Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition - Intuitive Eating Principle 10
One of the biggest concerns that intuitive eating critics have is that the anti-diet approach involves only eating “junk food”. But this isn’t the case. Intuitive eating involves eating a wide variety of foods that honor both your health and your taste buds.
Honor your health with gentle nutrition is the is the tenth principle of a framework known as Intuitive Eating. If you’d like to learn more about the first nine principles, check out these posts:
What is intuitive eating?
Intuitive eating is a non-diet approach to eating that was developed by two registered dietitians, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. There are 10 principles of intuitive eating with a goal of helping you improve your relationship with food and your body.
Reject the diet mentality
Honor your hunger
Make peace with food
Challenge the food police
Discover the satisfaction factor
Feel your fullness
Cope with your emotions with kindness
Respect your body
Movement - feel the difference
Honor your health - gentle nutrition
New to intuitive eating and want to learn more? Check out this blog post.
What is gentle nutrition?
Gentle nutrition is a flexible, non-diet approach to healthy eating. Unlike other "healthy eating" plans or programs you may have tried in the past, gentle nutrition (and intuitive eating as a whole) is not about losing weight. When we only eat foods with the intention of shrinking our bodies, we tend to cut foods out. And how can we expect to add good nutrition and thrive when we are cutting foods out?
Gentle nutrition is about feeling good physically and mentally. It is a combination of your body’s wants and needs along with your nutrition knowledge, as demonstrated in the Venn diagram below.
Examples of gentle nutrition
There are countless ways that gentle nutrition can be implemented. Here are just a few examples:
Adding fruit to your breakfast.
Following a gluten free diet if you have celiac disease.
Eating consistently to avoid getting overly hungry.
Adding your favorite dressing or dip to veggies to help you eat more of them.
Incorporating some variation of meal planning/prepping to help you make satisfying food choices during the week.
Choosing wheat bread over white if this switch won't take away from your satisfaction.
When not to use gentle nutrition
There is a reason why gentle nutrition is the tenth principle of intuitive eating. Gentle nutrition is intended to come last.
Focusing on"eating healthy" cannot be your first priority with intuitive eating. If we jump into gentle nutrition too soon, this can prevent us from removing the "good" and "bad" labels from food. We have to do this work first before we can incorporate "healthy" eating.
Building the foundation of a positive relationship with food must be a priority before focusing on nutrition or else gentle nutrition will just turn into another diet. The more you focus on how "healthy" your food choices are, the less likely you will be able to listen to your body.
Controversial opinion - gentle nutrition should come secondary to food preferences and cravings. Or at least work along side it. A common example I like to use for this is the choice between white rice and brown rice.
Some people really dislike brown rice and prefer white rice. White rice is also very popular in many cultural foods. If this is the case, it's okay to choose white rice. The few grams of fiber that may be missed out on by choosing white rice can be added in elsewhere.
Individual foods have very little effect on your health. Overall eating patterns matter more than these small choices.
Food rules vs. food preferences
There may be some foods that you choose not to eat because you simply don't like them or they don't satisfy you. But if you avoid a certain food because you feel stress, guilt, or anxiety when you eat it, this is a food rule, not a food preference.
@dietitianhannah Intuitive eating goes far beyond intuition. #intuitiveeating #intuitiveeater #intuitiveeatingtips #dietitianhannah #dietitiansoftiktok #antidietdietitian #nondietdietitian #dietculture #gentlenutrition ♬ original sound - Dietitian Hannah
For example, if I have a soda, I tend to choose a diet soda. I have noticed that I don't feel good if I drink a regular soda. However, if I were to have a regular soda, I would not feel guilty about it or feel like I need to "burn it off". Other soda drinkers may feel the opposite and find that a regular soda is more satisfying for them.
There is not a “right” or “wrong” choice - it is more about your “why” behind making the choice.
Nutrition by addition
Nutrition by addition is an approach to incorporate gentle nutrition that involves adding foods to your life rather than removing them.
You've likely been told before that eliminating certain foods (or food groups) is the best way to reach your health goals, but cutting out foods is rarely a sustainable approach. Plus, it tends to make us want those "off limits" foods even more. Think about it - Have you tried cutting out a certain food or food group before? How did it end up?
Examples of nutrition by addition
Add bell pepper, onion, and fresh tomato to frozen pizza.
Add frozen peppers and onions to scrambled eggs.
Add chia seeds or flax seeds to a smoothie for extra fiber.
Add broccoli to boxed macaroni and cheese.
Add a side salad on pizza night.
Add a Greek yogurt and berries to a busy morning routine.
Add a lentil or chickpea pasta for a protein boost.
Bottom line
Honor your health with gentle nutrition is the tenth principle of intuitive eating. Practicing this principle will help you to eat in a way that gives you sustained energy and makes you feel good both physically and mentally.
You do not need to worry if you are doing it “right. Eating "healthy" should not be confusing, rigid, or complicated.
If you are looking for more support on your journey of ditching the diets, I’d love to support you inside my signature membership, The Nutrition Reboot.
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