How Does Incorporating Intuitive Eating Affect Diet Quality?
By Kelsey Chadwick, MS RDN
June 13th, 2025
One of the most common questions I hear when people begin exploring intuitive eating is, "But what will happen to the quality of my diet?"
It’s a totally valid concern — and you’re not alone if you’re wondering, "Will I ever crave a salad again?" or "What if I never eat another vegetable?" The fear is that if you give yourself unconditional permission to eat, your diet will spiral into a 24/7 dessert buffet and never bounce back.
Let’s talk about what the research actually says.
First, a quick note about nutrition as a science— Nutrition is still a relatively young and evolving field. We're learning more every year! But what we do know is that your eating patterns can have a real impact on things like cholesterol, blood sugar, and overall health.
Over the past thirty years “intuitive eating-focused approaches have emerged as innate methods to improve individual health and promote sustainable changes to improve one’s relationship with food” (1).
So what does the research say about diet quality and intuitive eating?
A review article from 2022 looked at how intuitive eating interventions affected diet quality, eating behaviors, health markers, and body measurements in adults.
Overall, seventeen papers reporting 14 intervention studies (n = 3,960) were included in this review and all studies provided a measure of dietary intake which could be assessed for quality through a validated assessment tool. Diet quality was assessed before and after intuitive eating intervention.
The results showed that all 14 studies showed a trend to either improve or maintain diet quality within the intervention group. Here is a quick breakdown of the results:
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I won’t get too sciency in this post, but if you love science like me and want to read the full study you can check it out here!
Like all studies there are limitations and the notable limitations of this review were the variability in the measurement of dietary intake, the assessment of dietary quality and the assessment of other outcome measures. Also, most of the studies that reported no improvement had significantly lower participant numbers, meaning there is a possibility of an inadequate sample size to find an effect.
The main takeaway from this review is that intuitive eating appears to be an effective eating framework for improving or maintaining diet quality. This review also showed that the most effective interventions were face-to-face group setting with multiple education sessions delivered weekly.
So, what does this mean for you?
Intuitive eating isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach, and it may not be the right fit for everyone. But if your goal is to feel more at peace with food and your body — while still caring for your overall health — intuitive eating can be a powerful tool.
When you start tuning in to internal cues like hunger, fullness, and satisfaction — and give yourself full permission to eat all foods — something really interesting happens: you don’t just want cookies all the time. Over time, your body naturally starts to crave balance, including fruits, veggies, and other nutrient-dense foods.
If you’re interested in learning how to incorporate the core principles of intuitive eating — like trusting your hunger, choosing foods that feel good physically and emotionally, and giving yourself permission to enjoy all foods — our team would love to support you. Reach out anytime to explore personalized nutrition counseling and start your journey toward a healthier, more peaceful relationship with food.
Hensley-Hackett K, Bosker J, Keefe A, Reidlinger D, Warner M, D'Arcy A, Utter J. Intuitive Eating Intervention and Diet Quality in Adults: A Systematic Literature Review. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2022 Dec;54(12):1099-1115. doi: 10.1016/j.jneb.2022.08.008. Epub 2022 Oct 21. PMID: 36274010.