All human bodies are born with the wisdom to listen and attend to their needs based on the internal signals, or intuition, of the body. Such feelings that may be familiar to you are a full bladder, sleepiness, pain, thirst, sadness, loneliness, or anger. These are all felt sensations that arise in the here and now, either physically or emotionally, that help to communicate an unmet need and guide you to take action.
When your bladder feels full, you pee.
When your mouth feels dry, you drink.
When you are lonely or sad you may call a friend for support.
Yet, the felt sensations that guide us to eat and nourish our bodies – hunger, fullness, pleasure and satisfaction – have been hijacked by diet culture and weight stigma, both of which are pervasive in our society, healthcare system and public policy. The combined effects of diet culture and weight stigma are responsible for the disconnect from our “intuitive” state of eating for the goal of supporting our bodies. Instead, we have become a culture whose eating behaviors are directed towards the sole purpose of shrinking the body.
The Roots of Intuitive Eating
Intuitive Eating was created in 1995 by two dietitians based in California – Evelyn Tribole, MS, RDN and Elyse Resch, MS, RDN. Despite their well-meaning approach to provide individualized meal plans inclusive of all foods, they began noticing a pattern. It was becoming evident that their clients were using these plans like a set of rules - a start/stop program with one goal in mind (weight loss) and returning months later, upset that they have “fallen off” the plan and regained any lost weight. From the client’s perspective, it was their fault that they couldn’t maintain the meal plan. They felt hopeless, tired of dieting, hateful towards their bodies and terrified of eating.
What if it’s not the client who’s failing at the meal plan?
What if it’s the meal plan, or diet, that’s failing them?
Together, Evelyn and Elyse began to collaborate with each other and dive into research behind eating psychology and behaviors, and the concept of Intuitive Eating was born.
Ten years later, in 2005, public interest and media attention on Intuitive Eating began growing after the first study published showed that Intuitive Eaters have lower fat levels in the blood and an overall reduced risk for heart disease. As of today, Intuitive Eating continues to gain media attention and public interest around the world.
What is Intuitive Eating About?
The following categorizes the difference between the foundations of the diet approach vs the intuitive eating approach:
Diets
External Criteria
Meal Plans, Rules
Distrust in Self, Confusion Between Mind/Body
Physical and Psychological Harm
Intuitive Eating
Internal Criteria
Body Cues, Felt Sensations
Strengthened Self-trust, Mind/Body Connection
Physical and Psychological Wellness
Diet culture has lead people down the path of relying on external criteria to feed themselves (calories, macros, points, scale weight). These tools of dieting disrupt the mind/body connection. For example, have you ever felt hungry, but you delay eating because you had breakfast one hour ago and think “I can’t possibly be hungry!” So you fight through it because you don’t want to eat “too much”? This is one of the most common situations where thoughts from the mind disrupt a felt sensation from the body.
Body attunement, or Interoceptive Awareness (IA) is an important underlying concept in the Intuitive Eating framework. IA refers to the ability to listen and respond to the physical sensations that arise within your body – like the biological cues mentioned earlier, but with a focus on hunger, fullness, satisfaction and how food feels in your body.
One 2017 study found that body appreciation is a powerful mitigating factor for people to respond to the messages of their bodies. Well, (no) thanks to weight stigma, social media influence and the declared “War on Obesity”, body appreciation and self-esteem is at an all time low.
Intuitive Eating is a self-care eating framework based on 10 principles, which work in two key ways:
1. To help you improve body attunement.
2. To remove the obstacles, or disrupters, to body attunement.
The 10 Principles of Intuitive Eating
1. Reject the Diet Mentality (Removes Obstacles of IA)
2. Honor Your Hunger (Improves IA)
3. Make Peace with Food (Removes Obstacles of IA)
4. Challenge the Food Police (Removes Obstacles of IA)
5. Feel Your Fullness (Improves IA)
6. Discover the Satisfaction Factor (Improves IA)
7. Cope with Your Emotions with Kindness (Removes Obstacles of IA)
8. Respect Your Body (Removes Obstacles of IA)
9. Movement – Feel the Difference (Improves IA)
10. Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition (Removes Obstacles of IA)
Intuitive Eating Is…
An Inside Job
Intuitive Eating is about turning it inward. Get rid of the tools of dieting such as calorie/macro counting and body weight scales, all of which disconnect you from your inner wisdom. Replace those with the tools of Intuitive Eating.
Click here to purchase the workbook and/or seek support from myself, or another certified intuitive eating counselor in your area to start your own intuitive eating journey and ditch diets once and for all!
A Personal Journey of Curiosity and Discovery
Curiosity Over Judgement is one of the many mantras of Intuitive Eating. Judgement leads to shame, guilt and low self-esteem. Curiosity and non-judgmental self-awareness are powerful tools to help you take care of yourself. In the Intuitive Eating framework, you are never judged and every eating experience, whether you interpret as good or bad, is an opportunity to gather information and learn about your body.
Process Oriented, Rather than Goal Oriented
Unlike the linear, goal oriented style of dieting, Intuitive Eating is a process of unlearning, relearning and self-discovery. It is a “2 step forward, 1 step back” type of journey that values progress over perfection.
Validated Based on Research
There are currently over 125 studies validating the Intuitive Eating framework based on science (yes, science!) According to research conducted by Tracy Tylka (2006) of Ohio State University, there are 3 key validated features of Intuitive Eating:
1. Unconditional permission to eat when hungry and what food is desired.
2. Eating for physical rather than emotional reasons.
3. Reliance on internal hunger and satiety cues to determine when and how much to eat.
The general benefits of intuitive eating include:
Greater body appreciation and satisfaction
Positive emotional functioning
Greater life satisfaction
Unconditional self-regard and optimism
Psychological hardiness
Greater motivation to exercise, when focus is on enjoyment rather than guilt or appearance
The physical health benefits of intuitive eating include:
Lower triglycerides
Lower blood pressure
Higher HDL
Improved blood sugar control
Lower disordered eating and binge eating *which has direct impact on physical health
Lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol & reduced inflammation
