Could intuition cure America of its poor eating habits?

Professor Steve Hawks conducted a small pilot study amongst 32 female college students, 15 of whom performed well on Hawks' Intuitive Eating Scale indicating that they are accustomed to recognizing and responding to internal hunger and satiation cues. The aim of the study was to evaluate the relationship between intuitive eating and various health indicators.

His findings, published in the American Journal of Health Education, showed a correlation between intuitive eating and lower body mass index, lower triglyceride levels, higher levels of high-density lipoproteins, and improved cardiovascular risk.

Hawk concluded that the study found "modest support for the research hypothesis"​.

"These findings provide tentative evidence that intuitive eating may function as a healthy alternative to dieting, and may be a useful tool for the promotion of healthy weight at the individual level."​

Hawk told NutraIngredients-USA.com that the theory is still unproven as such, but that he is in the process of analyzing the long-term outcomes associated with intuitive eating, such as diet composition, blood lipid profiles, blood pressure, cardiovascular health, and body weight.

"So far the results are encouraging,"​ he said.

He explained that the idea behind intuitive eating is that if people respond specifically to the promptings from their body, which naturally craves those foods which are most nutritious, they will naturally select a healthy diet if they eat intuitively.

However American eating habits have never been worse, and obesity has reached epidemic proportions. Thirty percent of American adults are classified as obese (with a body mass index, or BMI, of 30 or over), and almost 65 percent are overweight (BMI between 25 and 29).

American Dietetic Association spokesperson Marilyn Tanner told NutraIngredients-USA.com that there is no one diet that is suitable for everyone. If there was, obesity would not be such a huge problem.

Consulting a dietician, she said, is always going to be the best way of receiving advice tailored to an individual's needs. Upping exercise and activity levels - which are currently very low in the US - is also of paramount importance.

"People do need to be educated on basic nutrition, and that knowledge base increases all the time,"​ she said.

However she said that the key is actually applying the knowledge on an everyday basis.

This is a point on which Hawks concurred:

"While it doesn't hurt to be informed as to what types of foods are nutritious, that knowledge by itself seldom transfers into healthy eating habits,"​ he said.

He attributed American eating habits to three things: a fast food environment that competes on the basis of portion size rather than nutritional quality; a culture of thinness that promotes dieting to lose weight; and an abandonment of a normal relationship with food that focuses on aesthetics, ambiance, preparation, freshness, enjoyment, and nurturing.

As to the diet approach to weight loss, he said that any external formula for how you should eat is restrictive. This refers not only to regimes that proscribe certain foods like carbohydrates or fat, but also the food guide pyramid.

"Ironically, if we abandon food rules and regulations and learn how to eat intuitively in harmony with physical promptings, we will naturally eat in a way that is largely representative of healthy nutrition as depicted in such concepts as the food guide pyramid."​

But how to cope when faced with mountains of food in a social setting? Hawk has an answer for that too: we must recognize the emotional, environmental and cultural relationships we have with food and finding better ways to manage our emotions.

Now hands up all those who will listen to their body telling them they really​ don't need that second helping of pumpkin pie tomorrow….