Intuitive Eating: A Safe and Gentle Dieting Approach

Let's delve into the world of intuitive eating! This is not just any diet, but a mindful and gentle approach to nutrition that yields surprising benefits.

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Intuitive eating is a mindful eating approach that focuses on honoring your hunger and enjoying your food. Read on to learn more about this intuitive eating approach and how it can help you develop a healthier relationship with food and your body.

1 What is Intuitive Eating?

Intuitive eating is a diet approach developed by nutritionists Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. It encourages a more positive eating style and a healthier attitude towards food and your body image.

With intuitive eating, you rely on your body’s hunger cues and eat until you’re satisfied. It’s about eating with personal mindfulness, not forcing yourself to continue eating when you’re already full.

Intuitive Eating

2 Principles of Intuitive Eating

According to Alissa Rumsey, an intuitive eating counselor and owner of Alissa Rumsey Nutrition and Wellness (US), the principles of intuitive eating should be applied systematically and carefully, one step at a time.

Eat When Hungry

Listening to your body is the best way to recognize your body’s necessary food needs. Nutritionist Cording suggests rating your hunger on a scale of 1-10 to help determine your hunger and food needs.

Eat When Hungry

Eat for Health with Nutritious Choices

Intuitive eating is based on your body’s signals and nutritional knowledge to help you make appropriate food choices. Instead of strict diet control, you can enjoy your meals based on your personal eating needs and necessary nutrition.

Eat for Health

Pay Attention to Your Body’s Hunger and Fullness Cues

Your body will signal when it’s hungry or full. Starving yourself will lead to physical weakness and fatigue and can have further consequences. So, when your body signals hunger, choose light and appropriate foods to eat.

Similarly, when your body has had enough energy, it will signal you to stop eating.

Listen to Your Body

Ditch the Diet Mentality and Be Flexible with Food Choices

To build a healthy relationship with food, you need to let go of the diet mentality when practicing intuitive eating. This way, you’ll be more accepting and trusting of your body and make more nutritious food choices.

Be Flexible with Food Choices

Eating is Enjoyable

Eating is a journey filled with joy and interesting discoveries, so you don’t need to force yourself to follow any strict rules. As a result, your body and intuition will adjust the amount of food to a reasonable level for your body’s needs.

Eating is Enjoyable

Respect Your Emotions but Don’t Indulge Them

Eating based on your emotions is a way of indulging and temporarily coping with emotional hunger. For example, if you’re stressed, try dealing with it through walking, meditation, etc., instead of eating to satisfy fake hunger caused by stress.

Respect Your Emotions

Respect Your Body’s Beauty

Emotional eating won’t make your body more beautiful as you desire. Instead, it’s a method to help you develop a more positive relationship with food. As a result, you can establish healthier eating habits.

Respecting your beauty, even with physical imperfections, will help you love yourself more and make better food choices.

Respect Your Body’s Beauty

Exercise to Feel Stronger

In addition to eating, light exercise will help you stay young, beautiful, and healthy. You don’t need to follow any harsh exercise rules. Instead, consider exercise as a factor that makes you more positive and energetic.

Exercise to Feel Stronger

3 Understanding the Different Types of Hunger

There are two types of hunger: physical hunger and emotional hunger, also known as fake hunger.

Physical Hunger

This is your body’s real hunger. With this type of hunger, your body usually sends signals like a growling stomach, fatigue, or irritability. When these needs are adequately met, the signs will gradually disappear.

Physical Hunger

Emotional Hunger

Emotional hunger is your body’s fake hunger. When your body is stressed, sad, or experiencing any negative emotion, it creates a desire to eat. At these times, you can distract your body by walking, meditating, etc. to eliminate the desire to eat.

Emotional Hunger

4 Benefits of Intuitive Eating for Your Body

Research on intuitive eating is ongoing and developing. So far, studies have shown that the main benefit of intuitive eating is improved psychological health.

In addition to improved psychological health, the physical appearance and quality of life of those participating in intuitive eating research have also improved significantly.

Furthermore, studies on the behavior and attitudes of intuitive eaters show that they are less likely to have eating disorders.

Benefits of Intuitive Eating

We hope this article provides you with the necessary information about intuitive eating so that you can apply it and develop healthy eating habits along with a suitable nutrition plan for yourself.

Source: Thanh Nien Electronic Newspaper

Frequently asked questions

Intuitive Eating is a safe and gentle approach to dieting and improving one’s relationship with food. It focuses on listening to your body’s natural hunger cues and respecting your fullness. It involves rejecting diet culture and embracing a positive mindset towards food and your body.

It involves tuning into your body’s natural hunger signals and eating when you’re hungry, and stopping when you’re full. It also means choosing satisfying and nourishing foods without restricting certain food groups. It encourages mindful eating, savoring and enjoying your food without feelings of guilt.

Intuitive Eating can lead to a healthier relationship with food, improved body image, and a positive mindset. It can help individuals make peace with food, reduce anxiety around eating, and promote a balanced approach to nutrition. It may also lead to a more stable weight and improved overall well-being.

Traditional dieting often involves restrictive rules, calorie counting, and a focus on weight loss. Intuitive Eating, on the other hand, is a weight-neutral approach that emphasizes honoring your body’s hunger and fullness cues. It’s a flexible and individualized way of eating that adapts to your body’s unique needs.

The principles include rejecting diet mentality, honoring your hunger, making peace with food, challenging food police, respecting your fullness, discovering satisfaction in eating, coping with emotions without using food, respecting your body, and exercising for joy and well-being.