Thursday, February 2, 2023

INTUITIVE EATING: A REVOLUTIONARY PROGRAM THAT WORKS

I am not sure if some of my irritation with this book was simple transference at the voice actress that performed the reading of the audiobook. I do think that there are some good messages and information in this book, but it sure took a while to get there.

I am triggered by nutritionists that state that we should avoid food rules, but then come up with their top ten rules (“principles”) to follow. These authors were no different, using at different times catastrophizing examples (falling into a “black whole”) or idealizing outcomes unrealistically (and she never binged again...). While this kind of language is so hard to avoid in a conversation, there was no need for these extremes to remain in the edited updated edition of this book.

I also found it very frustrating for the application of intuitive eating to be constantly referred to as such a natural ideal, when it took almost to the end of the book to tell any stories of true pathology where this was applied in a more realistic way. 

Lastly, I think there is a major issue with calling dietary “rules” like finishing your plate, or eating dessert only if you exercise “Diet Police”. Police enforce the laws, but they don’t make them. It’s nonsense to me that because you know of a rule that the police are uniformly enforcing it. Most often you have a choice without the police being involved at all. I didn’t think this was the right metaphor, and it just contributed to my doubts about these rules being any different than those being discouraged against.

While this may be a book worth reading, do not be surprised or discouraged by a constant feeling of being judged for not being a natural intuitive eater, and do not expect that you can become one without many failures, difficulties, and judgement. In my experience, a lot more people struggle with this than have success.

Also, the deemphasis on nutrition (step ten out of ten) is strange. Intuitive eating seems easy when your meal is your mother’s breast milk, and provides complete nutrition. It’s essential to understand that it’s easy to miss something major in your diet and become deficient in it. Vitamin D, B12, iodine, and other necessary compounds won’t give you natural feedback that you are lacking while you are eating intuitively.

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