The origins of intuitive eating may be a bit murky, but its core message is clear. Intuitive eating means eating when you feel hungry and stopping once you are full. It involves giving yourself permission to eat and trusting your body to make good choices around foods. It is something we are born with but often lose as we get older and ‘use’ food to provide us with comfort or distraction. It can take time to re-learn intuitive eating, but, with practice, doing so may help curb binge eating, emotional eating and overeating. Unlike diets that label foods as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ intuitive eating focuses on honouring hunger with foods that benefit both physical and mental health.
People who practice intuitive eating refer to these key principles:
- Reject the diet mentality: when a person has a diet mentality, they have a constant awareness of food and how they believe it affects their body. They filter their food choices through the diet mentality in an attempt to look a certain way or ‘be healthier’. Having a diet mentality can be harmful, especially if a person has it for an extended period. People with a diet mentality choose their foods based on this mentality, and they do not always consider factors such as hunger, cravings, and what their body wants. Intuitive eating considers each of these factors
- Honour your hunger: restricting food can trigger an urge to overeat. People following intuitive eating should eat enough calories, including sufficient carbohydrates, protein, and fat, to feel satisfied. Although it may be difficult for some people, the aim of this principle is to learn to recognise hunger and fullness cues
- Make peace with food: food is not the enemy. People should not consider any foods to be off-limits, unless they have an allergy or intolerance. When people give themselves unconditional permission to eat, they may avoid uncontrollable cravings, feelings of deprivation, and the desire to binge, comfort eat or overeat
- Challenge the food police: the ‘food police mindset’ refers to people moralising food. They may think that healthy foods are ‘good’ and that unhealthy foods are ‘bad.’ These beliefs are not true, and intuitive eating encourages people to challenge them
- Discover the satisfaction factor: eating can, and should, be enjoyable. A person can make eating pleasurable by sitting down to eat, eating foods they enjoy, and eating in an inviting environment. People tend to feel more satisfied after a meal when eating is a pleasurable experience. This is often the opposite as to how we eat when bingeing, overeating or emotional eating
- Feel your fullness: people should honour both their hunger and their fullness. Intuitive eating principles suggest that people check in with themselves during and after eating. They should pay attention to how the food tastes, how they feel, and their current hunger level. Doing this helps them recognise when they are satisfied.
- Cope with your emotions with kindness: some people binge or overeat to deal with uncomfortable or challenging emotional circumstances. It is advised that these are dealt with differently, maybe via a therapist or with enjoyable distractions such as going for a walk, phoning a friend, petting your dog/cat, writing a journal etc.
- Respect your body: People may have unrealistic expectations for how their body should look, causing them to criticise themselves harshly. Clinging to these expectations can make it hard to reject the diet mentality. Individuals following intuitive eating try to appreciate and respect their body
- Movement — feel the difference: rather than focusing on how many calories they burn during exercise; people can focus on how exercise makes them feel. They should use that feeling as motivation to get and to stay active
- Honour your health — gentle nutrition: what a person eats consistently over time is what matters. They can and should choose foods that honour their nutrition goals and cravings. It has been recognised that individuals are far less likely to binge or overeat with this mindset
Research on the topic of intuitive eating is still growing and has largely focused on women. Thus far, studies have linked intuitive eating to healthier psychological attitudes, lower body mass index (BMI), and weight maintenance though, it should be noted, not weight loss.
However, one of the major benefits of intuitive eating seen in the research is better psychological health. Participants in intuitive eating studies improved their self- esteem, body image, and overall quality of life while experiencing less depression and anxiety. Intuitive eating interventions also have good retention rates, meaning people are more likely to stick with the program and keep practising the behavioural changes for longer making long-term weight management a more likely outcome.
