With holiday feasts and New Year’s resolutions approaching, many of us will find ourselves bombarded with commercials for diets or pressure from our social circles (including social media) to take on a new diet. Oftentimes, the promises new diets make are misleading at best and triggering at worst. If you’re tired of the same-old diet fads, you could benefit from intuitive eating.
What is Intuitive Eating?
Simply said, intuitive eating means making peace will all types of food. Traditional diets limit or restrict some meals and foods, labeling them as “bad.” Traditional diets also label foods like vegetables “good.” Intuitive eating does not focus on labeling foods as “good” or bad” or restricting any food you want. Intuitive eating relies on paying attention to your body and consuming the foods that make you feel good.
This may sound like an excuse to eat everything you want whenever you want, but it’s a bit more complex than that. Intuitive eating relies on your body’s inherent ability to inform you when you’re hungry, full, or somewhere in-between. When intuitive eating, you let go of the belief that you need to lose or gain weight because you know how to eat to make your body (and mind) feel good.
How Do I Eat Intuitively?
The basic idea in intuitive eating is that you eat what food you’re craving when you’re hungry and stop eating when you’re full. This is easier said than done, so the creators of intuitive eating (Evelyn Tribole (MD, RDN, CEDRD-S) and Elyse Resch (MS, RDN, CEDRD-S, FIAEDP, FADA, FAND) have laid out 10 principles to help you on the intuitive eating journey.
What are the 10 Principles of Eating Intuitively?
- Reject the Diet Mentality
- Honor Your Hunger
- Make Peace with Food
- Challenge the Food Police
- Discover the Satisfaction Factor
- Feel Your Fullness
- Cope with Your Emotions with Kindness
- Respect Your Body
- Movement – Feel the Difference
- Honor Your Health – Gentle Nutrition
What are the Benefits of Intuitive Eating?
In intuitive eating studies, participants have shown improved self-esteem, body image, and overall quality of life. Improved psychological health is a huge benefit of intuitive eating and is one reason intuitive eating is preferred by many nutritionists when treating those with eating disorders and discorded eating. Furthermore, studies have shown those who eat intuitively have a better retention rate than those on a traditional diet.
What are the Risks of Intuitive Eating?
While no studies as of this writing have found any risks linked to intuitive eating, it’s important to talk to a doctor or registered dietician nutritionist (RDN) about making any big changes to your diet.
To learn more about intuitive eating, visit Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch’s website dedicated to intuitive eating.
