#557: Health Psychology & Eating Behaviour – Prof. Jane Ogden
Mar 25, 2025
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In this engaging discussion, Prof. Jane Ogden, a renowned health psychologist from the University of Surrey with over 30 years of expertise in eating behavior, unpacks the complexities of dietary choices. She explores how cultural influences and personal beliefs shape our eating habits, revealing that intuitive eating can be distorted by external factors. The conversation introduces 'pinned eating' as a method of structuring meals and emphasizes the importance of managing the psychological aspects of eating for better health outcomes.
Understanding eating behaviors requires acknowledging the complex interplay of psychological, cultural, and emotional factors beyond just physiological hunger cues.
The concept of pinned eating suggests structuring meals around specific times to help manage hunger signals influenced by distractions and learned behaviors.
Effective dietary interventions must account for individual histories and social contexts to motivate sustainable behavior change rather than simply providing nutritional knowledge.
Deep dives
Understanding Health Psychology
Health psychology focuses on the behaviors influencing physical health, moving beyond just knowledge about diet or exercise. It examines how various factors, including beliefs, emotions, and cultural influences, shape health-related behaviors. Understanding these complexities is crucial, as simply informing individuals about what they should do does not ensure compliance or behavior change. Thus, health psychologists work to grasp the motivations behind behaviors, emphasizing that these are often tied to personal histories and social contexts.
Influence of Environment on Eating Habits
A person’s environment plays a significant role in shaping their eating habits and dietary choices. Childhood experiences, socioeconomic status, and cultural backgrounds dictate the types of foods individuals are exposed to and the attitudes they develop toward them. For example, limited access to healthy foods can lead children to adopt poor eating habits that persist into adulthood. Thus, understanding these external factors is vital for addressing health disparities and promoting healthier eating behaviors.
Challenges in Nutrition Communication
Nutritionists often face challenges in bridging the gap between providing dietary knowledge and influencing actual behavior change in clients. Knowledge alone is insufficient as individuals are influenced by a lifetime of habits, emotional connections to food, and social interactions. Therefore, health professionals need to be flexible in their approaches, setting achievable dietary goals that fit within clients' lifestyles. Building a relationship based on empathy and understanding is essential for motivating clients to implement sustainable dietary changes.
Pinned Eating as a Strategy
The concept of pinned eating involves structuring food intake around designated times and situations, helping to regulate eating behaviors. This strategy aims to alleviate the confusion surrounding hunger cues, which can often be influenced by distractions and emotions. Research indicates that eating during structured times can lead to better management of hunger signals, as conditions like distraction can diminish the perception of fullness. This strategy seeks to simplify eating by associating food consumption with clear, regular mealtimes rather than on-the-go snacking.
Navigating Weight Management and Stigmatization
The discourse around weight management centers on balancing public health messaging with the need to avoid weight stigma and body image issues. Maintaining the importance of healthy behaviors is vital, regardless of a person's weight, promoting a focus on nutrition and physical activity for all. Additionally, the challenge lies in empowering individuals to take control of their health without feeling blamed for obesity. Finding ways to foster agency while also addressing individual experiences and societal influences will remain a critical area of exploration in health psychology.
In the realm of health psychology, our understanding of eating behaviors extends beyond mere physiological hunger cues. Research indicates that factors such as learned associations, cultural influences, and individual perceptions play pivotal roles in shaping our dietary choices.
Recognizing this complexity is essential for developing effective dietary interventions that move beyond simplistic recommendations, acknowledging the intricate web of cognitive, emotional, and societal factors at play.
A significant discussion within nutrition science centers on the regulation of eating patterns, particularly the balance between internal cues and external structures. While intuitive eating emphasizes responding to one’s internal hunger signals, studies suggest that these signals are often influenced by external factors such as distractions and learned behaviors. An alternative approach, known as “pinned eating,” proposes structuring meals around fixed times and contexts.
In this episode Prof. Jane Ogden, Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Surrey, discusses these concepts and some of the research her group has carried out.
Guest Information Professor Jane Ogden is a distinguished health psychologist at the University of Surrey, with over three decades of experience in researching eating behavior, weight management, and women’s health. She earned her PhD from the Institute of Psychiatry in London in 1990 and has since contributed extensively to the field through her research and publications. Throughout her career, Professor Ogden has authored several influential books, including “Health Psychology: A Textbook,” now in its seventh edition, and “Thinking Critically about Research.” Her work is widely recognized, leading to her receiving an honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Buckingham in 2022. Timestamps
[02:01] Interview start
[02:41] Understanding eating behaviors and influences
[10:33] Integrating psychology into nutrition practice
[13:58] Pinned Eating
[16:46] Critique of Intuitive Eating
[21:30] Eating behaviors and hunger as a perception
[26:34] Taste preferences and acquisition in children
