Hitting Diet Bottom 5 Total number of diet product commercials and total number of diet food commercials as a percent of total commercials, 1973–1991. Reprinted with permission from: Wiseman, Claire et al. Increasing pressure to be thin: 19 years of diet products in television commercials. Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment & Prevention. 1(1):55, 1993. Center for Disease Control (CDC) attributed an increase in smoking by women to their desire to be thinner. Sadly, we have heard women contemplate in our offices that they too have considered taking up smoking again as a weight loss aid. But weight loss is not just a women’s issue (although clearly there’s added pressure on women). The proliferation of light-beer commercials has planted the seed of body consciousness in men’s minds, as well—a lean belly is better than a beer belly. It’s no coincidence we’ve seen the launch of magazines aimed at men, such as Men’s Fitness and Men’s Health. While the pursuit of leanness has crossed over the gender barrier, sadly, 18 I N T U I T I V E E AT I N G relearning how to become an Intuitive Eater. Nutrition heresy? No. It’s possible to respect and honor nutrition. It just can’t be the first priority when you’ve been dieting all your life. Or look at it this way, if you have focused all your attention on nutrition, has it helped? The most nutritious eating plan (absolute) can become embraced as another form of a diet. To get an idea of whether you are already an Intuitive Eater, or where you might need some further work, see “Are You an Intuitive Eater?” on page 19. It is adapted from research, which defines Intuitive Eating characteristics. You can recapture Intuitive Eating, but first you have to get rid of the diet mentality rules that keep the Intuitive Eater buried. In the next chapter, we will briefly introduce you to the core principles of Intuitive Eating. The remainder of the book will show you step-by-step how to become an Intuitive Eater. S U M M A RY OF EAT I N G STYL E S Eating Style Trigger Characteristic Careful Eater Fitness and health Appears to be the perfect eater. Yet anguishes over each food morsel and its effect on the body. On the surface, this person seems health- and fitnessoriented. Unconscious Eater Eating while doing something else at the same time This person is often unaware that she/he is eating, or how much is being eaten. To sit down and simply eat is often viewed as a waste of time. Eating is usually paired with another activity to be productive. There are many subtypes. Chaotic Unconscious Eater Overscheduled life This person’s eating style is haphazard—gulp ’n’ go when the food is available. Seems to thrive on tension. What Kind of Eater Are You? 19 S U M M A RY OF EAT I N G STYL E S Eating Style Trigger Characteristic Refuse-Not Unconscious Eater Presence of food This person is especially vulnerable to candy jars, or food present in meetings or sitting openly on the kitchen counter. Waste-Not Unconscious Eater Free food This person’s eating drive is often influenced by the value of the food dollar and is susceptible to all-you-caneat buffets and free food. Emotional Unconscious Eater Uncomfortable emotions Stress or uncomfortable feelings trigger eating— especially when alone. Professional Dieter Feeling fat This person is perpetually dieting, often trying the latest commercial diet or diet book. Intuitive Eater Biological hunger This person makes food choices without experiencing guilt or an ethical dilemma. Honors hunger, respects fullness, enjoys the pleasure of eating. ARE YOU AN INTUITIVE EATER? This quiz is adapted from Tracy Tylka’s research on Intuitive Eaters (2006). It will give you an indication of whether you are an Intuitive Eater, or perhaps where you might need some further work. Directions: The following statements are grouped into Tylka’s three core characteristics of Intuitive Eaters. Answer “yes” or “no” for each statement. If you are unsure of how to respond, consider if the description usually applies to you—is it mostly “yes” or “no”? cont. I N T U I T I V E E AT I N G 20 Continued UNCONDITIONAL PERMISSION TO EAT Yes No ■ ■ 1. I try to avoid certain foods high in fat, carbs, or kcal. ■ ■ 2. If I am craving a certain food, I don’t allow myself to have it. ■ ■ 3. I follow eating rules of diet plans that dictate what, when, and/or how to eat. ■ ■ 4. I get mad at myself for eating something unhealthy. ■ ■ 5. I have forbidden foods that I don’t allow myself to eat. EATING FOR EMOTIONAL RATHER THAN PHYSICAL REASONS ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ 1. I find myself eating when I’m feeling emotional (anxious, sad, depressed), even when I’m not physically hungry. 2. I find myself eating when I am bored, even when I’m not physically hungry. 3. I cannot stop eating when I feel full (not overstuffed). 4. I find myself eating when I am lonely, even when I’m not physically hungry. 5. I use food to help me soothe my negative emotions. 6. I find myself eating when I am stressed, even when I’m not physically hungry. RELIANCE ON INTERNAL HUNGER/SATIETY CUES ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. I cannot tell when I’m slightly full. I cannot tell when I’m slightly hungry. I do not trust my body to tell me when to eat. I do not trust my body to tell me what to eat. I do not trust my body to tell me how much to eat. When I’m eating, I cannot tell when I am getting full. Scoring: Each “yes” statement indicates an area that likely needs some work. The section with the greatest amount of “yes” responses indicates the area that needs the most attention. 46 I N T U I T I V E E AT I N G intended to become a vegetarian. She wasn’t interested in vegetarian eating for health or ethical issues, only as a vehicle to lose weight, and so her diet backfired. THE DIETER’S DILEMMA Whether you are engaged in bona fide dieting or pseudo-dieting, any form of dieting is bound to lead to problems. The inherit futility of dieting is explained in the Dieter’s Dilemma chart created by psychologists, John P. Foreyt and G. Ken Goodrick, shown below. The Dieter’s Dilemma is triggered by the desire to be thin, which leads to dieting. That’s when the dilemma unfolds. Dieting increases cravings and urges for food. The dieter gives into the craving, overeats, and eventually regains any lost weight. He Reprinted with permission of Warner Books, New York, from Living Without Dieting. Copyright © 1992 John P. Foreyt and G. Ken Goodrick. Reject the Diet Mentality 57 S UM M A RY: T H E D I E T M E N TA L I T Y V E R S US T H E N O N - D I E T M E N TA L I T Y Issue Dieting Mentality Non-Diet Mentality Eating/Food Choices • Do I deserve it? • If I eat a heavy food, I try to find a way to make up for it. • I feel guilty when I eat heavy foods. • I usually describe a day of eating as either good or bad. • I view food as the enemy. • Am I hungry? • Do I want it? • Will I be deprived if I don’t eat it? • Will it be satisfying? • Does it taste good? • I deserve to enjoy eating without guilt. Exercise Benefits • I focus primarily on the calories burned. • I feel guilty if I miss a designated exercise day. • I focus primarily on how exercise makes me feel, especially the energizing and stressrelieving factors. Progress is viewed as: • How many pounds did I lose? • How do I look? • What do other people think of my weight? • I have good willpower. • Rather than being concerned with my weight, I trust that my weight will normalize when I am attuned to my internal eating signals. My weight is not my primary goal or an indicator of my progress. • I have increased trust with myself and food. • I am able to let go of “eating indiscretions.” • I recognize inner body cues. I N T U I T I V E E AT I N G 70 T H E H UN G E R D I S C O V E RY S CA L E Time Food Hunger Rating 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Use this scale (0–10) to help you identify your initial hunger when you begin to eat. This rating system is purely subjective and will help you get in touch with your body’s inner signals. There is no right or wrong way to use this rating system—it’s merely a rating to help increase your awareness. The more you rate your hunger, the more these numbers will have meaning to you. The neutral point is 5, when you are neither hungry nor full. Visualize your stomach getting emptier and hungrier as you go down on the scale to 0, completely empty. At 4, you begin to feel the first awakening of hunger. Hunger pangs begin there and increase to a 3. By 3, your hunger is completely set, and you’re feeling quite hungry. At 2–1, you are ravenous. Every time you start to eat, check your hunger level. Ideally, aim for around a level of 3 to begin eating. If you are at a 5 or above, you’re not biologically hungry. If you’re at 2 or lower, you’re likely overhungry and at risk for overeating. Challenge the Food Police • • • • • • 97 If I eat breakfast, it will just make me eat more throughout the day. Dairy products are bad for you. I shouldn’t have any salt. Beans are fattening. Bread is fattening. Everything is fattening! Even when these thoughts are evaluated, they stick like glue in the consciousness of the people who think them. Although there has been a great deal of evidence to refute these thoughts, they’ve become so well entrenched that it often takes years to loosen their hold and replace them with reality. The thoughts themselves can be very damaging and can affect subsequent behavior. These thoughts are called cognitive distortions, and we call the voices that speak these distortions the Food Police. WHO’S TALKING There are many psychological ways of looking at personality structure. Psychotherapist and M.D. Eric Berne tells us that the way we feel and the ways 98 I N T U I T I V E E AT I N G in which we act make up what are called ego states. If you watch the way a person is standing and listen to his voice, the words he uses, and the views he’s stating, you’ll be able to detect which ego state he is in. Dr. Berne simply labels these ego states as the Parent, the Adult, and the Child. He believes that at any particular time, you may be in any one of these three ego states and can shift quite easily from one to another. Each ego state can direct the thoughts floating around in your head. You can begin to identify just which one of them is speaking by listening carefully to what is being said. We have found that in the world of dieting and eating, specific voices crop up from moment to moment, which influence how we feel and how we behave. We have extrapolated from Berne’s theory of ego structure and identified the following eating voices. There are three that can be primarily destructive: the Food Police, the Nutrition Informant, and the Diet Rebel. But we also can develop powerful allies; these voices are: the Food Anthropologist, the Nurturer, and the Nutrition Ally. Let’s look at each food voice—how each can help or harm our thinking Challenge the Food Police 107 S U M M A RY: H O W T H E F O O D V O I C E S H E L P O R H A R M Voice How It Harms How It Helps Food Police Causes guilt and food worry. Full of judgment. Keeps you in the dieting world, and out of touch with inner cues of eating. It doesn’t. Nutrition Informant Uses nutrition as a vehicle to keep you dieting. Once uncoupled from the Food Police, it becomes the Nutrition Ally and can help you make healthy food choices without guilt. Diet Rebel Usually results in overeating, self-sabotage. When the Diet Rebel becomes the Rebel Ally, it can help you guard your food turf/boundaries. Food Anthropologist It doesn’t. A neutral observer that can give you a distant perspective into your eating world. Nonjudgmental. Keeps you in touch with your inner signals—biologically and psychologically. Nurturer It doesn’t. Helps to disarm the verbal assault from the Food Police. Gets you through the tough times. stricted from eating certain foods. It doesn’t take long before you internalize those negative messages, and create your own powerful Food Police. If on the other hand, you’re lucky enough to have a family who is not invasive, making no food or body judgments, you may not encounter the Food Police until you start school, or until you become a teen reading magazines and listening to your friends talk. If the pressure to be thin is strong I N T U I T I V E E AT I N G 126 T H E F ULLN E S S D I S C O V ERY S CA L E Time Food Fullness Rating 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 After you’re finished eating, check out your fullness level. A level of 6 or 7 is just-satisfied to satisfied. At 8, you’re full; at 9, you’re stuffed; and at 10, you are beginning to feel sick from overfilling. Work toward ending your eating at a 6 or 7. Ultimately, you’ll find that the last-bite threshold corrolates with this level of satisfaction. Remember, the hungrier you are when you begin eating, the higher your fullness number is likely to be when you stop. But, if you start eating at a 3 or a 4, you’ll be more apt to stop at a 6 or 7—satisfied but not overfull. wears off and the deprivation feelings subside, you will find that it’s quite easy to leave food on your plate. It does require, however, a degree of consciousness— checking in with yourself. But, if most of the time you can recognize your fullness, and respect it, it will make a considerable difference in your physical comfort level and peace of mind. Discover the Satisfaction Factor 133 SATISFACTION: The Hub of Intuitive Eating Exercise— Enjoy Gentle Nutrition Reject Dieting Respect Your Body Cope w/ Emotions Honor Hunger SATISFACTION Make Peace w/ Food Discover Satisfaction Feel Your Fullness Challenge Food Police ister the exquisite tastes before you’ve bolted down the entire meal. Definitely not a satisfying experience! But when you begin to eat a delicious meal when you are moderately hungry, you are likely to find that you’re comfortably full before the meal is finished. If you finish eating the whole meal, there will be diminished taste to the food, because the taste buds become desensitized to the nuances of the food, especially if you become overfull. Now think about eating when you’re in the middle of a fight with a family member. How delicious is the food you eat during that meal? You may not even notice that you’ve eaten! Or, think about an experience you’ve had when you’ve eaten to push down feelings. Again, not a very satisfying eating experience! Honoring your hunger, making peace with food, feeling your fullness, and coping with your emotions without using food are four of the spokes on our imaginary wheel. Another spoke on the wheel involves rejecting the diet mentality. If you’re still in diet mentality when you eat, it’s likely that you’re either not choosing the most satisfying food, or if you do choose it, you are judging yourself for eating it. Respecting your body is yet another spoke on the wheel. Eating while you’re wearing comfortable clothes, and eating without body bashing will 184 I N T U I T I V E E AT I N G biological functions, the body must have carbohydrates. If you do not feed your body enough carbohydrates, it will dismantle its muscle protein to create vital energy. This has been demonstrated even in studies on endurance athletes. Endurance athletes who did not get enough carbohydrates for their exercise activity burned branched-chain amino acids (a component of protein) to help create vital energy to fuel their bodies. Keep in mind that even very fit and motivated athletes have difficulty working out if they are low on carbohydrates! This effect was illustrated in a study of elite college swimmers by exercise physiologist, David Costill of Ball State University in Indiana. He found that swimmers who did not eat enough carbohydrates were not able to complete their workouts. If elite athletes had trouble working out because they didn’t eat enough, why would you expect to be any different? If you have never enjoyed exercise, let alone experienced the “runner’s high” euphoria from working out, there’s a good chance it was because of dieting, or the diet mentality of limiting foods. When a diet fails, exercise often stops because it was only done as an adjunct to dieting. You’re left with memories of feeling bad, which makes you less likely to want to exercise in the future. C A R B O H Y D R AT E P O W E R CH A RT Activity Equivalent (slices of bread) Running 2 miles 3 6 miles 10–11 26 miles 33–37 Swimming 200 meters 1 1500 meters 6 Cycling—1 hour 15–17 Adapted from: Costill, D.L. “Carbohydrates for Exercise: Dietary Demands for Optimal Performance.” International Journal of Sports Medicine 9:5 (1988). I N T U I T I V E E AT I N G 188 • Increased metabolism—helps maintain lean body mass, and revs up energy production in the cells. • Reduced risk for “silent” stroke (Gandey 2011). • Improved satiety cues and appetite regulation (Chaput et al. 2011). • Improved mood (Chaput et al. 2011). • Improved learning and memory (Chaput et al. 2011). • Prevents or delays cognitive decline associated with ageing (Chaput et al. 2011). Don’t Get Caught in Exercise Mind Traps If you’ve had a diet mentality for a number of years, there’s a good chance that versions of it have permeated into do-not-exercise traps. Let’s identify and refute them: The It’s-Not-Worth-It Trap. We know many people who wouldn’t walk unless they could get in one hour—anything under that “doesn’t count.” Therefore, a fifteen-minute walk break during lunch doesn’t count. Instead, they do nothing. We commonly see clients discount their workout because they didn’t reach their prescribed quota. It “didn’t count” because they only exercised three times in a week, rather than five. All the more reason to be focused on how exercise feels, rather than doing it by the numbers. Besides, over the long term, it all counts. We like to take the power out of numbers, whether those numbers refer to pounds, calories, or even minutes exercising. In this case, however, we use numbers to show how even the smallest amount of exercise does matter. Activity Time Spent in 1 Year 5 minutes of taking the stairs at work twice daily/five times a week 43 hours 10 minutes of walking your child to school three times a week 26 hours 15 minutes of mowing the lawn one time a week 13 hours 200 I N T U I T I V E E AT I N G for their tots. Can you imagine an American toddler sitting down to braised lamb served with cauliflower au gratin, and enjoying every bite? That’s a typical entrée for the French toddlers, who joyfully ate that meal on the day that National Public Radio interviewed the dietitian responsible for the 270 public day-care centers in Paris (Beardsley 2009). Interestingly, research has shown that the medical practices of French versus American physicians reflect their culture. Consequently, American physicians prescribe more medication, while the French physicians are inclined to suggest rest, vacations, or a stay at a spa (Rozin 1999). H E A LT H I N D I C AT O R S I N F R A N CE V E R S U S T H E UN I T E D S TAT E S These statistics are rounded to the nearest whole number. United States France a Incidence of obesity and overweight people ages ≥15 years 62% 32% a Life expectancy (rounded to the nearest year) 78 years 81 years a Dollars (U.S. equivalent) spent on medication per capita $897 $607 b Heart disease death rates (per 100,000 people): Women 79 21 b Heart disease death rates: Men 145 54 c Incidence of dieting (percent of total population) 26% 16% d Use of light foods and beverages (percent of total population) 76% 48% d Consumption of low-fat products (percent of total population) 68% 39% e 14 minutes 22 minutes Duration of minutes eating at McDonald’s a OECD Factbook 2010. bOECD Health Data 2009. cCalorie Control Commentary, 14(1):1–2, 1992. dAdapted from Calorie Control Council National Surveys. eRozin 2003. Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition Inner AƩunement 205 AuthenƟc External Health Values Health Intuitive Eating: The Dynamic Integration Between Inner Attunement and External Health Values to Achieve Authentic Health Adapted with permission from Catherine Cooke-Cottone, SUNY Buffalo The external world can also include philosophical preferences, such as a desire to eat locally grown foods with a low carbon footprint. If you are truly innerattuned, you can integrate this value, while paying attention to hunger, fullness, satisfaction, and so forth. If, however, you enter this realm too soon, there is a risk for the new mind-set to be embraced as another rigid set of rules. Food Wisdom Tenets No doubt you’ve heard for years of the nutritional merits of variety, moderation, and balance. There’s a reason these nutrition mantras have been chanted for decades: They work! It’s one of the best ways to hedge your bets for healthy eating. But “eat a variety of foods” sounds like “wear a sensible pair of shoes”—practical but easily ignored advice. A study looking at diet diversity has gotten those sensible shoes tap dancing in the spotlight of health. According to this study reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, people who omitted several food groups had a higher chance of dying! Adults who ate foods from two or fewer food groups were associated with an excess mortality risk of 50 percent in men and 40 percent in women. But how often do you eat the same meal Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition 209 Quality Issues Some people are eager to hear what the nutrition community is recommending in the realm of food to promote optimal health. Take out of the following sections what suits you, and be sure to let go of any guilt feelings that might emerge if you find that this information triggers any discomfort. Remember, we are not pulling the rug out from under you and suddenly telling you what we think you should eat. We are simply providing information for those who would like to learn more about nutrition. Eat Enough Fruits and Vegetables. Three years after Michael Pollan’s book was published, the USDA revamped the iconic food pyramid and replaced it with a new concept, called My Plate. One of its six key messages seems to reflect Pollan’s plant-based advice: Make half of your plate fruits and vegetables. People who eat higher amounts of fruits and vegetables have lower risks of many chronic diseases, especially cancer. In almost every study looking at plant food and people (over two hundred studies to date), plant food is associated with lowering the risk of cancer. These foods are loaded with antioxidants and fiber, which offer many other health benefits. There is a growing body of research that shows fruits and vegetables have special Phytochemical Plant Food Potential Benefit Limonene Citrus fruits Helps increase enzymes that get rid of cancer-causing agents Sulforaphanea Cruciferous vegetables: broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and cabbage Helps amplify the body’s own defense against chemicals that can lead to cancer Allyl sulfides Leeks, garlic, onion, chives Increases the production of enzymes that make it easier for the body to excrete cancer-causing compounds Ellagic acid Grapes Scavenges carcinogens and may prevent them from altering the body’s DNA Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition 213 for meals. Visualize your plate as a lopsided peace sign (see figure below). As you can see, the plate is mainly filled with carbohydrate-rich foods (grains, fruits, and vegetables). This tool serves two purposes. First it gives you an easy-to-remember guide for healthy eating, and helps to serve as a reminder to keep the peace with food. Remember, this is just a guide, not a rigid edict. There are days when your intuitive signals send you to a different balance of foods than is on this diagram. It’s important to look at the big picture, rather than judging your overall nutrition by one particular day. PLATE METHOD Grains Plant Foods (Fruits & Vegetables) Protein So Where’s the Chocolate Group? As we have said, we’re not going to pull a fast one. There are no forbidden foods, because deprivation doesn’t work. All of the above guidelines are intended as a balance over time— which means even if you eat a candy bar, it will eventually average out. When you have let go of the diet mentality and have made peace with food, you will discover that you sometimes have a desire for food that has no nutritionally redemptive powers. We call this food play food. We prefer this term to one of the most commonly used terms to describe what’s considered unhealthy foods—junk food. The term junk food implies that there is no intrinsic value in this food—in fact, that it probably should be thrown in the garbage can. But we feel that this thinking is unwarranted. There are times when a piece of red velvet cake or a stick of licorice is just the food that will satisfy your taste buds. And eating these types of foods I N T U I T I V E E AT I N G 276 I N T UI T I V E E AT I N G C H A RT How Intuitive Eating Principles Apply to Eating Disorders Core Principle Anorexia Nervosa Bulimia Nervosa/ Binge-Eating Disorder 1. Reject the Diet Mentality Restricting is a core issue and can be deadly. Restricting does not work and triggers primal hunger, which can lead to binge eating. 2. Honor Your Hunger Weight restoration is essential. The mind cannot function and think properly. You are likely caught in an obsessive cycle of thinking and worrying about food, and have difficulty making a decision. Your body and brain need calories to function. Your nutrition therapist will work with you to create a way of eating that feels safe to you. Eat regularly—this means three meals and two to three snacks. Eating regularly will help you get in touch with gentle hunger, rather than the extremes that often occur with chaotic eating. Ultimately, you will trust your own hunger signals, even if they deviate slightly from this routine. 3. Make Peace with Food Take risks; add new foods, when ready. Do this gradually with baby steps. Take risks, try “fear” foods, when ready and not vulnerable. (Vulnerability includes being overhungry, overstressed, or experiencing some other feeling state.) 4. Challenge the Food Police Challenge the thoughts and beliefs about food. Take the morality, judgment, and rigidity out of eating. Challenge the thoughts and beliefs about food. Take the morality and judgment out of eating. The Ultimate Path Toward Healing 277 I N T UI T I V E E AT I N G CH A RT How Intuitive Eating Principles Apply to Eating Disorders Core Principle Anorexia Nervosa Bulimia Nervosa/ Binge-Eating Disorder 5. Feel Your Fullness You can’t rely on your fullness signals during the beginning phases of recovery, as your body likely feels prematurely full, as a result of slowed digestion and stomach emptying. There is also a feeling of being bloated from “refeeding edema.” A transition away from experiencing the extreme fullness that is associated with binge eating. Once regular eating is established, gentle fullness will begin to resonate. Note: If you are withdrawing from purging, especially from laxatives, the feeling of fullness may temporarily be distorted by feeling bloated from water retention. 6. Discover the Satisfaction Factor Frequently, there are fears or resistance to experiencing the pleasure from eating (as well as other pleasures of life). If satisfying foods and eating experiences are included regularly, there will be less impetus to binge. 7. Cope with Emotions Without Using Food Often emotionally shut down. Food restriction, food rituals, and obsessive thinking are the coping tools of life. With renourishment, you will be more prepared to deal with feelings that emerge. Binge eating, purging, and excessive exercise are used as coping mechanisms. Can begin to take a time-out from these behaviors to start experiencing and dealing with feelings. 8. Respect Your Body Heal the body-image distortion. Respect the here and now body. 9. Exercise Will likely need to stop exercising, or might include gentle movement. Overexercising can be a purging behavior. Moderate exercise can help manage stress and anxiety. I N T U I T I V E E AT I N G 278 I N T UI T I V E E AT I N G C H A RT How Intuitive Eating Principles Apply to Eating Disorders Core Principle Anorexia Nervosa Bulimia Nervosa/ Binge-Eating Disorder 10. Honor Your Health Learning to remove the rigidity of nutrition— where there is a strict adherence to “nutritional principles,” regardless of their source. Recognize that the body needs: Essential fat Carbohydrates Protein Variety of foods Learning to remove the rigidity of nutrition. There is a strict belief as to what constitutes healthy eating, and if this belief is violated, purging consequences can ensue (if bulimic). Recognize that the body needs: Essential fat Carbohydrates Protein Variety of foods Eating Disorders Resources O R G A N I Z AT I O N S National Association of Anorexia Nervosa & Associated Disorders (ANAD) P.O. Box 7 Highland Park, IL 60035 Crisis Hotline: (847) 831-3438 Web site: www.ANAD.org An association of lay and professional people dedicated to alleviate the problems of eating disorders through advocacy, education, and prevention. One particular benefit of this group is that it offers over three hundred free regional support groups throughout the country. National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) 603 Stewart St., Suite 803 Seattle, WA 98101 Hotline: 1-800-931-2237 Web site: www.nationaleatingdisorders.org 290 I N T U I T I V E E AT I N G There are studies underway exploring Intuitive Eating issues in men. A preliminary study on 181 college men by Gast and colleagues (in press) found that men scoring high on the Hawks’s Intuitive Eating Scale were associated with a lower body mass index, compared to men with low Intuitive Eating scores. The men also placed more value on being physically fit and healthy, rather than on an ideal weight. The researchers suggested that Intuitive Eating seems ideally suited for men because it builds on men’s antidieting views (men often perceive dieting behaviors as feminine), and builds on self-care fitness beliefs that appear to be more likely held by men. Together the results from these studies show that Intuitive Eaters have many attributes associated with both physical and mental health, as summarized below. I N T UI T I V E E AT I N G C H A R A CT E R I S T I CS This chart summarizes the research findings of characteristics associated with Intuitive Eating. Intuitive Eaters have lower Intuitive Eaters have higher • Body Mass Index • Internalized culturally thin ideal • Triglycerides • Disordered eating • Emotional eating • Self-silencing (suppressing one’s thoughts, feelings, and needs) • Self-esteem • Well-being and optimism • Variety of foods eaten • Body appreciation and acceptance • HDL (good cholesterol) • Interoceptive awareness • Pleasure from eating • Proactive coping • Psychological hardiness • Unconditional self-regard STUDIES ON BINGE- EATING TREATMENT AND EATING DISORDER PREVENTION Up until recently, research on eating disorders has been pathology and symptom-based, without considering positive eating behaviors. But in 2006, Tylka and Wilcox evaluated the constructs of Intuitive Eating and concluded that they were distinct and contributed uniquely to psychological well-being—and that Intuitive Eating is more than the absence of eating disorder symptoms. Furthermore, they recommended that Intuitive Eating be part of the educational process for treating eating disor- I N T U I T I V E E AT I N G 292 S I M I L A R I T I E S B E T W E E N M B - E AT A N D I N T U I T I V E E AT I N G P R I N C I P LE S Mindfulness Based-Eating Awareness Training Components Intuitive Eating Principles Hunger Awareness Training Honor Your Hunger Taste and Enjoyment of Eating Discover the Satisfaction Factor Awareness of Fullness Respect Your Fullness Food Choices Based on Liking and Health Satisfaction, Make Peace with Food, Honor Health with Gentle Nutrition Nonjudgmental Awareness of Eating Challenge the Food Police Meet Emotional Needs in Healthy Way Cope with Your Feelings without Using Food Acceptance and Nonjudgment of Body Respect Your Body Gentle Exercise Exercise—Feel the Difference greater weight gain to increasing the risk of eating disorders, the hazards of which are documented in a position statement by the Academy for Eating Disorders. Public health policies promote external solutions, rather than attunement of food, mind, and body. They also tend to promote weight stigma and body dissatisfaction, both of which are risk factors for eating disorders and obesity. SUMMARY OF INTUITIVE EATING STUDIES There are more than twenty-five studies on Intuitive Eating, with research currently underway. These annotated studies are listed alphabetically, by the first author. Augustus-Horvath, C. L., and Tylka, T. L. (2011). The acceptance model of intuitive eating: A comparison of women in emerging adulthood, early adulthood, and middle adulthood. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 58, 110–125.
