Intuitive Eating Myth-Busting Part 1

INTUITIVE EATING MYTH-BUSTING PART 1

4/6/2019

Salads are bad, and debunking other common myths about Intuitive Eating.

WRITTEN BY DANIELLE LITHWICK, MA, RP

There are a lot of myths and misunderstandings about Intuitive Eating out there. In this two-part series, I hope to debunk some of the most commonly misunderstood ideas about Intuitive Eating.

In this post I will cover these three myths: 1) It is the hunger-fullness diet, 2) You have to savour and enjoy every bite of food you eat, and 3) Eating salads is bad.
Let’s get into each one.

Myth #1: Intuitive Eating is the hunger-fullness diet.
First of all, Intuitive Eating is not a diet at all. Anyone who uses “Intuitive Eating” and “weight-loss” in the same sentence is completely misusing the principles of Intuitive Eating and misleading people to believe that if you just eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re full, you’ll lose weight. Yes, tuning into and respecting your hunger and fullness cues is a big part of Intuitive Eating, but it is just two out of ten principles. And the idea behind learning how to tune into your hunger and fullness cues, is to get more in touch with your inner body wisdom and to learn to respect and take care of it. Weight-loss might happen as a side effect, if for example you were regularly eating past comfortable fullness and then started to stop at comfortable fullness. And weight-gain might happen, if for example, you were regularly ignoring your hunger signals and not eating enough, and then started eating more at every meal to meet your needs better. And you might just stay the same weight, even once you're better tuned into your hunger and fullness cues.

No results are guaranteed with Intuitive Eating, when it comes to your weight or how your body might change. It’s very tempting to turn Intuitive Eating into another set of rules i.e. Only eat when hungry and always stop when full. Because we’re so used to following rules in diet culture. But Intuitive Eating is NOT about rules or rigid behaviours. And all of the principles are connected and work together - so to isolate a principle or two and call it “intuitive eating” is missing the bigger, more integrated philosophy of it. Generally in Intuitive Eating, it’s recommended to listen to your hunger and fullness cues, AND listen to your satisfaction and emotional cues. If you just eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re full, but aren’t eating foods that your enjoy or satisfy you, and/or you’re still mentally restricting yourself of certain foods- then it’s just another diet and not Intuitive Eating.

Myth #2: You have to savour and enjoy every bite of food you eat.
This myth is also sometimes turned into another way to “diet” or lose weight. For example, this can easily be turned into more rules or expectations i.e. “I have to savour every bite and eat slowly and mindfully” and “I should be satisfied with just one piece of chocolate if I eat it mindfully” and “If I don’t eat mindfully, I’ll overeat, which is bad (because I want to lose weight)”. Eating foods that satisfy you and eating in a more mindful way are big components of Intuitive Eating, but again, there are no rules in Intuitive Eating. They are all guidelines to help bring more awareness to your body and mind, and then you can make conscious choices about what to do with that information.

Slowing down and bringing more attention to your food is a way to taste your food and enjoy it more. Also eating foods we like and eating it more slowly can be easier on our digestion. So these are great practices to do as much as possible. But in reality, you’re not always going to be able to eat foods you love all the time, nor be able to eat them more mindfully. Maybe you’re going to have to grab a protein bar one morning, but would have rather had toast and peanut butter. Or maybe you only have five minutes to eat for lunch, because of back to back meetings. To expect that every meal is going to be (or “should” be) this big joy-fest is unrealistic. You don’t have to love everything you eat all the time. Sometimes, it’s just not going to be practical. And you might not be satisfied with just one piece of chocolate- it might be two or three or more. This is where listening to your needs is important, and not any specific rules about mindful eating comes in.

Myth #3: Eating salads is bad.
A huge misconception about the idea in Intuitive Eating to give yourself unconditional permission to eat ALL foods, is that eating cake is good and eating salad is bad. That choosing vegetables and fruit over donuts is bad. But this is just so far from the truth. Again, there are no rules in Intuitive Eating, therefore eating one way can’t be “good” or “bad”, because you’re not following any rules.
The reason this idea gets so misunderstood is because diet and “wellness” culture has created this dichotomy with foods - “healthy” a.k.a “good” foods are things like salads, protein, fruits and fibre, and “unhealthy” a.k.a “bad” foods are things like refined grains, baked goods, fried foods and anything that has white sugar in it. So giving yourself permission to eat all foods means also eating the foods often deemed “bad”.

But to truly give yourself unconditional permission to eat ALL foods, is understanding that there is no “good” and “bad” foods. It’s making all food neutral. It’s taking the morality out of food and our of our eating behaviours. There is nothing wrong with eating salads. In fact, salads can be very tasty and satisfying and nourishing. The issue in Intuitive Eating is always about the intention behind your food choices. Are you eating the salad because it sounds good to you and it will satisfy you? Or are you choosing it because you think you “should” even though you’d much rather have the sandwich? The flip side of this is just because you give yourself permission to eat ALL foods doesn’t mean you have to. You don’t have to eat donuts and cake and fries. But you can if you want. Because your food choices have nothing to do with your moral worth as a person. And that’s the point.

I hope this helped break down some common myths about Intuitive Eating.
Next - Read Part 2, where I bust even more myths!

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