One approach for creating a healthier relationship with food is by practicing
intuitive eating.
7 This mindset can help people learn to tune into their own body for an understanding of when they’re hungry, how hungry they are, and what types of food they want.
The practice of intuitive eating can be challenging, especially at first. It may involve examining the many ways that diet culture has created feelings of shame around hunger, cravings, and enjoyment of food, or even make you wonder "Why am I always thinking about food?" when there's no true reason for concern.
Many people have heard so many messages from the diet industry about how to control or eliminate hunger that they are scared of tuning into their bodies' hunger cues. Other people may not have regular hunger cues due to a history of disordered eating or other medical conditions.
An important part of intuitive eating is making sure that you are eating enough food to meet your body’s needs and not physically or mentally restricting. As discussed earlier in this article, both physical and mental restriction can lead to obsessive thoughts about food and may result in feeling out of control around food.
Eating adequately and consistently, making sure no foods are off-limits (unless there is a medical need to avoid them, like an allergy), and giving full permissions to honor specific food cravings can be helpful steps for moving away from restriction and towards a more intuitive relationship with food.
