intuitive eating

Other animals don't need dieticians or books to know what to eat. They follow instinctive cravings and learn from their families. When they are sick they seek out healing plants.

We have evolved to sense countless fine differences in taste and after-effects and the smell, sight and taste of each food brings back memories of eating it before. If we attend closely to these reactions we become aware of them guiding us even when they are too complex to consciously analyse.

These body signals are overridden when we eat from obligation, custom, religion, habit, convenience, packaging, branding, diets, theories or government guidelines. Or just eat whatever is there.

self regulation
Overeating increases risks of disease with no extra benefits in return. We have evolved to eat just until our feelings of hunger turn off. Not too much and not too little of everything the body needs. Regulatory homoeostatic mechanisms in the brain stem detect nutrient levels and create cravings for those we are short of and dampen our hunger pangs when our needs are met.

We have finely tuned senses that can differentiate hundreds of different nutrients. Each nutrient is sensed as a taste on a particular part of the tongue. A sip of a nutrient solution after fasting a couple of days tastes delicious and we want more. The next sip is less attractive and and after another sip or two uninteresting. After more sips it becomes unsatisfying then distasteful and finally repulsive. We could repeat this experience with dozens of individual nutrients.

Refined, addictive or allergenic foods are not so easily regulated. Many processed foods are designed to bypass or over ride these mechanisms.

Dehydration, sleep deprivation, exhaustion, stress, addictive foods and additives and many chemicals, drugs and diseases, disrupt the body's regulatory hunger and satisfaction mechanisms making it difficult or impossible to work out what to eat or when to stop.

addictions
We can become addicted to both the added and naturally occurring addictive substances in food.

The very act of eating can be addictive. Chewing triggers the release of serotonin which activate pleasure centres.

Overeating produces a high when endorphins are released to mask the discomfort of a distended stomach. Opiates act on the same receptors as these hormones. We can become just as addicted to them as to opiates.

Overeating is tranquillizing by diverting blood to the stomach and intestines and reducing blood flow to the brain. Fats reduce blood flow and oxygen uptake by thickening the blood causing reduced oxygenation and partial suffocation.

Over eating is relaxing, helps get to sleep and provides relief from anxiety, depression and stress.

Sugars trigger the release of endorphins that stimulate the pleasure centres of the brain. They are highly addictive. Foods such as chocolate or dairy contain narcotics and similar substances.

We enjoy the physical sensations of crunchy and oily food. These preferences steer us towards foods that are fresh and contain fats and oils that are scarce in the wild.

Oils, fats and sugars are slow to turn off hunger. When they are refined there is not the bulk to provide the feeling of fullness that signals we have had enough. Peoples who have evolved in areas with seasonal shortages of food have even less signals to stop eating them. This is an advantage where food is scarce but a disaster when they are exposed to unlimited low grade industrially refined fats and sugar.

Nutrient deficient foods trick us into overeating them. Refined salt and carbohydrates lack essential nutrients so our homoeostatic mechanisms leave our cravings turned on while they wait for nutrient levels to rise. Refined salt and sugar also cause depletion of some nutrients. The more we eat, the more we want.

Processed food manufacturers design their products to appeal to these sort of preferences and addictions. There is more money in food that is nutrient deficient.

food allergies
Rashes, asthma, lethargy, runny nose, digestive disturbances and run down immune system can be signs of a food allergy.

Undigested particles or molecules can pass into the bloodstream through gut and blood vessel walls that are weakened by sickness. If they are identified by the immune system as foreign they can trigger a self protective immune response. If the immune system remembers them, they become allergenic. In some cases even the sight, smell or memory of them can trigger an immune reaction.

The body changes its biochemistry to compensate for the presence of allergens and the immune response. Withdrawing allergens from the diet can be uncomfortable or distressing while the body readjusts to their absence. Craving a food or eating it regularly may be a sign that it has become allergenic and the body has adjusted to it. Taking the food alleviates withdrawal symptoms and this is mistaken for the food being beneficial. This can be checked by withdrawing the food for a week or so and seeing if there are cravings and if you feel better when the withdrawal symptoms subside.

Staple foods that are eaten a lot are common allergens, especially the protein components. The fine particles in products made from flours are a greater risk than whole grains if they pass through a compromised gut wall before they are digested. Dairy allergies are widespread. There are estimates that a quarter of the population is risking illness through dairy use and a quarter can eat dairy without obvious side effects.

Withdrawing from addictive and allergenic foods foods is much the same as giving up addictive drugs. Some people quit all at once and put up with the discomfort and cravings. Others withdraw gradually.

fasting
Eating and digestion slightly increases stress and breathing rate and consumes resources. Fasting rests the body from toxic, addictive, and allergenic foods.

Allergens and addictive foods can be identified by reintroducing foods one at a time after a few days fast or safe restricted diet to see which ones trigger a reaction.

Reducing their intake or not using them when tired or ill or taking them out of the diet for a few months often fixes the problem.

simple meals
It is more difficult to assess when to finish eating complex mixtures particularly when they have addictive ingredients or the ingredients are masked with enticingly flavours. The whole meal may have to be eaten to get enough of just one or two of the ingredients.

If foods are eaten separately it is easier to tell when satisfaction is reached for each item of food. If the ingredients are unknown and their flavours masked there it is more difficult for the body's food selection mechanisms to evaluate them for future reference.

diets
Diets usually bring striking benefits if they withdraw junk and toxic food from the menu or introduce fresh fruit and veg but not because of the rest of the diet. Diets dis-empower us if they follow rigid formulas. They tempt us to hand over to an external authority and disregard the signals from our body. The evidence of our own senses. Everyone is different and nutritional needs change seasonally and from day to day. And we have evolved to manage this.

Most diets are promoted to make money for someone and are not necessarily safe or healthy. No matter how much you pay or how well promoted, authoritative or plausible, check if they line up with the research and theories they are founded on and if they really work as claimed. Many alternative and mainstream medical professionals promote diets without looking at the underlying claims or testing them carefully. Same goes for most dietary supplements and super-foods. Most are just hype and hope. The results can sometimes be tragic.

Diets that prescribe particular foods for particular physiological types do not account for other differences between individuals and regional differences in nutrients in foods due to soils, plant varieties and preparation. The ones I have examined are based on speculative and far-fetched assumptions and don't deliver the results they claim in practice.

hydration
Dehydration can produce metabolic disturbance and mental confusion and can perpetuate these by disrupting the body's regulatory thirst mechanisms.

Fluid is lost in eliminating drugs and toxins as well as many foods, particularly proteins and refined sugar. A junk food diet requires more water.

smell
Smell is perceived directly before being processed by the higher intellect. It gives our body a quicker and less prejudiced assessment than sight or sound. Smell triggers all kinds of reactions including the release of the appropriate digestive enzymes.

The perfumes of food can be energising. They set off digestive processes and change our mood. They are in a sense nutritional.

A few months after eliminating junk and highly processed foods simple or plain foods which previously seemed unremarkable become delicious and physically and mentally uplifting. The differences between fresh and really fresh fruit becomes noticeable. Even the subtle flavours and aromas in different kinds of boiled rice may become fascinating.

Eventually the uncomfortable side effects and tastes of toxic ingredients in food begins to be noticeable. After feeling good for a while, the discomfort or low vitality that used to be normal becomes unbearable. Preservatives, pesticides, junk food and synthetic colours and flavours become repulsive. Yuck.!!

overeating
Overeating is often powered by a deep unnoticed fear of scarcity of food even when to others there is an obvious abundance. Uncovering the origins of these kind of food cravings helps begin to escape their grip.

Identify those situations, feelings or moments that trigger snacking, gorging or junk food cravings and find alternatives for those moments. Interesting activities, a glass of water or harmless snacks like pieces of fresh fruit and veg perhaps.

The relaxation exercises and meditations on the body pages are alternative ways to feel good, relax and sleep.

Craving for nutrients drives a lot of junk food overeating. Some fresh fruit and veg at the start of the day satisfies most of these nutrient cravings and exercise gets the metabolism working so they are utilised.

Exercise stimulates eating for those who eat too little and reduces binge over-eating. The body's homoeostatic mechanisms start to function again.

Good self esteem and particularly a good body image helps.

digestion
Food alone is not sufficient. What we eat is not worth much if we don't assimilate it. Food that passes straight through is no more than a load on the digestive tract.

Physical mental and emotional health are essential. When we get exercise, are fit and healthy and not stressed our digestion, liver and kidneys will process the food and the proceeds will be put to use.

how to eat
Food sharing is in the culture of social animals and a core part of bonding. Food is better grown, harvested, prepared or eaten together. Finding the best food and ways to handle and prepare it.

How food eaten is almost as important as what is eaten. Digestion is impaired by stress. Nutrients are not as accessible and allergenic reactions more likely.

The subtle effects of food on thoughts and feelings can be enhanced with the awareness and relaxation exercises on the body mind and stress pages. As awareness of mind and body grows food is selected more and more accurately.

copyright (C) John Brasted 2008
updated 21. Dec. 2011

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