Have you ever felt like intuitive eating ignores nutrition? Does it make you feel distrustful of the whole philosophy? After all, you know that some foods are healthier than others, but now suddenly you're told that cake and ice cream and chips are ok! Not only that, you're told that cake and ice cream and chips are equal to chicken, oranges, and quinoa! So, what gives??
The truth is that nutrition does matter. Your body is literally built out of the foods that you put into it so of course it matters which foods you choose! The tricky part is that, while it is true that nutrition matters, it is also true that cake and ice cream and chips are ok! Confusing, right?
For an intuitive eater, it's easy to believe these two statements at the same time, but if you're locked in to a dieting mentality, these two statements can seem too contradictory for them to both be true. How can non-nutritious foods be ok if nutrition matters?? Why would you make peace with foods that are bad for you??
So, what intuitive eating does is work on one idea at a time. It doesn't ignore nutrition, it just ignores it for now.
Why not start with nutrition and then make peace with food? Well, most people already believe in nutritious vs non-nutritious foods. The problem is that it's really tough to move from this belief to the second one, which is that all foods are also ok. A really strong belief in the importance of eating "good foods" almost always prevents people from making peace with "bad foods".
This is why intuitive eating counselors switch the order around and start with the idea that all foods are ok and then move on to re-introducing nutrition! Once someone makes peace with all of the "bad foods" and realizes that food is just food, it becomes much easier to incorporate nutrition back into the mix.
Once you've made peace with food, it's easy to choose nutritious foods when you need to and fun foods when you want to!
Comments