Intuitive Eating: The secret to a happier, healthier mind

Monday, July 22, 2024.

Ever wondered if your eating habits could be the key to better mental health? Turns out, they might be!

Research shows that people who eat intuitively are less likely to suffer from depression and other mental health issues.

So, what exactly is intuitive eating? It's all about eating when you're hungry and stopping when you're full. Sounds simple, right? It’s the opposite of dieting or restricting food intake, which can lead to a host of problems.

We all start life as intuitive eaters—babies cry when they're hungry and stop when they're full. But over the years, social conditioning messes with this natural instinct.

American culture has some fascinating nuances. We're told not to waste food, to avoid certain tasty treats, and to follow a bunch of other eating rules. Ironically, these restrictions often make us crave the forbidden foods even more.

In a study involving 1,491 adolescents tracked over eight years (from ages 14 to 22), researchers asked questions like:

• Do you stop eating when you're full?

• Do you trust your body to tell you how much to eat?

• Do you eat everything on your plate, even when you're no longer hungry?

The goal was to see if these young people trusted their body's signals or followed external eating guidelines.

The findings were clear: intuitive eaters trust their bodies and stop eating when they're full, not when the plate is empty.

And the benefits are impressive! Intuitive eaters showed fewer depressive symptoms, greater body satisfaction, higher self-esteem, less binge eating, and fewer extreme weight control behaviors.

They were 74% less likely to binge eat.

Dr. Vivienne Hazzard, the study's lead author, highlighted the broad benefits of intuitive eating, noting, "The fact that these results came from such a diverse sample suggests that the benefits of intuitive eating cut across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines."

This groundbreaking study was published in the journal Eating and Weight Disorders – Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia, and Obesity (Hazzard et al., 2020).

So next time you feel hungry, listen to your body—it knows best! Embrace intuitive eating and enjoy the journey to better mental and physical health.

Be Well, Stay Kind, and Godspeed.

REFERENCES:

Hazzard, V.M., Telke, S.E., Simone, M. et al. Intuitive eating longitudinally predicts better psychological health and lower use of disordered eating behaviors: findings from EAT 2010–2018. Eat Weight Disord 26, 287–294 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-