E
Enrico C
Guest
I know "Intuitive eating" has already been discussed in a recent
thread. Anyway, I couldn't read the original article (dead link), and
here is another article on the topic...
Maybe "intuitition" isn't everything... but even a "perfect diet" (if
you agree what that is!) doesn't always work, if the person doesn't
find the right attitude... All in all, it seems to me that listening
to your body is key.
On the other hand, I think that just saying that is not enough... and
sound nutritional advice can be useful for those who lost their "inner
wisdom"!, to say it in Dr. Hawks's words.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_28256.html
Intuitive Eating: the Anti-dieting Diet
Reuters Health
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Stop dieting. Become an "intuitive eater."
It's a better way to maintain a healthy weight and reduce the risk of
heart disease, research suggests.
Intuitive eaters don't diet -- they recognize and respond to internal
hunger and fullness cues to regulate food intake, explains Dr. Steven
R. Hawks of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, who adopted
intuitive eating habits several years ago and lost 50 pounds in the
process.
"The basic premise of intuitive eating is, rather than manipulate what
we eat in terms of prescribed diets -- how many calories a food has,
how many grams of fat, specific food combinations or anything like
that -- we should take internal cues, try to recognize what our body
wants and then regulate how much we eat based on hunger and satiety,"
he said in a university statement.
In a pilot study, Hawks and colleagues studied the relationship
between intuitive eating and several health indicators among a group
of female college students. They identified 15 women who were
intuitive eaters and 17 women who were not intuitive eaters and ran a
battery of tests to see how healthy they were.
Overall, women who scored high on the Intuitive Eating Scale were
healthier than were those who scored low on the scale. High intuitive
eaters had a significantly lower body mass index than did low
intuitive eaters and had lower levels of harmful triglycerides and
higher levels of "good" HDL cholesterol and, therefore, a better
cardiovascular risk profile.
Hawks plans to do a large-scale study of intuitive eating across
different cultures. For example, Asian populations are primarily
intuitive eaters -- they eat when hungry and stop when full. Compared
with Americans, Asians have a "much healthier relationship with food,
far fewer eating disorders, and interestingly, far less obesity,"
Hawks notes.
Diets and dieting often fail to result in long-term weight loss,
largely because food restriction works against human biology, is not
sustainable, and may lead to negative outcomes such as weight
recycling, altered body composition, increased fat storage, decreased
metabolism, and eating disorders, Hawks and colleagues explain in the
American Journal of Health Education.
Proponents of intuitive eating for weight management believe that all
individuals possess a natural mechanism that if allowed to function
will ensure good nutrition at a healthy weight. Therefore, it is
possible to maintain a healthy body weight while maintaining an
unrestrained relationship with food.
"As individuals get in touch with this 'inner guide' or access their
'inner wisdom' they will be more in tune with their body's physical
needs and will eat in a way that supports healthy weight maintenance
and positive nutrition," Hawks and colleagues write.
To get on the road to intuitive eating, a person needs to adopt two
attitudes, according to the researchers. The first attitude is body
acceptance. "It's an extremely difficult attitude adjustment for many
people to make, but they have to come to a conscious decision that
personal worth is not a function of body size," Hawks said. The second
attitude, that dieting is harmful, relates to the first -- namely that
dieting does not lead to the results that people think it will lead
to.
To become an intuitive eater, a person also needs to adopt two key
behaviors. They must learn how not to eat for emotional, environmental
or social reasons and they must listen to their body and eat only when
hungry and stop when full. They must also learn how to interpret body
signals, cravings, and hunger and respond in a healthy way.
SOURCE: American Journal of Health Education, November 18, 2005.
thread. Anyway, I couldn't read the original article (dead link), and
here is another article on the topic...
Maybe "intuitition" isn't everything... but even a "perfect diet" (if
you agree what that is!) doesn't always work, if the person doesn't
find the right attitude... All in all, it seems to me that listening
to your body is key.
On the other hand, I think that just saying that is not enough... and
sound nutritional advice can be useful for those who lost their "inner
wisdom"!, to say it in Dr. Hawks's words.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_28256.html
Intuitive Eating: the Anti-dieting Diet
Reuters Health
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Stop dieting. Become an "intuitive eater."
It's a better way to maintain a healthy weight and reduce the risk of
heart disease, research suggests.
Intuitive eaters don't diet -- they recognize and respond to internal
hunger and fullness cues to regulate food intake, explains Dr. Steven
R. Hawks of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, who adopted
intuitive eating habits several years ago and lost 50 pounds in the
process.
"The basic premise of intuitive eating is, rather than manipulate what
we eat in terms of prescribed diets -- how many calories a food has,
how many grams of fat, specific food combinations or anything like
that -- we should take internal cues, try to recognize what our body
wants and then regulate how much we eat based on hunger and satiety,"
he said in a university statement.
In a pilot study, Hawks and colleagues studied the relationship
between intuitive eating and several health indicators among a group
of female college students. They identified 15 women who were
intuitive eaters and 17 women who were not intuitive eaters and ran a
battery of tests to see how healthy they were.
Overall, women who scored high on the Intuitive Eating Scale were
healthier than were those who scored low on the scale. High intuitive
eaters had a significantly lower body mass index than did low
intuitive eaters and had lower levels of harmful triglycerides and
higher levels of "good" HDL cholesterol and, therefore, a better
cardiovascular risk profile.
Hawks plans to do a large-scale study of intuitive eating across
different cultures. For example, Asian populations are primarily
intuitive eaters -- they eat when hungry and stop when full. Compared
with Americans, Asians have a "much healthier relationship with food,
far fewer eating disorders, and interestingly, far less obesity,"
Hawks notes.
Diets and dieting often fail to result in long-term weight loss,
largely because food restriction works against human biology, is not
sustainable, and may lead to negative outcomes such as weight
recycling, altered body composition, increased fat storage, decreased
metabolism, and eating disorders, Hawks and colleagues explain in the
American Journal of Health Education.
Proponents of intuitive eating for weight management believe that all
individuals possess a natural mechanism that if allowed to function
will ensure good nutrition at a healthy weight. Therefore, it is
possible to maintain a healthy body weight while maintaining an
unrestrained relationship with food.
"As individuals get in touch with this 'inner guide' or access their
'inner wisdom' they will be more in tune with their body's physical
needs and will eat in a way that supports healthy weight maintenance
and positive nutrition," Hawks and colleagues write.
To get on the road to intuitive eating, a person needs to adopt two
attitudes, according to the researchers. The first attitude is body
acceptance. "It's an extremely difficult attitude adjustment for many
people to make, but they have to come to a conscious decision that
personal worth is not a function of body size," Hawks said. The second
attitude, that dieting is harmful, relates to the first -- namely that
dieting does not lead to the results that people think it will lead
to.
To become an intuitive eater, a person also needs to adopt two key
behaviors. They must learn how not to eat for emotional, environmental
or social reasons and they must listen to their body and eat only when
hungry and stop when full. They must also learn how to interpret body
signals, cravings, and hunger and respond in a healthy way.
SOURCE: American Journal of Health Education, November 18, 2005.