So...what is Intuitive Eating, really?
As Intuitive Eating becomes more popular and well-known, it can be hard to come back to basics to be sure you really understand what it is.
Intuitive Eating was created in response to the observations that (1) the pursuit of weight loss through dieting (even when not called that) does harm to the body and mind, (2) leads to long-term weight gain and health problems misattributed to being in a larger body, and (3) confirms and strengthens anti-fat bias, which harms everyone.
This model is an approach to eating, movement, and lifestyle that focuses on an individual's self-awareness. By becoming attuned to the sensations in the body - a sense perception known as interoception - and using those sensations as a guide to meeting your needs, you become the one and only expert of you.
The characteristics of an Intuitive Eater include (1) eating for physical reasons for the most part, (2) giving yourself unconditional permission to eat, (3) having ways of coping with emotion that don't involve food, and (4) making food choices based on both taste preferences and how your body feels as a result of eating them.
What follows are the main points of each of the principles. Note that even though they occur in linear form - items 1 through 10 - Intuitive Eating is not a linear process. And read all the way to the bottom for an opportunity to get deeper insight into this process.
P R I N C I P L E # 1
Reject the diet mentality
The principles begin with an enormous philosophical shift to reject the “view” of the diet culture, comprising the industries selling weight loss, the pressure to lose weight from the medical and research communities, and bullying from “experts” claiming to know your body better than you do.
Rejecting the diet mentality is based on data showing that dieting leads to long-term weight gain, weight cycling, and worsened markers of physical and mental health. Not to mention an increase in eating disorders.
This principle also means rejecting black-and-white thinking, “good” and “bad” foods, and the ideas that there is a right way and a wrong way to eat and have a body.
P R I N C I P L E # 2
Honor your hunger
Learning to recognize your biological hunger cues and responding to them appropriately is the physical foundation of an Intuitive Eating practice because your body and mind cannot work if you are not fed adequately, regularly, and consistently.
A major tenet of this principle is understanding the relationship between undereating and overeating: here you learn how restriction triggers binge eating and you learn to respond to hunger when it is in the moderate level rather than the danger zone of extreme or primal hunger.
P R I N C I P L E # 3
Make peace with food
This is where you give yourself “unconditional permission to eat,” meaning there are no external limits on what, when, and how much you eat – only your own decisions.
Here you learn about the connection between “emotional restriction” and binging or overeating: when you don’t allow yourself to have the foods you want to eat, all hope of a natural, easeful relationship with food evaporates.
P R I N C I P L E # 4
Challenge the food police
This includes really letting go of the idea of good and bad foods, no longer judging your worth by what or how much you eat, and throwing out the whole idea of “rules” around food and eating.
P R I N C I P L E # 5
Discover the satisfaction factor
As of the third edition of the Intuitive Eating book, satisfaction was placed at the center of all the other principles. This change came as the authors recognized that when we are satisfied, our decisions about what, when, how much, and generally how we eat get clearer.
Discovering satisfaction is about prioritizing pleasure and preference so that you can determine what “enough” feels like in your own body at different times.
P R I N C I P L E # 6
Feel your fullness
Stopping when comfortably full is an internally driven choice based on knowledge of how physical signs of fullness show up in your unique body.
Fullness emerges gradually, just as hunger does. Working with this principle includes intentionally connecting with your body throughout an eating experience to notice emerging fullness.
P R I N C I P L E # 7
Cope with your emotions with kindness
The point of this principle is to recognize when the desire to eat comes from emotional rather than physical reasons. And to develop a variety of coping skills – ranging from non-destructive distractions all the way to directly working with the difficult emotion – that tend to your actual need as precisely as possible.
P R I N C I P L E # 8
Respect your body
This principle encourages you to accept that your body’s shape and size is largely determined by your genetics. And to understand that dieting is based on the lie that if you just restricted and exercised enough, you could change your body’s size and shape.
Here you also learn some concrete behaviors to start or stop doing to enact body respect, such as ensuring you’re physically comfortable and not engaging in diet or body talk.
P R I N C I P L E # 9
Movement – feel the difference
Before exercise became something to manage or shrink your body, you naturally liked to move in different ways. This principle is about reconnecting with that.
Again, the emphasis is placed on pleasure – you are more likely to continue doing activities you enjoy and that work for your body.
P R I N C I P L E # 10
Honor your health – gentle nutrition
The last principle focuses on reintroducing some focus on nutrition, but that focus must always be weighed against your own needs, preferences, and changes.
When enhancing the nutritional content of your diet, focus more on adding foods – such as dark green leafy vegetables, whole grains, and sources of omega-3 fatty acids – instead of what to take away.
Here you learn that it is as important to choose foods that taste good as it is to choose foods that feel good in your body.