Can Intuitive Eating really improve your health?

If you are like many of the people who I work with, you may have heard of Intuitive Eating and found it interesting, but thought that it seems a little far fetched. How can we let go of diet rules without our health taking a hit? Does Intuitive Eating actually have health benefits or will you just “keep gaining weight forever”? (a direct quote from many of my prospective clients!)

Before we dig into the health benefits of Intuitive Eating, let’s review what Intuitive Eating actually is!

What is Intuitive Eating?

Intuitive eating is an evidence-based approach that promotes a positive relationship with food, mind, and body. Developed by dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch in the 1990s, intuitive eating revolves around ten core principles with the intention to move people away from the harmful effects of long term dieting.

The 10 Principles of Intuitive Eating:

1. Reject the Diet Mentality: Dismiss the notion that diets are the solution to your health and weight issues.
2. Honor Your Hunger: Eat when you are hungry and trust your body to tell you when it needs fuel.
3. Make Peace with Food: Allow yourself to eat all foods without guilt or restriction.
4. Challenge the Food Police: Reject the internal dialogue that labels foods as “good” or “bad.”
5. Respect Your Fullness: Listen to your body’s signals that indicate you are no longer hungry.
6. Discover the Satisfaction Factor: Find joy and satisfaction in the eating experience.
7. Honor Your Feelings Without Using Food: Address your emotions without turning to food for comfort.
8. Respect Your Body: Accept and appreciate your body as it is.
9. Exercise – Feel the Difference: Focus on how it feels to move your body rather than the calorie-burning effect of exercise.
10. Honor Your Health – Gentle Nutrition: Make food choices that honor your health and taste buds while making you feel good.

What are the Health Benefits of Intuitive Eating?

In a meta-analysis review of twenty-four studies (between 2006-2015), the general benefits of Intuitive Eating were found to be completely inverse of the impacts of dieting or disordered eating (Bruce & Ricciardelli, 2016):

• Greater body appreciation and satisfaction
• Positive emotional functioning
• Greater life satisfaction
• Unconditional self-regard and optimism
• Psychological hardiness
• Greater motivation to exercise, when focus is on the enjoyment rather than guilt or appearance

While dieting focuses on getting individuals to lose weight regardless of the physical or emotional costs (and whether this is even sustainable long term — hint: it isn’t!), Intuitive Eating focuses on consistent, sustainable, long-term health benefits. For example, dieting is linked with weight cycling (losing and gaining weight over and over again) which is actually more likely to cause type 2 diabetes and heart disease than staying at a steady weight (which Intuitive Eating helps you achieve). Intuitive Eating can also help decrease inflammation and cortisol levels which impact just about every system in your body.

To get more specific about the unique health benefits of Intuitive Eating, both physical and emotional, here is a handy chart:

I know it seems almost too good to be true. Many of us have been taught our whole lives to believe that if we are not following diet rules, our bodies will never be able to stop consuming food. But this is a lie! And it’s a pretty clever lie because it keeps people stuck in the toxic diet cycle for YEARS (sometimes entire lifetimes). Does this look familiar?

If you relate to the cycle above, I encourage you to ask yourself: is this really working? Am I just doing the same thing over and over again, waiting to see different results? Is it time to try something NEW?

It can be scary to dip your toe into something scary and new, but I encourage you to take the leap! Here are some options for next steps:

• Sign up for my free sugar course (email course) – Learn how to stop feeling addicted to carbs!
• Take a look at my F*ck Your Diet Coaching Program
• Not sure what you need but ready to talk about it?? Schedule a free discovery call with me here!

Have any questions or comments? Leave me a note below!