0.18). Conclusions: IE is inversely associated with overweight and obesity which supports its importance. Although no causality can be inferred from the reported associations, these data suggest that IE might be relevant for obesity prevention and treatment.

Association between Motives for Dish Choices during Home Meal Preparation and Weight Status in the NutriNet-Santé Study

“…Individuals who pay attention to their hunger cues when choosing the dishes to prepare could also be more likely to eat in response to hunger and satiety cues. Such behavior has been previously associated with lower BMI, potentially explaining our results [ 63 ].…”

The Psycho-Affective Roots of Obesity: Results from a French Study in the General Population

“…We examined the extent to which obese people differ in their emotionally driven and addictive-like eating behaviors not only from normal-weight but also overweight people in a sample from the French general population. We confirmed previous findings that have been reported in high BMI population, by showing that the two high BMI groups reported higher levels of depressed mood, eating less intuitively but more in response to their negative emotions, and that they presented more severe and/or frequent symptoms of addictive-like eating behaviors than normal-weight people [ 34 , 54 , 55 , 56 ]. In addition, we found an increase in FA diagnosis prevalence (as defined by the mYFAS), with the odds for presenting the condition being more than four times higher among the obese group and more than two times higher among the overweight group than among the normal-weight people.…”

“…Moreover, an emerging line of evidence points out that negative EE acts as a mediator between depression and obesity and that it may be a marker of atypical depression [ 28 , 31 , 32 ]. Here, we found a mediation effect of negative EE on the association between psychological distress (for both depression and anxiety) and the difficulties to rely on hunger and satiety cues, difficulties that are, in turn, known to place the person at risk for increased weight [ 56 ]. The present data, thus, complement these observations and suggest that obese individuals get caught in a downward spiral and vicious circle leading to an ‘interoceptive blindness’ due to a specific interplay between their negative affect and their eating patterns.…”

Intuitive eating in youth: Its relationship with nutritional status

“…strategies. Substantial and consistent associations between intuitive eating and lower BMI have been reported [4,29]. In the present study, it was determined that BMI was inversely related to Body-Food Choice Congruence score.…”