It can seem scary to start eating foods you have not allowed yourself to have in quite a long time. However, this process is critical in helping us to normalize our relationship with food and develop a more balanced approach to eating.

By: Kendra Kaczmarski

The third principle of intuitive eating is Make Peace With Food. This principle is all about making room in your diet for the foods you have been avoiding or restricting. “If you deprive yourself of a particular food, it can lead to intense feelings of deprivation that build into uncontrollable cravings…in fact, being restricted from anything in life sets it up to be extra special.” ¹ This elevated level of importance increases the longer that the food is restricted until cravings eventually become all-consuming. These cravings can lead to obsessive thoughts and possible binging, challenging your peace of mind and making you believe that you can’t be trusted with a particular food.

Rachael Hartley, a Registered Dietitian, notes that “we’re taught ridiculous strategies for fending off cravings, everything from eating carrot sticks to tapping on our forehead. But we’re never taught skills to competently eat all foods”.² Making peace with food involves what Hartley calls a “say yes” approach- banishing the food rules that you have surrounded yourself with and permitting yourself to eat the foods that you want to eat-unconditionally.²

Making peace with food and allowing yourself to have the things you have been avoiding or restraining takes food off its pedestal and normalizes your relationship with it. In short, it allows food to be just food.

How Can A Registered Dietitian Help?

Identifying Fear Foods

Your dietitian can work with you to develop a list of foods you have been avoiding or restricting. You can slowly tackle this list as you begin bringing the foods back into your diet at your level of comfort.

Deciding Where to Start

Your dietitian can collaborate with you to ease these foods back into your diet without causing overwhelm. They might recommend that you tackle your list one food at a time or challenge several foods throughout the day or the week, depending on where you are at in your recovery. They can support you continually in this process until you’re feeling more at ease with intuitively incorporating all foods into your diet.

Meal Planning and Support

It may be helpful to incorporate tools such as meal planning or mindful bites throughout your meal to help you stay focused and connected to your body while you experiment with these new foods. Your dietitian can offer support here, reminding you to cultivate non-judgmental awareness of how the food is feeling and your level of enjoyment throughout the meal.

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This post was written by BALANCE Dietetic Intern, Kendra Kaczmarski.

Kendra is a graduate student in nutrition & dietetics at NYC's Hunter College. She is Vice-President of the Anti-Diet Dietetic Students organization and a member of the Association of Size Diversity And Health. Kendra recently completed her Intuitive Eating Counselor Certification and will be wrapping up her graduate program in the spring of 2022. When she has time to relax, she loves to explore the outdoors with her husband, try new restaurants, and cuddle with her dachshund, Simon. Kendra desires to work in the field as a non-diet dietitian helping patients to recover from chronic dieting and disordered eating.

References

1. Tribole, E., & Huber, H. (2021). Intuitive eating: A revolutionary anti-diet approach (4th ed.). Blackstone Publishing.

2. Hartley R. How to Make Peace with Food. Registered Dietitian Columbia SC - Rachael Hartley Nutrition. Accessed February 3, 2022. https://www.rachaelhartleynutrition.com/blog/2015/04/making-peace-with-food

Intuitive Eating Principle 3: Make Peace With Food