Intuitive eating has become increasingly popular in recent years, even if it’s nothing new. The term “intuitive eating” was officially introduced when California registered dietitians Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD, and Elyse Resch, MS, RD, wrote the first edition of the book “Intuitive Eating” in 1995 and the fourth edition was released in 2020.
Intuitive eating has 10 principles:
- Ditch the diet mentality
- Honor your hunger
- Make peace with food
- Challenge the food police
- Discover the satisfaction factor
- Feel your fullness
- Deal with your emotions with kindness
- Respect your body
- Movement—feel the difference
- Honor your hunger with light food
As with many ideas that suddenly become popular, the central tenants of intuitive eating can be easily misinterpreted, especially as information spreads on social media. Many people have “heard” of Intuitive Eating, but they don’t really know much about the. This means that people starting to practice Intuitive Eating may get some interesting comments and questions from family, friends, co-workers, the mail carrier (OK maybe not then unless you REALLY talk to your mail carrier).
Here are five of those questions/comments you might hear (and want to be prepared for) if you’re a novice, intuitive eater.
“Aren’t you worried about what quitting will do to your health?”
Part of peace with food is unconditional permission to eat, something that is often misunderstood by those who do not fully understand or have not experienced Intuitive Eating. The idea of an unconditional license to eat can seem like a food free-for-all, and it can even feel that way to people who are just dipping their toes into intuitive food waters.
But Intuitive eating isn’t a free-for-all. It’s not about eating whatever you want, as much as you want, whenever you want. This is because Intuitive Eating combines this unconditional permission with attunement to the physical sensations that arise from the body, which includes states such as hunger and fullness, as well as the physical sensations that accompany emotions.
Intuitive eaters allow themselves this they eat when they are hungry and stop when they are comfortably full most of the time — sometimes you just need to eat when you’re taking a break between meetings, even if you’re not hungry yet, and some meals are so rare and delicious that you can make the conscious, intentional choice to enjoy them a little more — and develop a range emotional coping tools so that food is not their default when life is difficult.
That said, it’s not uncommon to have a “honeymoon period” where you feel like you’re eating nothing but cookies. In fact, for many people—especially if they have a long history of restrictive dieting or have had many dietary rules to break— Feeling a little out of control is a normal part of the process.
A metaphor often used by Intuitive Eating practitioners is the swing of the pendulum. Rigid or restrictive food swings the pendulum to the right. When you break free from these rules, the pendulum often swings equally to the left. But as you practice intuitive eating, allowing yourself to eat all foods while listening to what your body wants, the pendulum will settle somewhere in the middle.
“Are you eating salad? I thought you did Intuitive Eating?”
Part of the ‘giving up’ myth is the idea that if you choose to eat ‘healthy’ foods – say a salad instead of a burger – you’re not intuitively eating ‘right’. and that you are actually stuck in the diet mindset. But keep in mind that “soft eating” is one of the principles, and intuitive eaters don’t need to justify their dietary preferences or needs.
As Evelyn Tribole says: “You have the freedom to choose a bowl of ice cream as much as the freshly baked vegetables.”
I often get these types of questions from my clients, or more like, “I wanted broccoli the other night… is that a sign that I still have a diet mindset or I wanted broccoli intuitively?” A good litmus test is to ask yourself whether you desire “healthy” food from a place of self-care or self-control.
- If eating your veggies makes you feel good, keeps your digestion smooth, looks pretty on the plate…and hey, maybe you LIKE veggies, then that’s it self care.
- If you didn’t like how you looked in the mirror that morning, feel guilty about not eating vegetables at lunch, or feel like you’re bad if you DON’T eat vegetables, then that broccoli craving is probably born from self control. This is a sign that there is still mindset work to be done. And that’s okay… it’s part of the process.
Just to add another story, one of my clients has made peace with pretzels, which were previously a big food “no-no” for her. Then one day, he was at the grocery store and was about to get more pretzels, when she realized she was sick of pretzels and what she really wanted was a salad.
(She did a bit of the “is this eating mindset or intuitive eating mindset?” dance in her head and realized that she really was craving the salad and there was no guilt involved.)
“Oh yeah, I tried Intuitive eating… and it didn’t work.”
When intuitive eating turns out not to be so intuitive, it’s easy to think “this isn’t working.” But like any new skill, intuitive eating takes time—and for most people, intuitive eating is very new, indeed. In other words, it is easy and complex at the same time.
Although we have the ability to eat intuitively, food culture can throw us off course and make it difficult to reclaim this right to nourishment.
Here is another important point: Intuitive eating is a practice. It is not enough to just read the book and understand it mentally. You have to practice the skills and accept that it takes time to feel “intuitive”.
Also frustrating for many people is that intuitive eating isn’t black and white – it’s all shades of grey. This can feel uncomfortable when you have a long history of following dietary rules.
Intuitive eating is a journey best approached with curiosity and a non-judgmental mindset – what may feel like a “mistake” is valuable information and an opportunity to learn something new about yourself.
“Isn’t this a way to lose weight without actually dieting?”
Intuitive eating is often marketed as a “non-diet” way to lose weight by nutrition companies and healthcare organizations and providers who don’t really understand Intuitive Nutrition. In fact, two of the most well-known principles – “honor your hunger” and “feel your fullness” – are often chosen as a kind of “hunger fullness diet”.
But Intuitive Eating isn’t about losing weight, it’s about healing your relationship with food, mind and body. Focusing on weight loss interferes with the process of tuning into your body’s internal cues. Instead, you end up continuing to focus on external cues—the scale, the calories, the macros. It keeps you out of your body when you need to be in your body.
The fact is, how one’s body responds to eating intuitively depends a lot on one’s relationship with food before one ends up eating intuitively, and whether eating behaviors such as restricting, bingeing—or both—pushed their weight above or below their body’s preferred range.
Different bodies will have different results. Some bodies will lose weight with intuitive eating, some bodies will gain weight, some will stay the same. Over time, as one becomes a seasoned intuitive eater, their body weight will generally settle into their body’s preferred range…which may or may not be the range they were hoping for, consciously or unconsciously.
That’s why it’s important to explore your reasons for wanting weight loss without trying to lose weight, so you can avoid intuitive eating turning into the aforementioned “starvation diet.”
Yes, “honor your hunger” and “feel your fullness” are two of the intuitive eating principles, but turning these gentle guidelines into absolute rules ignores the first principle of “dropping the food mindset.” Intuitive eating is about moving away from dieting and creating a truly balanced and peaceful relationship with food.
“I could never trust myself to do that.”
When you’ve been taught for years – or decades – that you can’t trust your body, that you must control what you eat and drink by external rules and monitor the size and shape of your body with scales, measuring tapes and calipers,* There is a lot of unlearning that needs to happen before you can make peace with your body. This includes listening to – and trusting – the abundant wisdom your body has to share with you.
* (Oh, I never used calipers at home to measure your body fat? I’m really happy for you, because I did during a dieting frenzy and deeply regret it.)
Many people who describe themselves as compulsive, emotional, out-of-control eaters find that when they “challenge the food police” and “make peace with food” by letting go of rules and judgments about “good” and “bad” foods (and exploring how to meet their emotional needs without necessarily turning to food) most of their emotional eating ends.
The bottom line is that you CAN trust yourself to eat intuitively. However, it takes time, and patience, and practice, and curiosity, and self-compassion.
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Carrie Dennett, MPH, RDN, is a registered dietitian nutritionist based in the Pacific Northwest, freelance writer, intuitive nutrition consultant, author, and speaker. Her superpowers include; debunking nutritional myths and empowerment of women feel better about their bodies and make food choices that support pleasure, nutrition and health. This post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute personalized nutrition or medical advice.
Looking for 1 on 1 nutritional advice? Carrie offers a 6-month Food & Body program (intuitive eating, body image, awareness, self-compassion) and a 4 month IBS management program (How-FODMAP diet coaching with an emphasis on increasing food freedom). Visit the links to learn more and book a free introductory call to see if the program is a good fit and if we’re a good fit!
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