Intuitive eating is an eating model created by American nutritionists Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch in the 90s. It was born in response to the proliferation of restrictive diets, which focused on the prohibition of foods and the drastic reduction of calories. , and was made known in a book that laid the foundations for this new trend: Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program that Works, published in 1995.
Already in its first edition, which saw the light at the height of the supermodels of the 90s (Linda Envagelista, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford), it represented a revolution, since it pointed out that diet culture was responsible for promoting a bad relationship with their own bodies, especially in the case of women.
"Intuitive eating is not an eating model intended to modify the size of our bodies, but rather it is aimed at allowing us to live in peace with our diet and trust the internal signals that the body transmits to us when making decisions about nutrition," explains nutritionist Raquel Lobatón, a nutrition professional specialized in intuitive eating and inclusive nutrition who works under the HAES® philosophy (Health at Every Size). She defines herself as an "activist for body diversity" and is committed to an eating model that is far from "a diet focused exclusively on weight loss." Lobatón advocates, among other things, questioning the sizes "that this culture has established." "that should be appropriate for us" and abandon the feeling of guilt when eating, since "it is a major risk factor for suffering from an eating disorder."
The ten principles of intuitive eating, which we will remember below, are closely linked to those of inclusive nutrition on which Lobatón is committed, a professional who began her career “in conventional nutrition, always focused on weight.” The expert suffered a major crisis when she realized that "even people who managed to lose the desired weight returned to my office a few years later having regained their previous weight and even more." For Lobatón, it was "terribly frustrating" to confirm this reality, although it was the trigger for understanding that "no matter how much weight we lose following a restrictive diet, our bodies will tend to a specific weight and shape, something that in most cases we do not." It's something we can control."
Therefore, when talking about inclusive nutrition, Lobatón refers to "a nutrition practice that does not focus on weight, but rather works on the philosophy of health at all sizes, which means that there is body diversity such as part of nature that cannot be modified". Does this mean that you can be healthy even if you are overweight or even obese? "It means that we cannot focus exclusively on the scale to know if a person is healthy or not: we cannot know anything about someone's health based solely on how much they weigh," explains Lobatón. For her, "everyone can improve their health at any body size, starting to eat better, quitting smoking, going to therapy and incorporating movement even if they don't lose weight."
In this sense, the so-called intuitive eating “does not focus on weight, but rather works on concepts such as body confidence and proposes a diet oriented towards pleasure and also emotional and physical health, which does not necessarily have to do with weight. what the scale shows.” This current is based on the basis that “if we pay attention to a series of bodily signals, from which we often live disconnected and that have to do with hunger, satiety, taste and access to food, our body "He is going to do everything possible to feel good." And it is that “contrary to what many people believe, if we give ourselves permission to eat, if we are able to eat what the body asks of us, we will not constantly choose unhealthy or high-calorie foods. We are not going to want to eat pizza and cookies all the time, since the body does not feel good with this type of diet.” What happens in most cases is that this preference for sweet, ultra-processed or unhealthy foods is usually triggered after excessively restrictive periods, which gives rise to classic binge eating.
Thus, intuitive eating advocates abandoning diets and leaving behind, above all, what Lobatón defines as “diet mentality”, beginning to apply as much as possible the ten basic precepts that Tribole and Resch established in the years 90. For the nutritionist, fortunately this type of diet is back in fashion thanks, in large part, to the rise of feminism. "Finally, women are beginning to open their eyes, to reject a series of bodily mandates in the name of nothing and to reclaim our bodily autonomy, tired of the judgments about our bodies that we are tired of hearing since we were little."
To introduce yourself to the practice of intuitive eating, the nutritionist recommends forgetting the food restrictions inherent to any diet, reviewing the ten basic principles to practice it and beginning to apply them, as far as possible, in our daily lives. They are the following:
