8 Benefits of intuitive eating
Intuitive eating is a style of eating that became popularized by two dietitians Elyse Resch and Evelyn Tribole, who wrote the book called Intuitive Eating. In the book, they created 10 major principles which are to be followed in order. They are listed as:
Reject Diet Mentality
Honor Your Hunger
Make Peace with Food
Challenge the Food Police
Feel Your Fullness
Discover the Satisfaction Factor
Cope with Your Emotions
Respect Your Body
Exercise-Feel the difference
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This eating style in short is: eat when you want, what you want, and however much you want all based on listening to your body intuitively. Now it is a lot more complex than what it seems like because learning to listen to your body can be a pretty hard skill to pick up especially if you are coming from a past of disordered eating. Intuitive eating is not mindless eating and it is not a diet. There is no restriction in intuitive eating. This eating pattern is created to be utilized every day over a life span. Everyone is invited to follow intuitive eating, and this eating pattern is meant to benefit all people. Here we will discuss all the benefits of intuitive eating.
Source: 23962472
Here are 8 Benefits of Intuitive Eating:
1. More diverse pallet
A more diverse food intake is one of the benefits of intuitive eating. The US dietary guidelines state that having variety in your meal pattern is one of the goals for healthy living. Diversity in the foods you eat will decrease the probability of becoming deficient in any vitamins or minerals. With intuitive eating, you allow yourself to eat any type of food you want, allowing more freedom of choice when it comes to mealtime. A study including a mixture of male and female college students showed a positive association between a diverse diet and the consumption of breakfast. Many people will skip breakfast in an attempt to lower their daily calorie intake for the pursuit of weight loss, but this can cause overeating later in the day and preference for more caloric dense and less healthy options. When these people begin to eat intuitively, they recognize that they’re hungry in the morning and end up consuming breakfast instead of skipping it. Identifying that you are hungry and listening to what you want to eat intuitively will increase diversity in the diet and therefore improving health and satisfaction.
Source: NIH
2. Enjoyment and better relationship with eating
Another benefit to intuitive eating is more enjoyment and a better relationship with eating. Food is a constant part of our survival and our enjoyment during social settings or holidays, therefore we do have a relationship with it to an extent. Having a positive and healthy relationship with food is important for our general happiness and stress levels. Intuitive eating provides that no foods are off-limits or restricted. This allows people to not feel guilty or stressed when they encounter a plate of ‘fear foods’ or less healthy food items. Allowing permission to eat any food will not put certain foods on a pedestal and therefore you will feel the freedom to enjoy everything you eat. Intuitive eaters eat in a way centered around preference and choice, not based on food rules or restrictions. No food is good or bad, so intuitive eaters feel satisfied during meal time.
Source: NIH
3. Improved Blood Pressure
Improved blood pressure is another one of the benefits of intuitive eating. The heart pumps blood all over the body through the vessels and the levels need to stay stable so we have enough blood circulating but not too much or else the vessel becomes over dilated and can burst possibly. There are two measures of blood pressure, diastolic and systolic. Diastolic is in between beats when your arteries are relaxed, and systolic is when your arteries are contracting. Different studies have found contradicting evidence on which part of the blood pressure is improved after an intuitive intervention. Some have noted diastolic improves while systolic remains unchanged after an intervention of intuitive eating and vice versa. Generally, the consensus is that intuitive eating has a positive effect on blood pressure.
Source: 23962472
4. Weight stability
Another one of the benefits of intuitive eating is weight stability. Maintaining the same weight range plus or minus a few pounds is weight stability, and oscillating plus or minus more than 5-10 pounds is considered weight cycling. Weight cycling is a considerable issue in the US because approximately 20-50% of women in the nation struggle with it. Furthermore, weight cycling has been linked to many other health implications including high insulin levels, blood pressure, cardiac output, cortisol sensitivity, and blood glucose levels which will be touched in the following sections. Luckily, intuitive eating has been shown to increase weight stability regardless of BMI. This is because our bodies have many innate signals that show us how hungry or full we are. If accepted and listened to, these signals will tell us how much to eat based on a healthy weight range our body is happy at, also called our set point.
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5. Better Glycemic Control
Better glycemic control is another one of the benefits of intuitive eating. Glycemic control refers to the blood glucose levels in the vessels. Optimally, blood glucose levels should remain steady throughout the day with a slight increase after meals a slight decrease between meals. Unfortunately, those with type 2 diabetes have insulin resistance, our storage hormone of glucose, so they have issues with glycemic control. A study on type 2 diabetes patients found that intuitive eating was associated with a decreased chance of inadequate glycemic control by 89% regardless of BMI.
Source: 32232778
6. Body Appreciation
Another one of the benefits of intuitive eating is better body appreciation. There is a large emphasis on the female body appearance in today’s society, resulting in praise of thin bodies and the demonization of larger bodies. The unattainable beauty standard has left women of all sizes to be self-conscious about their body image, leading to diet obsession in the pursuit of weight loss. Fortunately, a systematic review has found that intuitive eating can increase body appreciation when implemented. Intuitive eating focuses on your body’s ability to function properly when you eat food. It is not a diet so intuitive eating has no weight or BMI goal set in place, the goal is simply to appreciate your body for being able to tell you what it needs and what it can do.
Source: 26474781
7. More motivation to Exercise
More motivation to exercise is another benefit of intuitive eating. This is a benefit because exercise is so much more than a way to expend energy. Exercise improves almost every health factor, including cholesterol levels, mental health, stress, the risk for diabetes, CVD, and cancer. Intuitive eating teaches that exercise should be done because you enjoy it and you want to honor your body by exercising. Doing exercise just to lose weight is not a sustainable method, creating an unhealthy relationship with it. Instead, choose an exercise that you like and you will be more motivated to do it.
Source: 26474781
8. Less Disordered eating
Lastly, less disordered tendencies are another one of the benefits of intuitive eating. Of course, intuitive eating is the gold standard for the most sustainable and healthy way to eat and avoid disordered eating habits. Intuitive eating, when implemented has been shown to severely reduce binging, extreme weight control behaviors, and skipping meals. Intuitive eating is an all-inclusive type of eating where the goal is to eliminate rules about food or how you need to eat to look a certain way.
Source: 32006391
