‘Listen to your body’: Intuitive eating

At a time when people can take medications that quiet “food noise,” one approach to nutrition at MUSC Health encourages the opposite – listening to the body’s natural hunger and fullness cues.

It’s called intuitive eating, said sports dietitian Alaine Mills of the MUSC Health & Wellness Institute. “It's about giving up the diet cycle. Because what the research really shows about diets, especially strict diets that have you counting calories or cutting out food groups, is that they don't work in the long run.”

It’s based on the book “Intuitive Eating” and its 10 principles, which are:

• Reject diet culture.
• Honor your hunger.
• Make peace with food.
• Discover the satisfaction factor.
• Feel your fullness.
• Challenge the food police.
• Cope with your emotions with kindness.
• Respect your body.
• Movement – feel the difference.
• Honor your health – gentle nutrition.

Mills helps people apply those principles. “It can't be for people who binge or people who are more on the restriction side, or a lot of people do a cycle of both, but it helps some people give up unrealistic dieting.”

Unrealistic, because diets often don’t lead to lasting change, Mills said. “When people come to me, they say, ‘Oh, diets work.’ But then I ask them, ‘Well, why are you here now? So it didn't really work. Because the goal wouldn't be a temporary weight loss. That wasn't what you wanted.’”

She also noted that restricted eating linked to dieting can cause people to think about food more often. “You obsess about food,” Mills said.

So when people quit dieting, they may overeat. “The diet is making you think that's all your fault, right? When really, you were never the problem. Eating was never the problem and being hungry was never the problem. The problem was that you were forced to take up less space. But maybe that wasn't genetically what you were meant to look like,” Mills said.

Research has found that intuitive eating can have psychological benefits and increases the odds of maintaining a stable weight while reducing the risk of disordered eating. Mills said it’s also a counterweight to cultural ideals that may be unrealistic.

Intuitive eating isn’t for everyone. It’s one of many approaches to nutrition and becoming happier and healthier, Mills said. But for some, intuitive eating can introduce a body- and mind-based way to enjoy food without overdoing it. “It’s about giving up dieting, listening to your body and unlearning this diet culture that our media is obsessed with.”