10 Principles of Intuitive Eating Series, Principle 4: Challenging the Food Police

The 10 Principles of Intuitive Eating were created by Evelyn Tribole, MS, RDN, CEDRD-S, and Elyse Resch, MS, RDN, CEDS-S, Fiaedp, FADA, FAND. These principles were created to act as guidelines and steps for anyone and everyone to learn about intuitive eating and incorporate them into their lives. We will go into the ten principles individually, what they mean to me, what they can mean for you, and how they will help to guide you on your journey through intuitive eating. Throughout this series of blog posts, we will go in-depth on the individual principles.

Today, we continue with Principle 4: Challenge the Food Police.

Since childhood, we may have been taught that we have a symbolic angel on one side of the shoulder and a little devil on the other. There is a third entity that can haunt us. This takes form deep in our psyche and tears us down in the presence of eating or food. These voices are called the Food Police. The Food Police also comes with a few other voices that do not help us on our journey through Intuitive Eating, and we will go more in-depth on these voices later in the post. These extras are the Nutrition Informant and the Diet Rebel.

The Food Police:

We will begin by describing the Food Police and how they can complicate a relationship with food. Our inner Food Police is a strong voice developed through dieting and diet culture. They attempt to dictate what foods we can and cannot eat while still in a dieting mentality. Because they do this and we allow them to, we limit ourselves on the food we want; we will search for them throughout the rest of our day. For example, you are at a dinner party, and there is a charcuterie board on display with different choices of meats, crackers, and cheeses. The diet police would be berating you if you even looked toward the gouda and crackers for the taking. "How could you even think about eating all of that cheese? Do you KNOW how much cholesterol is in all of that gouda? If you even look at those crackers, you will lose control over carbs." The Food Police don't care about your feelings; you should feel awful for being around food that diet culture tells you is forbidden. If you are still connected to the Food Police, you say not to be in tune with your inner hunger or fullness cues. This is why we must challenge them and their lies! Remember, the Food Police are never on our side.

Nutrition Informant and the Nutrition Ally

Moving on next to the Nutrition Informant. With a name like this, you may think that the Nutrition Informant is on your side and wants you to know if something is healthy for you and your body's journey. But that is just the problem; they only care about what is deemed nutritious and damns everything that diet culture deems unhealthy. This voice manipulates us with the desire for nutrition to keep us hooked on diet culture. Reminding us that we have to be sure we count our macros and carbs in the name of health, which is double agent-like. I don't want you to think you can only snack on healthy foods, such as vegetables and fruits. And even when you're done with these foods, you shouldn't feel hungry afterward.

But fear not; there is a way to free the Nutrition Informant and convert them to our side! Once the Nutrition Informant is removed from the Food Police, they become the Nutrition Ally! Where these two voices differ is that the Nutrition Ally can help you, instead of nagging you to make healthy food choices without guilt or deprivation. The Nutrition Ally is interested in healthy eating with no hidden agenda. For example, the Nutrition Ally would assist you in picking a type of cheese from the charcuterie board based on which has less saturated fats.

The Diet Rebel

Next, we look to the Diet Rebel, who would seem like the inner angry teenager who wants to protect our boundaries. The Diet Rebel is the voice you hear when food choices you don't enjoy are being pushed on you that you don't enjoy. It would say, "Eww, you won't make me eat that bland piece of chicken! I'll show you by eating this entire package of little donuts." The Diet Rebel is incredibly defiant and harmful because it can result in losing control of eating and self-sabotage. Those thoughts would begin to brew in your mind, and instead of standing your ground and discussing your food discomfort with the person in question, you lash out and sabotage yourself by losing control of eating.

However just like the Nutrition Ally, the Diet Rebel can be altered to serve us in our Intuitive Eating journey better. The Rebel Ally can help us learn to guard our food boundaries. It will give you the courage to tell the dinner party's host that you are full and will not be able to indulge in a second helping when everyone else is. You can feel your fullness and honor it by respecting your comfort level.

Challenging the food police is a more involved step in our journeys in Intuitive Eating. It requires a lot of unlearning habits and ways of self speak for us to heal ourselves. Once we have removed the Food Police from the authority in our minds and allowing in the Nutrition Ally and Rebel Ally to take their place, we are one step closer to honoring ourselves on this journey. The process of intuitive eating is a long road; let those closest to you know the path you have chosen for yourself so they can continue encouraging you on your journey. If you have questions about Intuitive Eating, please message Robin Harris through email, robin@bodypositiveacupuncture.com, to schedule a workshop. Look forward to more posts like these, which will cover the ten principles of Intuitive Eating.