What is Intuitive Eating & How Can it Help Me?
What is Intuitive Eating?
Intuitive eating is a compassionate self-care eating framework rooted in dignity and respect for all bodies. It includes 10 principles that help build a healthier relationship with food, reject dieting, and practice self-care. It involves tuning into your physical sensations, emotions, and cravings, and honouring what your body needs for nourishment.
The 10 Intuitive Eating Principles
Principle 1: Reject Diet Culture
We cannot truly connect with our bodies needs if we continue to hold onto beliefs that diet culture have bred into us.
Principle 2: Honour Your Hunger
Learning to honour the first biological signal of hunger sets the stage for rebuilding trust with yourself and food.
Principle 3: Make Peace With Food
Give yourself unconditional permission to eat. Food deprivation and rules end here.
Principle 4: Challenge the Food Police
Intuitive eating helps you recognise that negative beliefs you have stored deep in your psych and supports you to challenge and remove them so that you can free yourself of guilt and shame around eating.
Principle 5: Discover the Satisfaction Factor
You will learn how to listen to your body so that you eat what you really want, in an environment that is inviting and conducive to ensure you derive true pleasure and satisfaction from your eating experiences.
Principle 6: Feel Your Fullness
You will learn to listen for the body signals that tell you that you are no longer hungry and recognise the signs that show that you’re comfortably full.
Principle 7: Cope With You Emotions With Kindness
From a young age, we are shown that food can be used to comfort us and this may have become the only way you know to self-soothe. Intuitive eating helps you recognise that food restriction, both physically and mentally, can, in and of itself, trigger loss of control eating (which can feel like emotional eating). Find kind ways to comfort, nurture, distract, and resolve challenging emotions without loss of control eating.
Principle 8: Respect Your Body
Learn to accept and respect your body. It’s hard to reject the diet mentality if you are unrealistic and overly critical of your body size or shape. All bodies deserve dignity
Principle 9: Movement - Feel the Difference
Intuitive eating helps you shift your focus from exercising as another form of calorie control to truly moving your body for the way it makes you feel.
Principle 10: Honour Your Health - Gentle Nutrition
Make food choices that honour your well-being, taste buds, and culture; while attuning to how your body feels. This is not about aiming for perfection.
How Will Intuitive Eating Help Me?
Research on intuitive eating has shown a variety of benefits for both physical and mental health including:
1. Improved Psychological Well-being
Reduced Disordered Eating Behaviors: Studies have shown that intuitive eating is associated with fewer symptoms of disordered eating, such as binge eating, food guilt, emotional eating and restrictive eating behaviours.
Decreased Body Dissatisfaction: Research suggests that intuitive eating can lead to increased body satisfaction and decreased concerns about weight and body image.
Better Emotional Health: Intuitive eating is linked with lower levels of anxiety, depression, and stress. By reducing the emotional burden of dieting and food restriction, individuals may experience a greater sense of psychological well-being.
2. Improved Physical Health
Improved diet quality: Intuitive eaters are more likely to engage in eating a wider variety of foods and therefore have overall better diet quality.
Reduced Risk of Chronic Conditions: Research indicates that intuitive eating may help reduce the risk of obesity and associated health conditions, such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. While intuitive eating doesn't focus on weight loss, it may help people maintain a healthy weight and avoid weight cycling which can be harmful to long-term health.
Better Metabolic Health: Some studies suggest that intuitive eating may contribute to better metabolic outcomes, such as improved blood sugar regulation and lower cholesterol levels, possibly due to reduced stress around eating and food choices.
3. Better Relationship with Food
Increased Flexibility and Freedom Around Food: Intuitive eating promotes a non-restrictive approach to food, which allows people to eat without guilt or stress. This leads to a more flexible relationship with food, where enjoyment and satisfaction are prioritised over external rules.
Summary: Benefits of Intuitive Eating
The evidence suggests that intuitive eating can provide several benefits for both physical and mental health. By encouraging people to listen to their bodies and reject restrictive dieting practices, it can lead to improved emotional well-being, healthier eating patterns, and a more positive relationship with food and body image.
Ready to ditch diet culture, listen to your body and eat in a way that truly nourishes and satisfies you?
Book a free 15-minute Discovery Call with me today to explore how intuitive eating can help you transform your relationship to food. Together, we can explore the best path to improve your health and well-being.
References:
Hazzard VM, Telke SE, Simone M, Anderson LM, Larson NI, Neumark-Sztainer D (2021) Intuitive eating longitudinally predicts better psychological health and lower use of disordered eating behaviors: findings from EAT 2010-2018. Eat Weight Disord. 26(1): 287-294.
Goode, C.K. and Fenton A. (2025) Intuitive eating group interventions: review and guide for best practices. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners; 21(1).
Bacon, L. et al (2005) Size acceptance and intuitive eating improve health for obese, female chronic dieters. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, Volume 105, Issue 6, 929 - 936.
Rezende, F., Oliveira, B. M. P. M., & Poínhos, R. (2024). Assessment of Intuitive Eating and Mindful Eating among Higher Education Students: A Systematic Review. Healthcare, 12(5), 572.
Please note: This blog is intended for educational purposes and should not replace personalised medical advice. Consult a qualified healthcare provider for individual concerns.
