Can optimism lead to a healthier diet among women?

Optimistic women may have an easier time eating healthier, a new study says.

Researchers note that it's not necessarily optimism itself that lends women to espousing healthier eating habits, but the skills that accompany the upbeat attitude.

"People who want to make lifestyle changes should focus on skill-based factors that can help them whether or not they are an optimist," Melanie Hingle, a dietician at the University of Arizona in Tucson, told Reuters Health.

Researchers led by Hingle studied postmenopausal women between the ages of 50 and 79. Half of the women were part of a program designed to improve their nutrition - mainly by decreasing fat intake - and the other half did not alter their diet.

The results showed that the most optimistic women, about one third of all participants, saw the most improvement in their diets, whether or not they had completed the nutrition program.

Based on a scale measured from zero to 110, the latter indicating the best quality diet, women with the highest optimism in the nutrition program improved their diet by 1.8 points, compared to those with the lowest optimism, who improved their diet by 1.4 points.

"It's not just having a sunny outlook - rather, this is a marker of other things people do," Hingle clarified.

According to the researchers, one skill that people, and not just those who tend to look at the glass half full, need to eat healthier is self-regulation, or being aware of your actions as you're doing them. Self-regulation is "choosing what you are eating and making a conscious decision in that moment," Hingle said.

Another skill is not eating your feelings. In other words, when you're feeling down or stressed, reach for healthier options and not the comfort food, she added.

Optimists also may have a slight advantage because they tend to have more social support, but eating right isn't just for those who look on the bright side.

"It doesn't really matter if you're an optimist or a pessimist. Either way, you can make positive changes to your diet," she concluded.