Weight-Inclusive Podcasts Improved Intuitive Eating, Body Appreciation, and Anti-Fat Attitudes Among Nutrition Students

Objective: Assess the impact of a weight-inclusive podcast (WIP) intervention on body appreciation, intuitive eating (IE), anti-fat attitudes, and weight and health attitudes in university students enrolled in an upper-division nutrition course. Methods: Quasi-experimental design: Intervention participants listened to 8 weekly WIP episodes (n = 16); the comparison group listened to 8 weekly general nutrition podcasts (n = 29). Intuitive eating, body appreciation, anti-fat attitudes, and general weight and health attitudes were measured preintervention and postintervention. Results: Two-way, repeated measures analysis of variance revealed significant interaction effects of time × group, with participants in the WIP group experiencing significantly greater improvements in body appreciation (P = 0.03) and IE (P = 0.02) and greater reductions in anti-fat attitude scores (P = 0.006) than the comparison group. Conclusions and Implications: Podcasts may be a cost-effective tool to improve body appreciation and IE and reduce anti-fat attitudes in future nutrition professionals. Future research would benefit from recruiting prehealth professionals across different majors.