Debunking Intuitive Eating Myths: What You Might Be Getting Wrong
The Growing Misconceptions Around Intuitive Eating
Working in the anti-diet and intuitive eating space has always been counter cultural, getting plenty of push back from individuals, doctors, and institutions steeped in the weight-centric paradigm of health and wellness (despite so.much.evidence that diets don’t work).
The last few years have brought a new set of challenges. As more people have started to understand that health is more than that size of one’s body, the people profiting from the status quo have started to co-opt the language of anti-diet and body liberation to sell more diets. The introduction of semaglutide medications for weight loss have further skewed the conversation about what it means to have a good relationship with food and body.
In addition, our collective attention span is shorter than ever meaning the nuanced and personalized nature of intuitive eating and its 10 comprehensive principles get reduced to an eye catching graphic or quick sound bite. As such, people are making snap judgments about what intuitive eating is or isn’t without really understanding it at all.
6 Common Myths of Intuitive Eating Debunked
Myth 1: Intuitive Eating is Only About Hunger and Fullness
It is not uncommon for people new to intuitive eating to turn it into the “hunger and fullness diet.” Two of the principles of intuitive eating are honor your hunger and feel your fullness. So, hunger and fullness do play a role in intuitive eating, but it is not the whole story.
Sometimes eating when you are not hungry is the best thing for you.
For example, if you have a long meeting which overlaps with the usual time you are hungry for lunch, eating before the meeting, even when you are not hungry, is intuitive eating.
For many people with a history of dieting or disordered eating, hunger and fullness cues are not reliable. In those instances, other safeguards must be used to support adequate intake over the course of the day. For example, an eating schedule, used in service of healing, is intuitive eating.
Learning what moderate hunger and comfortable fullness feels like in your body can take some time and experimentation. It is normal to get it wrong. Eating when you are not hungry or eating past the point of comfortable fullness is a normal part of an intuitive eating journey.
Myth 2: Unconditional Permission to Eat Means Eating Anything, Anytime
It is true that “unconditional permission to eat” is a cornerstone of intuitive eating. It is that mindset that helps you break through the restrictive barriers of diet culture and make peace with food. The natural human reaction to restriction is temptation and craving. It is no wonder that most restrictive diets end with a binge.
By giving yourself unconditional permission to eat, you let go of the restrictions that did little more than set yourself up for future failure.
That said, another cornerstone of intuitive eating is inner attunement. If you are eating all the things and feeling bad, be it physically, mentally, or emotionally, it is time for reflection. What adjustments need to be made?
Even though intuitive eating is teaching you to trust your instincts through interoceptive awareness, you can’t discount the role of rational thinking in putting all the pieces together.
Myth 3: Intuitive Eating Leads to Uncontrolled Eating and "Unhealthy" Choices
It is true that when you remove restriction you might find yourself drawn to previously forbidden or restricted food. Perhaps you even feel out of control around them, eat past the point of fullness, or feel like they are the only foods you want to eat. As mentioned above, that is a natural tendency. The solution? Habituation.
Habituation is the idea that things are less exciting and appealing the more often you are exposed to them. If you feel like you can’t trust yourself around certain foods, it might be because you need to have them around more, not less.
It can feel overwhelming to remove all restriction all at once and, for those with a long list of previously off-limit or restricted foods, approaching it systematically – a single food at a time – can help the process feel more mentally and emotionally manageable. Most clients are surprised with how quickly those previously problematic foods become just food.
Myth 4: Intuitive Eating is a Weight-Loss Diet in Disguise
Intuitive eating is about changing your relationship with food and your body; it is not about changing your body size.
Changing your relationship with food might change your body but intuitive eating is not a diet or rules to help you lose weight.
Myth 5: Intuitive Eating Doesn’t Work with Health Conditions like diabetes, hypothyroid, or hypertension
Intuitive eating is associated with good health. Growing evidence indicates that intuitive eaters have lower disordered eating, triglycerides, emotional eating, binge eating, blood pressure and body dissatisfaction while having higher self-esteem, food variety, HDL (good cholesterol), pleasure from eating and life satisfaction.
An overarching goal of practicing intuitive eating is to find authentic health, an integration of inner attunement and valid external health messages.
Gentle nutrition is the last principle of intuitive eating, not because it matters less, but because trying to incorporate external nutrition information before rejecting diet culture, making peace with food, and responding appropriately to hunger and fullness cues can easily morph back into a typical restrictive diet pattern.
If you have a particular condition that can be supported with dietary changes or health-promoting behaviors sometimes it makes sense to bring in nutrition information earlier in the process. At other times it is better to focus on intuitive eating skills first.
If you have a dietary sensitive health concern, it is best to work with a licensed nutrition professional who is also trained as a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor to guide you through the process.
Myth 6: Becoming an Intuitive Eater is EasY And Quick
Most of us are born eating intuitively before cultural messages, starting in early childhood, teach us we can’t trust our instincts. It can be hard to unlearn a lifetime of diet culture programmed thinking about food and bodies. It is the water we all swim in and the tank isn’t getting cleaned anytime soon.
Creating time and space to understand the subtleties of intuitive eating and how they apply to your life and your lived experience is an important part of the work.
A Journey of Self-Care: Finding Your Unique Path in Intuitive Eating
At the end of the day, Intuitive Eating is about taking care of your whole self – mentally, emotionally, and physically. It is about finding peace and, dare I say, pleasure in food and body. Intuitive eating offers the framework, but your exact path of the journey will be uniquely yours.
Many find it helpful to have additional support when doing this work. I offer both personalized one-on-one support and more general guidance through an online class.
The information provided is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to be medical advice or to diagnosis, treat, cure or prevent any disease. This information does not replace a one-on-one relationship with a physician or healthcare professional. Dietary changes and/or the taking of nutritional supplements may have differing effects on individuals.
To learn more about how working with a nutritionist could help you, schedule a free 15-minute call.