What is Intuitive Eating?

You may have heard this "Intuitive Eating" word thrown around a lot recently, but don't fully understand what that means.

Intuitive Eating (IE) is a concept that was designed by registered dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch centered around eating based on our body's needs, rejecting diets, and improving relationship with food. This concept is broken down into 10 Principles which target removing fear around food, enjoying movement, and improving overall well-being. Unlike dieters, research has shown that intuitive eaters have less emotional eating, loss-of-control eating, weight bias internalization, body dissatisfaction, and higher self-esteem, body appreciation and body acceptance, pleasure from eating, and interoceptive awareness.

Research shows 95% of diets fail, yet people tend to blame themselves rather than the dieting system. Consider why we idealize thinner bodies over bigger ones. Dieting promotes weight stigma, and assigns value to the number on the scale when we as humans are so much more than that! As babies, we eat when we are hungry and we stop when we are full. No one would tell a baby that they've had enough to eat or that they've gained weight. Throughout our lives we develop the mistrust in our natural signals for hunger & fullness due to diet culture in our society. IE involves reframing our brain to let go of the dieting mentally, listening to our bodies, and releasing guilt around food.

What is Intuitive Eating NOT? So glad you asked. IE is NOT anti-health. In fact, the last principle of IE is actually called Gentle Nutrition. IE was created by dietitians, and Nutrition Empowered is run by dietitians, and as RDs we love nutrition and are passionate about the role of nutrition in health. IE steers people towards eating in a way that is without guilt. Intuitive eating is both having a healthy balance of foods as well as a healthy relationship with foods. So yes, we talk about meal composition, eating fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats. As dietitians and intuitive eaters we have learned that eating a diverse diet actually helps us to feel better, and have more energy. There is a reason that Gentle Nutrition is last, and this is because you have to first let go of food rules in order to intuitively eat, and then focus on nutrition. What is amazing about IE is that once you have given yourself permission to eat all foods, your body begins to realize it doesn't want to overeat, and it chooses foods with high nutrition content because it does not feel deprived.

At Nutrition Empowered, our dietitians have overcome their own food rules and learned to listen to what their bodies are telling them. Before reaching food freedom, many people are stuck in the "I hate my body" mindset, and they delay good things in their lives until they feel that their body is more deserving. Think about how much of life is missed this way! Intuitive Eating helps us to shift and appreciate our current body so that we can experience life to the fullest.

If you are interested in learning more about intuitive eating, schedule a discovery call with one of our dietitians. They will discuss our process and mission and make sure that our program is right for you!