Enjoying quality time with loved ones during holiday celebrations is one of the biggest highlights of the season. Preparing and sharing special dishes is a major part of most gatherings, and the enjoyment of culinary traditions fosters connection and supports a healthy relationship with food.
Unfortunately, wintertime also brings with it messages of getting “back on track” and pressure to eat and look a certain way. Messages such as “new year, new you” or “losing the holiday weight” imply that there is something we need to fix or improve about our bodies after the holidays. These influences from diet culture can also creep in during our holiday events, with food restrictions, including rigid rules around food, or feelings of guilt after meals. Outside forces including pop culture messaging, social media, food labels such as “good” or “unhealthy,” food insecurity, and bullying affect the decisions we make around food and can be a huge barrier to a positive relationship with it that affects people at every age.
WHAT IS INTUITIVE EATING?
The term intuitive eating (IE) originated in 1995 and was described by dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch in their first book entitled Intuitive Eating, which is now in its 4th edition. IE is defined as the dynamic integration of mind, body, and food, which refers to an adaptive form of eating based on understanding and honouring your individual hunger and fullness cues. Having a strong connection to your internal body signals is known as interoceptive awareness (IA) and is what guides IE. IA is a fundamental component of the principles for relating to food and how you feel in your body. There are now hundreds of studies looking at the benefits of using the IE philosophy. These 10 principles help to build mindfulness in your eating habits and help you to be in tune with your body’s needs and to respect your cravings. This includes respecting your body regardless of shape or size and challenging external influences, such as social media, family, or friends, that lead to food restriction or judgment in the first place. IE also encompasses awareness in the physical movement for the sake of feeling happy and energised in your body, not as a way to combat calories or as a punishment for eating.
10 PRINCIPLES OF INTUITIVE EATING
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Recognise and reject the diet mentality
- Honour 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
- Feel the difference in movement
- Honour your health with gentle nutrition
These principles highlight the importance of using gentle nutrition to guide food choices that meet both physical and sensory needs—and that do not include diet rules or a specific meal plan. The intention is to feed your body the way you’re meant to, in a loving, meaningful way. By following these principles, intuitive eaters tend to be mindful of how their bodies respond to certain foods, usually choosing foods that better contribute to their body functions and feeling well, but also considering flavour as a central component of food choice.
Studies show intuitive eaters are more likely to have increased vegetable and fruit intake and improved motivation for physical exercise. They also have more trust in themselves, give themselves unconditional permission to eat, and take guilt off of the plate. Aside from the improvement in healthy eating and physical activity habits, several clinical trials have associated IE with significant improvements in psychological well-being, including self-esteem, emotional functioning, body appreciation, optimism and lower depressive symptoms, and disordered eating. Cardiometabolic parameters including blood pressure and total cholesterol are also improved.
USE ALL YOUR SENSES
Intuitive eating is an important skill at any age, and typically young children naturally eat this way—something they should be encouraged to maintain as they age. A way to start incorporating this for yourself involves using all of your senses throughout meal preparation and the entire eating experience. What do you see? What do you feel? What do you smell? What does the food feel like in your mouth and as you swallow?
Take a few deep breaths before a meal and notice how your body feels, pausing halfway through, and again after eating, to observe your hunger and fullness levels; this process can be fun to do with kids at the dinner table and leads to connection, not only within but also with each other. According to the acceptance model of IE, social support and body acceptance by others, including family members, help individuals resist self-objectification and appreciate their bodies. The influence of close relationships is likely relevant to both the development and maintenance of IE, along with other external factors.
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
Things you can try at home year-round to practice these principles for yourself and your family:
- Take time to sit and enjoy your food in an undistracted environment (not in front of a screen or on the go)
- Taking time to bake a dessert as a family or with friends
- Avoid labelling foods as “good” or “bad” or using phrases such as “I’ll be bad and have another treat.” Try shifting toward more neutral language
- Offer well-balanced options and let them decide what and how much they need while recognising that kids need boundaries and routines, but they also need some independence to make food choices
- Offer sweets in moderation as a normal part of your family’s meal pattern to avoid the association with either a reward or punishment; having treats available also allows you to tune into and trust your body
- Be aware of social media influences, and consider removing accounts that promote diet culture and following accounts that support IE principles
- Build mindfulness around inner and outer sources that judge or demonise foods
Over the holidays this may look like:
- Savouring your meals and enjoying holiday flavours without judgment or discussion of calories consumed
- Listening to your hunger cues and enjoying second servings without apology
- Embracing your intuition and honouring your fullness even if it means saying no thank you to a special holiday dish—remember, you don’t need to explain, and it’s not your responsibility to make someone else happy by overeating
Enjoy food unapologetically, and stay in tune with intuitive eating.
