Intuitive eating has been getting a lot of attention lately as a way to improve your relationship with food and your body. But what is it?

The concept of intuitive eating was developed by two dietitians, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, in the 1990s. It’s based on the idea that we are all born with the ability to eat intuitively – that is, to eat in a way that meets our individual needs for hunger, fullness, and nutrition.

However, our culture teaches us to ignore these intuitive cues, and instead, to eat based on dieting rules and external cues like the time of day or what’s “appropriate” to eat. This can lead to a negative relationship between food and your body.

If you’re interested in learning more about intuitive eating, read on for a comprehensive explanation of what it is and how it can help you improve your relationship with food and your body.

What Is Intuitive Eating?

Intuitive eating is an approach to nutrition that is based on the belief that we are all born with the ability to eat in a way that is best for our bodies. This means listening to our hunger cues and permitting ourselves to eat when we are hungry, without restriction or judgment.

Intuitive eating is about trusting ourselves to make the best choices for our bodies, without succumbing to diet culture’s restrictive and often damaging rules about what to eat and when. It’s about making food choices based on our body’s needs and wants, not what society says we should or shouldn’t be eating.

Intuitive eating is a non-diet approach to health, meaning it has nothing to do with counting calories or cutting out entire food groups. It’s about learning to listen to your body’s hunger signals, to make food choices that satisfy you physically and emotionally, and to make peace with “forbidden” or “unhealthy” foods.

There are principles of intuitive eating, which are designed to help us create a healthy relationship with food and our bodies.

The Ten Principles of Intuitive Eating:

1st Principle:

Honoring your hunger. This means recognizing and responding to your body’s physiological signals of hunger and fullness. This helps us understand that it’s ok to eat when we’re hungry and to stop when we’re full – even if that means that we don’t finish our meals.

2nd Principle:

Making peace with food involves letting go of the “good” vs. “bad” food mentality and realizing that all foods can be part of a healthy, balanced diet. We can’t label foods as “good” or “bad,” instead, we should recognize that some foods are more nutritious than others and make food choices based on our health goals.

3rd Principle:

Challenging the food police encourages us to challenge the diet-culture messages we’ve internalized. Instead of trying to follow external rules about what we “should” and “shouldn’t” eat, we can learn to trust our internal cues of hunger, fullness, and satisfaction.

4th Principle:

Choosing trustful nutrition messages involves recognizing the influence of diet culture and understanding which sources of nutrition information are trustworthy and which ones aren’t.

5th Principle:

Respecting your fullness involves stopping eating after we’ve reached a pleasant level of fullness rather than overfilling ourselves.

6th Principle:

Discovering the satisfaction factor is about learning how to make meals that satisfy us both physically and emotionally.

7th Principle:

Coping with emotions with kindness encourages us to cope with difficult emotions by turning to food and other coping strategies that are more nourishing than food.

8th principle:

Respecting your body involves recognizing and appreciating the mind-body connection and recognizing that our bodies do much more than just look good.

9th Principle:

Exercise – feel the difference, encourages us to explore physical movement that brings us pleasure, joy and satisfaction rather than guilt or punishment.

10th principle:

Honoring your health with gentle nutrition encourages us to make behavioral changes that support our overall health, rather than focusing on specific foods or nutrients.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, intuitive eating is an approach to nutrition that is based on trusting yourself to make the best choices for your body without succumbing to restrictive diet rules.

It’s about recognizing and responding to our body’s hunger and fullness cues, making food choices that are satisfying for both our bodies and minds and cultivating a healthy relationship with food and our bodies.

If you’re interested in learning more about intuitive eating, these 10 principles are an excellent place to start.