Intuitive eating: is it applicable when you suffer from a chronic illness?

Most of the time, weight tells us neither about the relationship with food, nor about the quality of the diet, nor about the health of a person. We therefore need much more information to intervene as nutritionists.

If you raised an eyebrow reading the previous paragraph, it may be that you entertain the idea that living in a large body automatically means that the person is not healthy, does not eat adequately or has a relationship. difficult with food. However, this is false.

Some want to adopt intuitive eating in order to lose weight. Diet culture has unfortunately popularized some restrictive variations of this approach. On the other hand, you should know that even if weight loss can happen for some people by following the intuitive diet, it is not a method of weight loss. It is the body itself that decides where its natural weight is (the one at which it is good). Only diets (including “watching” your diet) provide weight loss, albeit temporary most of the time. They cause after a few years for the majority of people a resumption of the lost weight and even more. For some, they even lead to long-term weight gain… That said, your hope of losing weight does not have to prevent you from trying intuitive eating.

In case you want to try this approach because you’re worried about your health, know that changing lifestyle habits (which intuitive eating takes into account!) can improve it regardless of weight. We encourage you to consult our two recently published articles: The link between weight and health: what do we think? and The link between weight and health: does weight loss really contribute to overall health? In summary, living with a fat body does not automatically condemn you to being in bad shape. health and undertaking weight loss does not necessarily lead to better health. For a large number of people, weight loss comes at the expense of the relationship with food and mental health since it results from the restriction. The yoyo effect (the alternation of weight gain and weight loss associated with diets) is linked to risk factors for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Not helpful in the long run!

Your concerns for your health can be taken into account in intuitive eating as demonstrated by its tenth principle “Honor your health”.