What is “normal” eating, and why is it important?

What is normal eating?

“Normal” eating does not have one agreed-upon definition, but rather, it is a healthy and adaptive pattern of eating that encompasses many features, such as:¹

• Eating when you are hungry
• Eating until you feel satisfied
• Eating a balanced and nutritious food selection
• Stopping eating when you want to, not because you think you should
• Eating three meals per day or eating smaller meals throughout, as needed
• Having a relaxed, flexible approach to eating

Even though it's "normal," this type of eating also looks different for everyone, as it revolves heavily around personal preferences. But overall, if you eat “normally," you have a healthy relationship with food and view eating as a pleasurable or neutral experience.

What is intuitive eating?

In many ways, normal eating mirrors intuitive eating. The practice involves listening to your body’s innate hunger cues and cravings and eating according to them.⁴

There are many reasons why we eat other than for hunger. Eating may be stimulated by:⁴

• Visual cues, such as cooking shows and fast food advertisements
• Emotional cues, such as feeling stressed, lonely, or bored
• Social cues, such as family dinners or meeting friends at a restaurant
• Olfactory cues, such as smelling a barbecue or smelling baked goods

Intuitive eating helps you respond to why you feel like eating with intention and awareness. It helps to prevent negative feelings that can result from eating food when triggered by non-physiological cues.⁴

This practice may be easy for some people who have been unknowingly engaging in it throughout their lives. However, some people may find it challenging to eat this way, especially after internalizing cultural messaging related to diet culture, weight stigma, and wellness. 

Normal eating vs. intuitive eating

Normal eating is very similar to intuitive eating. The two can almost be thought of as synonyms.

Both an intuitive eater and a "normal" eater can recognize when they're hungry, eat an appropriate amount and type of food to satisfy their needs, and stop eating when they feel satisfied. They don't typically leave the table hungry or overly full.

Like intuitive eating, normal eating is also flexible. It does not call for specific schedules or diets but instead allows people to rely on their own cues and reasoning to guide their choices. Foods typically demonized by diet culture are not strictly off-limits in either philosophy. 

Additionally, intuitive eating encourages people to value their energy and health and how they feel over how they look.⁴ Valuing energy and health—that is, physical, mental, and emotional health, not “health” related to body weight or shape or size—over physical appearance can help you listen to your body and adapt.

What is “abnormal” eating?

If there's a way to eat normally, it follows that there's a way to eat abnormally.

"Abnormal” eating is also known as disordered eating, the behavior at the heart of most eating disorders. In general, this involves unhelpful patterns of eating that are not based on the body's internal cues but rather on other influences, such as stress or cultural conditioning.²

This type of eating can take many forms, including:²

• Restrictive diets
• Avoiding certain foods or food groups
• Skipping meals
• Binge eating
• Purging behaviors such as self-induced vomiting, laxative misuse, excessive exercise
• Fasting
• Eating alone
• Avoiding meals with others

Disordered eating is not the same as an eating disorder, which is a severe and debilitating mental health disorder. Still, it is a major risk factor for developing an eating disorder like anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder.²

Normal eating vs. abnormal eating

The behavioral differences between normal and abnormal eating are pretty clear. But they're usually driven by different mindsets about food, eating, and body image.

Those who engage in normal eating will think about food when they need to—when they're hungry or need to plan a meal, for example—but they don’t stress or obsess over the subject. They eat a variety of food but don't eat in a certain way to achieve a particular body shape or weight.

On the other hand, “abnormal” eating often involves a significant preoccupation with or obsession with food. This is frequently the result of using food as a maladaptive coping mechanism to deal with stress, trauma, or other unpleasant experiences.²

Diet culture or other societal cues about food and eating can also guide abnormal eating. This can encourage arbitrary food rules, making it difficult for someone to tune into their natural hunger cues or cravings.

How to practice "normal” eating

"Normal" eating may sound easy to practice, but it can be difficult to achieve, especially if you’ve previously struggled with an eating disorder or other issues with disordered eating. But there are some things you can do to unlearn potentially unhelpful behavior and tune into your body's own calls for hunger and satiety:³

• Pay attention to how it feels when your body is physically hungry. Learn to look for these cues, which include an empty stomach, thoughts about food, and low energy.
• Think about what food would make you feel satisfied in the moment you feel hungry.
• Trust your body to let you know when it's full. Listen to it for satiety cues, including a full stomach, less desire to eat, and feeling satisfied.
• Don't worry if you "mess up." There is no right or wrong way to eat intuitively.
• Show yourself compassion.
• Make peace with food, even foods you've been told are "bad for you." This might require working with a professional, as it is a challenging process (but worth it!)
• While eating, focus on the experience: How the food tastes, smells, and feels. Try to stay present in the moment.

If you struggle to engage in “normal” eating behaviors, you may need professional help. Eating disorder treatment programs are available on an inpatient and outpatient basis to help you recover from an eating disorder or stop engaging in disordered eating behaviors. 

You don’t need to have a full-blown eating disorder to benefit from treatment. Early intervention can help you develop a better relationship with food before your disordered eating develops into a severe condition.