Sick of Always Being on a Diet? Consider Intuitive Eating

Are food, weight and dieting major sources of anxiety for you? Are you trapped in that classic dieting cycle? The one where you carefully watch your diet, then later break the “rules”, feel guilty, “binge”, feel more guilty about binging and then promise yourself to watch your diet even more closely. If you’re completely fed up with this cycle and you want to work on improving your relationship with food, I suggest considering intuitive eating.

Intuitive eating is all about letting go of rigid rules around food in order to improve a negative relationship with food. It’s about following your body’s hunger cues and being flexible with your food choices. If you want to learn more about what intuitive eating is and my own personal experience with it, check out my article HERE.

Today I want to focus more on the science behind intuitive eating. The concept of relaxing the rules around eating can be really intimidating so going over the science behind intuitive eating might help you feel more at ease about it. There aren’t many studies out there on the subject yet, but the ones that exist are promising.

So, lets run through some of the promising findings that have come out about intuitive eating:

-          Intuitive eating may promote a better body image than rigid diet control

-          In some studies, intuitive eating resulted in a greater drop in BMI or at least it did not cause any weight gain

-          Intuitive eating may be associated with improved eating behaviours

-          Psychological health has been shown to improve with intuitive eating

I suspect more interesting findings will come out over time. If you want to learn more about how to do intuitive eating, you can click HERE. Clicking this link will lead you to my “Favourites” page where I have a link to a great resource to get you started on your own research.  

As a naturopathic doctor who works extensively with conditions like anxiety and depression, I see how our mood can affect our food choices and how guilt around our food choices can negatively affect our mood. I enjoy working with patients who are ready to improve their relationship with food and I’m always happy to connect patients to fabulous counsellors and dietitians who share my passion for this subject. Time and time again I find that when we get our mindset to a healthier state, it’s so much easier to eat in a way that helps us feel amazing both physically and mentally.