Optimistic Women Eat Healthier: Study

Women with a positive outlook on life appear to be more likely to successfully adopt healthy eating habits, according to a recent study.

The study, published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, used data on more than 33,500 postmenopausal women between the ages of 50 and 79 obtained from the Women's Health Initiative.

More than 13,500 of these women had been part of a program that focused in improving personal nutrition and eating habits. The other 20,000 were not asked to make changes to their diet.

The optimism levels of these women have been evaluated prior the start of the study via a questionnaire. Another questionnaire -- one that evaluated eating habit of the women -- was answered by the participants at the start of the study and again 12 months later.

The quality of a woman's diet was indicated by a score on a scale from zero to 110.  Researchers found that after being involved in the nutrition program, women with high levels of optimism were able to improve their dietary habits by an average of 1.8 points. Women in the nutrition program who had lower optimism levels were able to improve their nutrition by an average of only 1.4 points.

The difference in improvement between women not asked to improve their diet was even greater, with optimistic women managing to improve their diet s without aid by an average of 1 point. Less optimistic women were only able to improve their diet quality score by a third of a point.

This is good news for optimistic women, but the researchers say that it isn't a positive disposition by itself that enabled women to improve their diets. Optimistic women can just as likely say "Oh, one more Twinkie couldn't possibly hurt!" as they can get themselves excited about eating kale.

The research team told Reuters reporters that it is the life-skills associated with being an optimist that the researcher argue enable optimists to make healthy choices. Positive beliefs about self-regulation and an ability to distract oneself from negative thoughts and stress are some of these invaluable skills the researchers claim can help all people improve their dietary habits.

The study was published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics on February 21.