Intuitive Eating is Associated With Higher Fruit and Vegetable Intake Among Adults.

FRUIT; GRAIN; HEALTH behavior; HIGH schools; INGESTION; INTUITION; LONGITUDINAL method; MIDDLE schools; QUESTIONNAIRES; RESEARCH funding; SELF-evaluation; VEGETABLES; STATISTICAL reliability; DATA analysis software; DESCRIPTIVE statistics

Assess how intuitive eating relates to dietary intake. Survey data were collected in Project Eating and Activity in Teens and Young Adults , the fourth wave of a longitudinal cohort study (weighted n = 1,830, 49% women; mean age = 31 years). Intuitive eating was assessed using a 7-item scale adapted from the Intuitive Eating Scale and Intuitive Eating Scale-2. Dietary intake was measured via a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. Mean servings were stratified by gender and intuitive eating quartiles and adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics and caloric intake. Women and men in the top intuitive eating quartile consumed 0.6–0.3 servings more fruit and 0.4–0.6 servings more vegetables daily, respectively, compared with the bottom quartile, whereas men in the top quartile also consumed 0.6 servings fewer whole grains (all P < 0.05) than the bottom quartile. Intuitive eating shows promise as a healthier alternative to practices such as dieting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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