Intuitive eating
Intuitive eating is a mindful approach to eating that encourages individuals to tune into their body’s natural hunger signals rather than adhering to restrictive dieting practices. This philosophy promotes a healthy relationship with food and body image, emphasizing the importance of eating when hungry and stopping when full. Central to intuitive eating is the distinction between physical hunger and emotional hunger, encouraging individuals to prioritize physical needs while managing emotional cravings. Developed in the 1990s by nutritionists Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, intuitive eating comprises ten guiding principles that advocate for rejecting the diet mentality, making peace with food, and redefining food as neither good nor bad.
Intuitive eating emerged from a growing awareness of the negative impact of strict dieting on mental health and well-being, which started to gain traction in the 1970s. The approach is rooted in body positivity and encourages individuals to focus on long-term lifestyle changes rather than weight loss. By fostering an environment where food is enjoyable and guilt-free, intuitive eating seeks to cultivate healthier eating habits that honor individual preferences and promote overall wellness.
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Subject Terms
Intuitive eating
Intuitive eating is a style of eating that teaches a person how to identify the different types of hunger signals in the body. Intuitive eating is not considered dieting per se; rather, the philosophy behind the technique focuses on creating a healthy attitude toward food and body image without restrictive guidelines. The basic idea behind intuitive eating is to eat when hungry and stop eating when full. It encourages people to eat food that is simultaneously enjoyable and healthy. A person also learns how to distinguish between physical hunger and emotional hunger, prioritizing physical hunger over emotional hunger, or food cravings. In this way, a certain degree of willpower is needed to overcome emotional eating that can cause guilt and self-hatred in its wake. With intuitive eating, a person learns to satisfy physical hunger without experiencing the feelings of guilt or shame after eating.
Overview
Intuitive eating approaches are rooted in the body positivity movement within feminist discourse, which examines how to promote positive body image in a society that is often critical of people’s body types. As early as the 1970s, diet and behavioral health professionals across the country were connecting the dots between eating, body image, and psychological wellness. A number of experts came to the conclusion that strict dieting and diet programs could be harmful to overall well-being. They began formulating new ways for people to relate to food. In 1973, a nutritionist named Thelma Wayler founded a weight management program in Vermont called Green Mountain at Fox Run. Wayler’s program was based on the idea that meticulous dieting was not sustainable and could potentially be damaging to mental health. People should instead focus on long-term lifestyle changes and personal care to improve their health. The term intuitive eating was later coined in 1995 by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch in their book Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works.
Tribole and Resch laid the groundwork for the intuitive eating program by outlining ten basic principles. The first challenges people to reject the diet mentality and understand that no right diet plan exists for them. The second principle is about reframing their relationship with hunger. Hunger is not the enemy, and people should honor the feeling of hunger. If a person leaves their hunger unaddressed for too long, it could lead to overeating. The third principle encourages people to make peace with food and abandon any existing ideas about what should and should not be eaten. The fourth redefines all food as neither good nor bad, just as people are neither good nor bad for what they do or do not eat. The fifth principle digs into the feeling of fullness, stating that people should stop eating when they feel full. Individuals should pause while eating to assess this feeling, examining how they feel in the period between hunger and fullness. The sixth principle is about making sure that meals are pleasurable. Tasty meals will make eating enjoyable and likely prevent falling back to emotional eating. In this regard, the seventh principle is about acknowledging and avoiding emotional eating. Principles eight through ten focus on respecting the body, exercising to the best of people’s ability, and honoring their health by eating food that tastes good and is healthy.
Bibliography
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