Intuitive eating

Question 1

What is the focus of intuitive eating?

Answer 1

Focused on habit change NOT weight-loss-> not a weight loss strategy

Question 2

HAES® principles:

Answer 2

1. Weight inclusivity
2. Health enhancement
3. Respectful care
4. Eating for wellbeing
5. Life-enhancing movement

Question 3

Intuitive eater definition

Answer 3

Someone who eats according to their internal signals (ex: hunger/fullness) and preferences, rather than in response to external pressures (ex: specific diets/food rules).

Question 4

dieting definition

Answer 4

The pursuit of weight-loss or body modification, generally through the restriction of specific foods or calories (many other methods exist).

Question 5

What is the problem with dieting?

Answer 5

• Short-term weight-loss
• Within 2 to 5 years weight regain
• Weight cycling
• ED risk
• Binge-eating
• Body dissatisfaction
• Cravings/preoccupation with food
• Internalized weight stigma
• Lower self-esteem
• Psychological stress (higher cortisol levels)

Question 6

A 2016 study* found that ____% of Canadian young adults tried to lose weight in the past 12 months.

Answer 6

50%

Question 7

Diet culture definition

Answer 7

A culture based on a set of beliefs that (1)demonize certain foods while elevating others and (2)stigmatize certain body types while elevating others.

Question 8

characteristics of diet industry

Answer 8

− Includes all programs, products and interventions which promise sustainable weight- loss and body transformation
− Makes people believe that sustainable weight- loss is achievable
− Profits off of people’s insecurities

Question 9

Characteristics of Public Health messaging around “obesity epidemic”

Answer 9

− Fear-inducing
− Black and white messaging about body weight
− Stigmatizing

Question 10

Consequences of Diet Culture:

Answer 10

• Widespread guilt around eating+disordered eating - Exercise as a means to control one’s body
• Preoccupation about body size and shape

Question 11

10 Principles of IE

Answer 11

Reject the diet mentality
Honor your hunger
Make peace with food
Challenge the food police
Respect your Fullness
Discover the Satisfaction Factor
Cope with your emotions with kindness 
Respect your body
Exercise - Feel the difference 
Honor your health 
Gentle nutrition

Question 12

Principle 1

Reject the Diet Mentality

Answer 12

• Learn about diet culture
• Understand that diets don’t work
• Recognize the damage that dieting caused
• Get rid of dieter’s tools (scale, diet
  books, magazines, etc.)

Question 13

Principle 2

Honor Your Hunger

Answer 13

• Learn to eat when hungry
• Learn to recognize signs of hunger
• 1st step of rebuilding trust with one’s body after
  restriction
• Unmet hunger can lead to eating past fullness (short-term) and preoccupation with food (long-term)
• IE is not a “hunger-fullness” diet

Question 14

Honor Your Hunger - tool

Answer 14

Hungriness scale form 0 to 10

Begin eating at around 3 (set) or 4 (pangs) to maximize enjoyment of food and avoid getting uncomfortably full

Question 15

Principle 3

Make Peace with Food

Answer 15

scary, but exciting

• Unconditional permission to eat any food in the quantity desired
• Understand that foods are not good or bad- they serve different functions
• Move away from “last supper” mentality and “what-the-hell!” effect
• Can be done step-by-step
• Often starts with “honeymoon” phase
• Allows to pinpoint real preferences as opposed to restriction-driven cravings
• Mechanism: habituation

Question 16

Principle 4

Challenge the Food Police

Answer 16

• “You are not your thoughts”
• Label the judgmental and shaming thoughts around food as the voice of the “food police”
• This voice comes from the years of conditioning by diet culture and people’s environments
• Learn to challenge these thoughts with the “intuitive eater” voice by reframing them using a more neutral perspective

Question 17

Principle 5

Respect Your Fullness

Answer 17

• Recognize signs of comfortable fullness
• Pay attention to sensation of fullness during meals
• Pay attention to taste changes during meals
• Keep leftovers for later!
• Beware of dieting mentality (NOT a rule- must make peace with food first)
• Still eating past fullness? Explore previous principles (hunger, restriction) or lack of satisfaction when eating

Question 18

Principle 6

Discover the Satisfaction Factor

Answer 18

• Central to intuitive eating – each principle is meant to help maximize satisfaction
• Satisfaction= taste, quantity, environment
• Mindful eating

Question 19

Principle 6
Discover the Satisfaction Factor- tool
Important question

Answer 19

“what would be satisfying right now?”

Probe: salty or sweet? crunchy or smooth? aroma? Hot or cold? small medium or big quantity?

Question 20

Principle 7

Cope with your emotions with kindness

Answer 20

• Dealing with emotional eating
• Food is physiologically soothing (temporary)
• Food can be used to cope with difficult emotions/thoughts
• Emotional eating is NOT wrong
• Can be problematic if it is the ONLY coping mechanism
• Work on diversifying ways to self-soothe
• Address underlying issues

Question 21

Principle 8

Respect Your Body

Answer 21

• Diet culture→Negative body image→Desire for body control/modification→Disordered eating
• Understand concept of body diversity
• Accept own genetic blueprint
• Meeting the body’s needs and treating it with respect

Question 22

Principle 9

Exercise–Feel the Difference

Answer 22

• Joyful movement
• Intrinsic motivation makes it sustainable
• Focus on how the exercise feels instead of the calories burnt (ex. less stressed, energized, better mood)
• Every type of movement counts

Question 23

Principle 10

Honor Your Health: Gentle Nutrition

Answer 23

• Work with weight-neutral goals: balanced diet for health, specific conditions
• Integrate nutrition knowledge
• Add nutritious foods to diet, avoid cutting out things
• Notice how body feels after eating different foods
• Find balance that feels good
• Nutrition and exercise should not interfere with other aspects of health (ex: mental health)

Question 24

Is the order of IE principles important?

Answer 24

yes

Question 25

Psychosocial correlates/effects of intuitive eating (Good evidence)

Answer 25

- Less disordered eating - More positive body image - Greater emotional functioning - Greater self-esteem & self-compassion - Improved self-esteem & body-esteem - Decreased depressive symptoms - Decreased disinhibition, susceptibility to hunger and obsessive-compulsive eating

Question 26

IE and Diet Quality

Answer 26

- Relationship between IE and diet quality is unclear (limited evidence)

Question 27

Health indicators (limited evidence) and IE

Answer 27

- Longer follow-up period → better outcomes - Indications of improved HDL & LDL and BP levels after IE interventions - Inverse relationship between A1C and IE scores in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes

Question 28

BMI and IE

Answer 28

No clear effect on weight in intervention studies (reminder: IE is not a weight-loss strategy)