Eating instinct

Americans might not list “dieting” as a favorite pastime, but they certainly do it enough to consider it one.Millions of people nationally are dieting at any given time. A CBS News story from 2005 estimated 45 million Americans diet every year. Yet many of these people, while they do lose weight, eventually gain it back and more, according to a study by UCLA researchers published in April 2007.While “fad diets” such as South Beach and Atkins have swept across the country and the weight tug of war has continued, other more forgiving dietary movements have also developed. They involve no calorie-counting and no strict food rules. You can eat what you want, when you want, and according to those involved, the tactics work.Food philosophies such as “anti-diet,” “mindful eating” and “intuitive eating” have been around for several years. While each philosophy has a different focus (anti-dieting and mindful eating highlight specific points in intuitive eating), they have many of the same principles in common, said Tracy Tylka, an associate professor of psychology at Ohio State University-Marion who specializes in body image and eating behavior.“They all share the principle of listening to your body and paying attention to how food is impacting your body,” she said. “You’re paying attention to internal hunger and fullness cues. You eat when you’re hungry, and you stop when you’re full, and you’re aware of your eating experience.”Research on intuitive eating and its variants have indicated the approach works, Tylka said. Her own research, as well as research done at Brigham Young University, indicates intuitive eating is associated with a lower body mass index and a higher sense of well-being.While the concept sounds like common sense — eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full — Americans have a far more complex relationship with food that complicates the issue, Tylka said. When we are born, we only listen to ourselves when it comes to food and body image. As we get older, however, we instead listen to society and to the media.“Our culture sabotages (internal cues),” she said. “It teaches us we should not listen to our bodies and that we should chronically diet. It’s totally the opposite of listening to your body. You’re shutting off your cues instead of eating when you’re hungry.”Mass media also give us skewed information and ideas about the food itself, said Elyse Resch, a registered dietitian and nutrition therapist who co-authored the book “Intuitive Eating” with dietitian Evelyn Tribole. Food is looked at not as a nourishing or enjoyable substance, she said, but as something that fulfills emotional needs.“We are all born with all the wisdom we need about eating, but that wisdom is covered by layers of debris,” she said. “With emotional eating, we often override internal signals to sooth or distract ourselves. In my practice, so many people come in with strong emotional eating issues. Most of it is based on feeling bad about eating.”For people who adopt intuitive eating, there’s no such thing as an off-limit food, Tylka said. People can eat what they want, as long as they know what the food is and how it impacts them.“Not every food is ‘good’ or ‘bad,’” she said. “They vary in terms of nutrition, and they vary by individual. It’s nice to eat certain foods that are for pleasure, but you have to know your body and how food interacts with it, so the mind is really connected with the body and not working against it.”What is not involved in these eating philosophies is dieting of any kind, which would prohibit any success, said Rosalie Stluka, a clinical social worker at Personal Growth Counseling in Lima, who sometimes offers anti-dieting sessions.“You can’t be on a diet and do the things required in this program,” she said. “It’s much the same as the idea that you can’t stand and sit at the same time. There is no dieting involved in this at all.”Finally, intuitive eating and its various forms are lifestyle changes that take time, not quick fixes to achieve a thinner body. Acceptance and respect of your body shape is key, and change does not occur rapidly.“If we decide to make any kind of change in life, if we do it in a step-by-step fashion with patience, achieving our goal is more likely,” Stluka said. “You see a lot of people with weight problems, and they didn’t get this way overnight, so you’re not going to resolve it overnight, either.”