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Intuitive eating is associated with weight and glucose control during pregnancy and in the early postpartum period in women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM): A clinical cohort study
Since higher adherence to intuitive eating in general is associated with a lower BMI and improved glycemic control, this 2019 study investigated the relationship between intuitive eating and metabolic health in women with gestational diabetes mellitus (during pregnancy and in the early postpartum period). The 214 women (aged 18+) were provided with a French Intuitive Eating Scale-2 (IES-2) questionnaire at their first gestational diabetes clinic visit. The average age of the female participants was 33.3, while their mean weight and BMI before pregnancy were 68.18 ± 14.83 kg and 25.30 ± 5.19 kg/m2 respectively. The scores for the “Eating for Physical rather than Emotional Reasons (EPR)” and “Reliance on Hunger and Satiety cues (RHSC)” subscales of the intuitive eating scale during the first clinic visit correlated with lower weight and BMI before pregnancy, and lower weight at the first clinic visit. In addition, the EPR subscale score was linked with hemoglobin A1C and fasting plasma glucose at the first visit to the gestational diabetes clinic. Again, both these subscales during the first visit were related to lower weight at the end of pregnancy, as well as BMI and fasting plasma glucose measured at 6-8 weeks following childbirth. In summary, these findings suggest that increased adherence to intuitive eating may help regulate weight and glucose levels during and after pregnancy in women with gestational diabetes. [NPID: intuitive eating, internal hunger, satiety cues, glycemic control, diabetes, pregnancy, emotional eating, external eating, hemoglobin, plasma glucose, gestational diabetes]
Year: 2019
