Intuitive eating Flashcards
What is the focus of intuitive eating?
Focused on habit change NOT weight-loss-> not a weight loss strategy
HAES® principles:
- Weight inclusivity
- Health enhancement
- Respectful care
- Eating for wellbeing
- Life-enhancing movement
Intuitive eater definition
Someone who eats according to their internal signals (ex: hunger/fullness) and preferences, rather than in response to external pressures (ex: specific diets/food rules).
dieting definition
The pursuit of weight-loss or body modification, generally through the restriction of specific foods or calories (many other methods exist).
What is the problem with dieting?
- Short-term weight-loss
- Within 2 to 5 years weight regain
- Weight cycling
- ED risk
- Binge-eating
- Body dissatisfaction
- Cravings/preoccupation with food
- Internalized weight stigma
- Lower self-esteem
- Psychological stress (higher cortisol levels)
A 2016 study* found that ____% of Canadian young adults tried to lose weight in the past 12 months.
50%
Diet culture definition
A culture based on a set of beliefs that (1)demonize certain foods while elevating others and (2)stigmatize certain body types while elevating others.
characteristics of diet industry
− Includes all programs, products and interventions which promise sustainable weight- loss and body transformation
− Makes people believe that sustainable weight- loss is achievable
− Profits off of people’s insecurities
Characteristics of Public Health messaging around “obesity epidemic”
− Fear-inducing
− Black and white messaging about body weight
− Stigmatizing
Consequences of Diet Culture:
- Widespread guilt around eating+disordered eating - Exercise as a means to control one’s body
- Preoccupation about body size and shape
10 Principles of IE
Reject the diet mentality Honor your hunger Make peace with food Challenge the food police Respect your Fullness Discover the Satisfaction Factor Cope with your emotions with kindness Respect your body Exercise - Feel the difference Honor your health Gentle nutrition
Principle 1
Reject the Diet Mentality
- Learn about diet culture
- Understand that diets don’t work
- Recognize the damage that dieting caused
- Get rid of dieter’s tools (scale, diet
books, magazines, etc.)
Principle 2
Honor Your Hunger
- Learn to eat when hungry
- Learn to recognize signs of hunger
- 1st step of rebuilding trust with one’s body after
restriction - Unmet hunger can lead to eating past fullness (short-term) and preoccupation with food (long-term)
- IE is not a “hunger-fullness” diet
Honor Your Hunger - tool
Hungriness scale form 0 to 10
Begin eating at around 3 (set) or 4 (pangs) to maximize enjoyment of food and avoid getting uncomfortably full
Principle 3
Make Peace with Food
scary, but exciting
- Unconditional permission to eat any food in the quantity desired
- Understand that foods are not good or bad- they serve different functions
- Move away from “last supper” mentality and “what-the-hell!” effect
- Can be done step-by-step
- Often starts with “honeymoon” phase
- Allows to pinpoint real preferences as opposed to restriction-driven cravings
- Mechanism: habituation
Principle 4
Challenge the Food Police
- “You are not your thoughts”
- Label the judgmental and shaming thoughts around food as the voice of the “food police”
- This voice comes from the years of conditioning by diet culture and people’s environments
- Learn to challenge these thoughts with the “intuitive eater” voice by reframing them using a more neutral perspective
Principle 5
Respect Your Fullness
- Recognize signs of comfortable fullness
- Pay attention to sensation of fullness during meals
- Pay attention to taste changes during meals
- Keep leftovers for later!
- Beware of dieting mentality (NOT a rule- must make peace with food first)
- Still eating past fullness? Explore previous principles (hunger, restriction) or lack of satisfaction when eating
Principle 6
Discover the Satisfaction Factor
- Central to intuitive eating – each principle is meant to help maximize satisfaction
- Satisfaction= taste, quantity, environment
- Mindful eating
Principle 6
Discover the Satisfaction Factor- tool
Important question
“what would be satisfying right now?”
Probe: salty or sweet? crunchy or smooth? aroma? Hot or cold? small medium or big quantity?
Principle 7
Cope with your emotions with kindness
- Dealing with emotional eating
- Food is physiologically soothing (temporary)
- Food can be used to cope with difficult emotions/thoughts
- Emotional eating is NOT wrong
- Can be problematic if it is the ONLY coping mechanism
- Work on diversifying ways to self-soothe
- Address underlying issues
Principle 8
Respect Your Body
- Diet culture→Negative body image→Desire for body control/modification→Disordered eating
- Understand concept of body diversity
- Accept own genetic blueprint
- Meeting the body’s needs and treating it with respect
Principle 9
Exercise–Feel the Difference
- Joyful movement
- Intrinsic motivation makes it sustainable
- Focus on how the exercise feels instead of the calories burnt (ex. less stressed, energized, better mood)
- Every type of movement counts
Principle 10
Honor Your Health: Gentle Nutrition
- Work with weight-neutral goals: balanced diet for health, specific conditions
- Integrate nutrition knowledge
- Add nutritious foods to diet, avoid cutting out things
- Notice how body feels after eating different foods
- Find balance that feels good
- Nutrition and exercise should not interfere with other aspects of health (ex: mental health)
Is the order of IE principles important?
yes
Psychosocial correlates/effects of intuitive eating (Good evidence)
- Less disordered eating
- More positive body image
- Greater emotional functioning
- Greater self-esteem & self-compassion
- Improved self-esteem & body-esteem
- Decreased depressive symptoms
- Decreased disinhibition, susceptibility to hunger and obsessive-compulsive eating
IE and Diet Quality
- Relationship between IE and diet quality is unclear (limited evidence)
Health indicators (limited evidence) and IE
- Longer follow-up period → better outcomes
- Indications of improved HDL & LDL and BP levels after IE interventions
- Inverse relationship between A1C and IE scores in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes
BMI and IE
No clear effect on weight in intervention studies (reminder: IE is not a weight-loss strategy)
