Communicating about nutrition without causing disordered eating: the role of affect, worry, and heart rate variability.

Abstract

Background: The communication of nutrition information comes with the challenge of encouraging health-promoting behaviors without triggering disordered eating. One important consideration of nutrition education is the affective responses that messages generate in receivers, emerging adult women in particular, who are at high risk for disordered eating. This study compares two different frameworks: Weight-centric nutrition education (i.e. MyPlate, calories-in-calories-out) and intuitive eating (i.e. eating by hunger and fullness cues).

Method: Three hundred emerging adult women were randomized in a pretest-posttest experimental design. This design was used to compare within-participant changes in affect, worry about eating and weight, and heart rate variability between groups viewing either a weight-centric or an intuitive eating nutrition education video. It was hypothesized that women randomized to weight-centric nutrition education would report increases in negative affect, increases in worry about eating and weight, and decreases in positive affect and heart rate variability, compared to those who viewed intuitive eating nutrition education.

Results: Compared to intuitive eating, weight-centric nutrition education led to an increase in negative affect (P < .01, Cohen's d = 0.68), an increase in worry about eating (P < .01, Cohen's d = 0.89) and weight (P < .01, Cohen's d = 0.70), and a decrease in positive affect (P < .01, Cohen's d = -0.95). No statistically significant differences were found for heart rate variability.

Conclusions: Weight-centric nutrition education has been traditionally used when communicating nutrition information in the U.S.; however, nutrition education may benefit from an intuitive eating approach so that disordered eating risk is not inadvertently increased.