The newest diet isn’t a diet at all. It doesn’t name “good” or “bad” foods, involve measuring foods or require stepping on a scale. Yet it’s consistently linked to healthier weights, improved mental health and lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels, according to one Public Health Nutrition review.
How does that work? “Intuitive eating is an adaptive and flexible form of eating characterized by a strong connection with internal physiological hunger and satiety cues,” explains Tracy L. Tylka, professor of psychology at Ohio State University who has extensively studied intuitive eating. Through her Intuitive Eating Scale, she notes four main characteristics of the approach:
- Labeling no foods as forbidden
- Avoiding emotional eating
- Trusting the body’s hunger and satiety cues to guide food choices
- Choosing foods that both make the person feel good in his or her body and taste good
“At times, intuitive eaters may eat for reasons other than hunger, such as to try a certain food or go beyond a comfortable state of satiety when eating a tasty meal,” Tylka says. “However, these individuals typically do not stress about these minor deviations or feel the need to ‘compensate’ by restricting food intake elsewhere.”
It’s a pretty freeing approach, which Tylka calls the “antithesis of dieting.” In actuality, though, it’s the antithesis of everything Americans have grown up to know about eating – regardless of whether they are trying to lose weight.
“We are told from an early age to impose an ‘externally oriented’ approach to eating,” Tylka says, noting that everything from growing up with strict mealtimes to being encouraged to join the ‘clean plate club’ works directly against our ability to see and treat food as what it is: nourishment.
Meanwhile, watching parents and those around us controlling their food intake thwarts our perception of food, says clinical psychologist Stacey Rosenfeld, director of Gatewell Therapy Center in Miami and author of “Does Every Woman Have an Eating Disorder?” After all, research published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association suggests that by age 5, girls have already internalized much of the dieting beliefs and behaviors they have seen from their mothers.
“Then there’s a multibillion-dollar diet industry that’s predicated on getting people to overrule body signals and preferences, a move that often backfires in the form of overeating and unhealthy weight cycling,” Rosenfeld says. Research from the University of California–Los Angeles suggests that two-thirds of people who lose weight gain it all back, if not more, within four to five years.
No More Yo-Yoing: The Secret to Lifelong Weight Loss?
Tylka’s current work investigates how intuitive eating results in a lower incidence of this weight cycling (aka yo-yoing). And since previous research shows that weight cycling may actually be worse for your health than never having lost the weight in the first place, taking a more sustainable approach to weight loss through intuitive eating could be more beneficial than diets that involve actively cutting calories and perhaps lead to faster weight loss, she says.
“Honoring your hunger also allows you to look at the connection between food intake, emotions and behavioral patterns,” says registered dietitian Kathryn Johnson, nutrition manager at Eating Recovery Center in Dallas. “Intuitive eating is not about losing weight, but by recognizing your current eating and behavioral patterns and working toward a more peaceful relationship with food and your body, you can encourage a healthier weight.”
For instance, in one study of 1,500 men and women, researchers found that it was emotional eating, not lifestyle behaviors, that were the greatest driver of weight gain and obesity.
5 Ways to Eat More Intuitively
Johnson shares her top tips for cultivating an intuitive eating approach.
1. Listen to your body. “Work to recognize your body’s natural hunger and satiety cues,” Johnson says. Most importantly, once you recognize those cues, don’t fight them. If you are hungry, eat – but know you don’t have to finish everything on your plate.
2. Make peace with all food. “Foods that are forbidden hold a lot of power over us,” she says. When you don’t restrict certain foods to special occasions or so-called “cheat” days, you decrease cravings and the tendency to overeat those foods when you do take a bite.
3. Eat consciously. Too often people eat while standing, in the car or watching TV, all of which can interfere with the body’s ability to gauge food intake and know when it’s full. Even if you only have a few minutes to devote to your meal, sit down and eat it mindfully, paying attention to what you are putting in your body, how it tastes and what you feel.
4. Treat emotions at the source. If you feel a craving coming on but know you are not physically hungry, ask yourself: “What am I feeling and what do I really need right now?” A nap, a few minutes of meditation or some delegating of tasks can do more to combat stress than overeating can, she says.
5. Rethink exercise. A dieting mindset turns exercise into a way to negate calories consumed. Instead, observe how your eating impacts your workout performance and how you feel in the gym, she says. Eat in a way that makes your body feel strong and full of energy.
Written for Health.USnews.com