The IE/HAES movement is gaining traction & I am so here for it! The first publication of Intuitive Eating was published in 1995 & through rigorous research efforts & effective change, Tribole & Resch’s work is finally gaining the credit it deserves in a multidisciplinary way.
IE/HAES stands for Intuitive Eating/Health at Every Size & there are many anti-diet dietitians (like myself) who research & promote human instinct as a powerful tool for maintaining/achieving health & homeostasis.
Homeostasis is a comfy spot for your body to just be. It’s the state in which it wants & needs to be in to perform effectively. We have mechanisms in place to fight or counteract any shift in state, risking the subtle balance of our homeostasis. Think body temperature for example, similarly to how you sweat in response to increased body temperature, your body knows what to do when its hungry. You bet its gonna kick it into overdrive & eat when reintroduced to food. Yeah its probably going to feel pretty out of your control. You. are. human.
Anti-diet dietitian may seem like a counter-intuitive term. If I’m not promoting diets as a dietitian, then wtf am I doing? Its quite literally right there in the job title - DIETitian. We promote the groundbreaking research & supporting the fact that diets don’t work. We’ve been there, we’ve tried that, they’re not working or showing any sign of improving health outcomes in the near future. In fact, these diets that deem to fix health issues through weight loss have created other & often overlooked health risks. Did you know that anorexia nervosa is the most fatal psychiatric diagnosis?(1). Yes, even more so than depression. No one is talking about it. It’s time to move on to another approach with scientifically proven positive health outcomes that represent overall, to-each-their-own, actual health beyond a number on the scale.
I love Intuitive Eating. I love being able to eat whatever I want, whenever I feel like it. Becoming an Intuitive Eater has allowed me to have countless guilt free chocolate milkshakes. Wouldn’t that be nice? Isn’t that what we all want? Guilt free eating? I think this is where some skepticism around the effectiveness of this ‘program’ comes into play - the idea of becoming healthier eating whatever you want does in fact seem too good to be true. In comparison to the health advice, diet information & other programs of this sort that we are used to seeing, Intuitive Eating doesn’t demonstrate a lot of immediate hope for the general population. But that’s what makes it different & that’s what makes it effective. You’ve heard the saying ‘if its not broken, don’t fix it’? This needs fixing, dieting is broken & here I am as an anti-diet dietitian with a different solution. Let’s solve the guilt problem by removing the guilt, not what’s making us guilty.
All of these other different ‘programs’, weight loss advice, strict/restrictive diets & lifestyle patterns have diminished our natural ability to feed ourselves. They have made us feel guilty for breaking arbitrary food rules that make us feel we are always bending & compromising, never able to fully follow the strict, often outrageously mundane & specific regime. Repetitively feeling guilty or obliged or self-hatred, like a failure, inadequate, unable to exhibit self control has made us lose trust in our knowledge, cravings & desires. Your body was pushing you off your diet for a reason - these programs disrupted your homeostasis & your body needed to intervene. You don’t need a regime to follow with Intuitive Eating. The only thing you follow is yourself. You do you. Feed yourself using your human instinct in a way that works for you to maintain homeostasis. You have to trust yourself - & the hardest part is learning to trust yourself around food (at least it was for me).
Weight loss goals disrupt our ability to hear our and respond to our hunger cues. So if you’re becoming an Intuitive Eater simply for results on the scale, just stop reading now. It has so much more to offer us, like As much as I would love to, I can’t help you ditch the dieting mentality. That’s on you. It can be hard to do, especially if you’re a diet veteran or have many relationships formed via diet bond or have just adapted to the dieting ‘norm’. The progress you will make is based on your thoughts & feelings toward food & your food choices. By addressing the root of your food complexities & insecurities, your relationship with your body, exercise & appearance will improve as well - because remember you’re not thinking about weight loss
In reality, it unfortunately doesn’t simply boil down to eating what you want when you feel like eating it. Becoming an Intuitive Eater in this sense alone could get you into some trouble. Like yeah, I always could go for a chocolate milkshake, but that doesn’t mean I’m always drinking chocolate milkshakes. I would have a really bad tummy ache, leaving me without much of an appetite for other foods, therefore making it difficult to meet my nutrition requirements. It is a mindful process which is psychologically tiresome & is not a quick solution. It will take time, it will take effort, it will be worth it. The generic, heavily marketed regimes we’re used to seeing offer the quick solution. Like putting a bowl under dripping water - the floor isn’t getting wet but the water is still coming from somewhere. We’re done with that. Your time & health are valuable. In this process, you may be introduced to nutrition related complexities you didn’t even know you had & need to overcome them before moving forward in your Intuitive Eating journey.
It does boil down to personal & unique barriers to achieving positive food relationships which become apparent as you move through the principles. Overcoming these barriers, one by one, allowing yourself time & space to feel how you feel about food & your body is an empowering learning experience, leaving you more in tune with & aware your human instinct to feed yourself adequately.
There are 10 Intuitive Eating Principles:
Reject the Diet Mentality
Honor your Hunger
Make Peace with Food
Challenge the Food Police
Feel Your Fullness
Discover the Satisfaction Factor
Cope with Your Emotions without Using Food
Respect Your Body
Exercise - Feel the Difference
Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition
(Resch & Tribole, 2012)
The HAES Movement & Intuitive Eating go hand in hand. We really can’t have one without the other. The HAES Community website, ran by the queens Linda Bacon, PhD & Lucy Aphramor, PhD, RD, includes an option to pledge to the movement - & you bet ya girl is listed! I pledged to “advance social justice, create an inclusive and respectful community, and support people of all sizes in finding compassionate ways to take care of themselves.”
If you are interested in joining the movement, you can learn more here: https://haescommunity.com/
So that’s my brief overview of what Intuitive Eating even is! You will continue to see IE/HAES everywhere in my posts & feed, we should be on the same page!
For the love of carbs,
Emily Paige, RD