Nutritional behavioral interventions may improve attitudes toward intuitive eating
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An educational intervention focused on eating behavior change improved attitudes toward intuitive eating in a population of women with obesity and chronic kidney disease, according to data published in the Journal of Renal Nutrition.
Further, researchers said the improvement in attitude toward eating behavior change could also improve quality of life.
“To our knowledge, there are no studies investigating intuitive eating (IE) attitudes in CKD patients,” Lilian Cuppari, PhD, from the nutrition program and division of nephrology at the Federal University of São Paulo in Brazil, and colleagues wrote. “In this context, the purposes of the present study were to evaluate the effects of a behavioral nutritional intervention on IE attitudes of overweight women with non-dialysis-dependent CKD and to investigate the relationship of IE scores with demographic, nutritional and quality of life parameters in this group.”
In a prospective non-controlled clinical trial of a behavioral multi-session group intervention, researchers evaluated 33 overweight women with CKD from a nephrology outpatient clinic.
Groups consisted of five to eight patients and met in 14 weekly or biweekly sessions lasting approximately 90 minutes each. The renal dietitians who conducted the sessions focused on dietary guidelines, clinical practice guidelines on nutrition in CKD and materials for nutritional counseling and non-diet approaches intended for behavior change.
Patients completed a questionnaire regarding their demographic, socioeconomic, clinical and nutritional information, in addition to one regarding their quality of life. Researchers measured patients’ body weight and height to determine BMI. Additionally, researchers took blood samples after a 12-hour overnight fast to assess creatinine, urea, potassium and glucose levels.
Using the Intuitive Eating Scale-2 (IES-2), researchers and patients measured IE scores. The greater the score, the higher the intuitive eating attitudes.
Of the 33 patients in the study, 23 (median age was 62 years old; 52.2% had diabetes; median BMI was 32.6 kg/m²; median eGFR was mL/min/1.73 m²) completed the intervention. A cross-sectional analysis revealed more intuitive eaters tended to be older and had better scores for health-related quality of life. Excluding the IE subscale body-food choice congruence, the IE total score and subscales improved after the intervention.
According to researchers, limitations of the study included a small sample size and lack of a control group.
“The results of the present study raise possibilities for a paradigm change in the dietary management of CKD patients by promoting sustainable changes in eating behavior by means of strategies that encourage better body attunement and awareness, as well as more self-responsibility with food choices and ultimately with self-care,” Cuppari and colleagues wrote. “These strategies have the potential to improve adherence to dietary recommendations and to enhance the quality of life of the patients, which may result in less burden for health care providers and for the public health system.”
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