What is Intuitive Eating?
Female leaning against a kitchen counter next to a stack of books, reading Intuitive Eating.
Heard the phrase “Intuitive Eating” floating around the internet and the Collaborative Counseling and Nutrition office? Today, we are doing a high-level overview of Intuitive Eating, providing insights into each principle, and sharing a FREE way for you to learn more from Collaborative Counseling and Nutrition’s owner and registered dietitian, Lauren Rieker.
What is Intuitive Eating?
In the words of the authors, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, “Intuitive Eating is a dynamic mind-body integration of instinct, emotion, and rational thought. It is the personal process of honoring your health by paying attention to the messages of your body and meeting your physical and emotional needs.” The 10 principles work together in two ways to help you remove the obstacles to body attunement and to empower you to cultivate body attunement. [1]
Simple put, Intuitive Eating provides a framework for helping you tune into and honor your body’s needs. Before we dive into the principles, we want to show you the differences between a diet/weight-centered approach and an intuitive eating/weight-inclusive approach.
The approaches are near opposites. The diet-centered approach is associated with increases in binging/overeating, feelings of deprivation, thoughts about food, and a sense of failure. It also decreases metabolic rate and sense of willpower. On the other hand, the Intuitive Eating approach is associated with decreases in binging/overeating and thoughts about food. And increases in metabolic rate, brain space, body trust, and a sense of empowerment.
Over the last few years, Intuitive Eating has been co-opted by diet culture and the wellness industry, which can cause confusion around what is and is not considered intuitive eating. We will dive into myths in another post, but note, Intuitive Eating is NOT:
a diet
a set of rigid rules that must be followed
a hunger/fullness diet
anti-health
a tool for weight management
The 10 Intuitive Eating Principles
Reject the Diet Mentality | With this principle, it’s important to understand and acknowledge the damage that dieting and clean eating can cause, as well as be aware of diet mentality traits and thinking. Getting rid of dieting tools, like the scale and calorie counting, is also strongly encouraged with this principle. This is a crucial part of beginning your intuitive eating journey because the rest of the principles operate outside of diet culture. The most important thing to remember is to give yourself compassion. You might not be ready to let go of things yet, and that’s okay. It’s a process. Practicing self-compassion is key here.
Honor Your Hunger | Our bodies need food to function. It’s a biological need. Instead of looking at being hungry as a bad thing, which can happen in diet culture, this principle encourages you to look at hunger as your body’s way of communicating what it needs. It also provides some helpful ways to honor your hunger. Try looking at honoring your hunger as an act of self-care and compassion that helps you build self-trust.
Make Peace with Food | When you think of giving yourself unconditional permission to eat, what comes up for you? Restricting can lead to intense feelings of deprivation that lead to cravings and even binges, a cycle that can be difficult to break free from. This principle provides ways to make peace with food for the long term.
Challenge the Food Police | What we think and believe affects our behavior. Self-awareness is the name of the game with this principle. Challenging our thoughts and beliefs about food, understanding negative self-talk, and identifying helpful and unhelpful inner voices are all part of how you can challenge the food police.
Discover the Satisfaction Factor
Do you eat what you want - what sounds, tastes, and looks good - or do you eat what you think you should eat? Satisfaction is the hub of the intuitive eating wheel, as shown in the graphic to the left. Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch state “In our compulsion to comply with diet culture, we often overlook one of the most basic gifts of existence—the pleasure and satisfaction that can be found in the eating experience. When you eat what you really want, in an environment that is inviting, the pleasure you derive will be a powerful force in helping you feel satisfied and content [2, pg. 150].”
Feel Your Fullness | This principle encourages you to identify and understand your fullness cues. Part of that also includes knowing what foods will keep you satiated. Like other principles, this one will likely require some experimentation. Self-awareness and self-compassion are big components of this principle.
Cope with Your Emotions with Kindness | Do you identify as an ‘emotional eater?’ Do you think it’s a good thing, a bad thing, or a neutral thing? This principle helps normalize eating to soothe emotions, while also encouraging you to find coping strategies and self-care tools to deal with tough emotions.
Respect Your Body | “Respecting your body means treating it with dignity, while holding the intention of meeting its basic needs [2, pg. 200].” Body image work can be incredibly difficult. In addition to addressing weight stigma, fatphobia, and Health At Every Size, this principle provides you with tools on your journey to a better relationship with your body.
Movement—Feel the Difference | Why do you workout? In diet culture, the motivation for working out often comes from a desire to manipulate our body by sweating, burning calories, or skipping rest days. And is that type of workout even enjoyable? Intuitive, joyful movement is possible and this principle encourages you to embrace it! Movement without rules and rigidity can make all the difference.
Honor Your Health—Gentle Nutrition | This principle is a representation of the integration of all the other principles. Gentle nutrition will look different for everyone, but a few common characteristics include focusing on a combination of nutrient-dense foods and play foods, making informed food choices, and having fun with food.
The beauty of Intuitive Eating is that it is an adaptable framework. There are no hard and fast rules about how quickly people should move through the principles or whether all principles need to be practiced at the same time. It’s not a diet plan that needs to be followed, so it’s free of rigidity and rules.
Intuitive Eating can be adapted for neurodivergent folks who might have difficulty with interoceptive awareness. It can be adapted for folks living on a budget and for those with limited access to certain foods. That’s why it can be helpful to work with a dietitian, therapist, or coach who can help you on your journey.
The other important note about intuitive eating is that it’s all a journey. Striving to be an intuitive eater every single day isn’t the goal. Tuning into what your body needs, practicing self-compassion, and learning self-trust are all valuable skills you’ll utilize on your journey!
If you want to learn more about intuitive eating and body image, tune in tomorrow night, Wednesday, October 19 from 7 -8 pm, for a FREE workshop! You can register HERE. The recording will be made available to anyone that registers!
Sources Used:
[1] Resch, E., & Tribole, E. (2021, June 1). The Intuitive Eating Journal: Your Guided Journey for Nourishing a Healthy Relationship with Food (1st ed.). New Harbinger Publications.
[2] Tribole, E., & Resch, E. (2020, June 23). Intuitive Eating, 4th Edition (Updated). St. Martin’s Essentials.
Collaborative Counseling & Nutrition is an outpatient nutrition and body image counseling center, with locations in Indianapolis and Carmel, that provides compassionate, holistic eating disorder treatment. Through practicing mindfulness, intuition, and Health At Every Size, we are on a mission to help you find a true state of well-being! We take an anti-diet, weight-inclusive approach with all our clients and work to help guide you towards a way of healthy living designed by you, just for you! This post is for education purposes only and should not be used as a substitute for treatment for an eating disorder. If you are looking for a registered dietitian or therapist to assist you on your recovery journey, please reach out today!
