Intuitive eating is a belief that encourages people to trust their body's internal cues regarding hunger, fullness, and food choices. This dietary practice makes you the expert on your body and its hunger signals. Unlike traditional diet patterns that impose strict rules and restrictions, intuitive eating emphasises listening to your body and honouring its needs. This approach aims to foster a healthy relationship with food and promotes overall well-being.
Here's a closer look at intuitive eating, how it works, its health benefits, and its advantages and disadvantages.
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What Is Intuitive Eating?
Intuitive eating is based on ten principles created by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch in their book "Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program that Works." These principles include:
Reject The Diet Mentality: The diet mindset is the idea that there’s a diet out there that works well for you. This dietary practice is anti-diet.
Honour Your Hunger: Well, hunger is not your enemy. React to your early signs of hunger by fuelling your body. If you allow yourself to feel excessively hungry, you are more likely to overindulge.
Make Peace With Food: Avoid ideas about what you should or shouldn’t eat.
Challenge The Food Police: Challenge thoughts about food.
Respect Your Fullness: Your system tells you when it’s hungry and signals when it’s full.
Identify The Satisfaction Factor: Make your eating habits pleasurable. This may help you to eat less food to feel satiated.
Respect Your Feelings About Food: Emotional eating is a way of coping with feelings. Be aware of the times when a feeling that you might think hunger is based on emotion.
Respect Your Body: Never criticize your body for how it looks and what you think is wrong with it, recognize it as capable and wonderful just as it is.
Exercise: Stay on your toes and shift your focus from shedding weight to feeling active, strong, and energised.
Honour Your Health: Eating food should taste and make you feel good.
How Does Intuitive Eating Work?
Intuitive eating involves listening to your body's signals and guiding eating habits. This means eating when you're hungry and stopping when you're full, without judgment or restriction. It also involves being mindful of your food choices and how different foods make you feel physically and emotionally feel good.
Health Benefits of Intuitive Eating
Optimises Relationship with Food
Intuitive eating can aid in improving your relationship with food by promoting a more positive and balanced approach to eating.
Better Body Image
Intuitive eating can help improve body image and self-esteem by focusing on internal cues rather than external rules.
Also Read: 5 Diet Trends To Follow In 2024 To Augment Your Overall Well-being
Reduced Risk of Disordered Eating
Intuitive eating may lessen the risk of developing eating disorders, such as binge eating or emotional eating.
Healthy Weight Management
While not a weight-loss diet, intuitive eating may help some individuals maintain a healthy weight by promoting a balanced approach to eating.
Advantages of Intuitive Eating
No Food Restrictions: Intuitive eating does not involve strict food rules or restrictions, allowing for a more flexible and enjoyable approach to eating.
Promotes Mindful Eating: Intuitive eating encourages mindful eating practices, which can lead to a greater appreciation of food and its impact on your body.
Focuses on Well-Being: Intuitive eating focuses on overall well-being rather than just weight loss, promoting a more holistic approach to health.
Disadvantages of Intuitive Eating
Lack of Proper Plan: A few people may find the lack of precise structure in intuitive eating challenging, especially if they are used to following strict diets.
Potential Weight Gain: Intuitive eating does not focus on weight loss, which may be a drawback for individuals looking to lose weight.
Requires Self-Awareness: Intuitive eating requires a high level of self-awareness and mindfulness, which may be difficult for some individuals to achieve.
Conclusion
Intuitive eating is a holistic dietary approach that emphasises listening to your body's clues and promoting a healthy relationship with food. While it has many potential benefits, it may only suit some. Always listen to your body and working with a healthcare provider or dietitian is important to determine if intuitive eating is right for you.
References:
Learning to eat intuitively: A qualitative exploration of the experience of mid-age women
Emma Louise Barraclough,1 E Jean C Hay-Smith,2 Sara E Boucher,1 Tracy Lynn Tylka,3 and Caroline Christine Horwath1
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6360478/
Intuitive Eating Longitudinally Predicts Better Psychological Health and Lower Use of Disordered Eating Behaviors: Findings from EAT 2010–2018
VM Hazzard,1 SE Telke,2 M Simone,3 LM Anderson,3 NI Larson,2 and D Neumark-Sztainer2
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC739279
