Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works

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Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works

4.15 of 5 stars 4.15 · rating details · 903 ratings · 170 reviews

We've all been there-angry with ourselves for overeating, for our lack of willpower, for failing at yet another diet that was supposed to be the last one. But the problem is not you, it's that dieting, with its emphasis on rules and regulations, has stopped you from listening to your body.

Written by two prominent nutritionists, Intuitive Eating focuses on nurturing your b...more

Paperback, Second Edition, 304 pages

Published September 11th 2003 by St. Martin's Griffin (first published May 1st 1995)

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Apr 15, 2012 Jennyross76 rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Okay, I'm on the last chapter, but people keep friending me on here and I figured I should update. LOL! I think this book is very interesting. Mostly because I know several people who believe that cutting out desserts or starting a new fad diet is the best way to lose pounds. And it might be...until you start eating the way you did prior to the diet. I've said for a long time that I do not want to be in a position where I have to turn down a piece of cake because I "can't" eat it. I want to turn...more

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Jun 05, 2013 Kimberly Read rated it 5 of 5 stars

I hate dieting. I detest counting calories or fat grams or carbs. I already find it difficult to squeeze grocery shopping into my hectic schedule so just the thought of adding any more time going label by label through the store, makes me seriously cranky. The minute I add a diet to my intentions, I find myself anxiously binging on my favorite foods in anticipation of their loss. And a few days into any diet, I swear I would mug a Girl Scout for her cookies! However, I am quite overweight (we ca...more I hate dieting. I detest counting calories or fat grams or carbs. I already find it difficult to squeeze grocery shopping into my hectic schedule so just the thought of adding any more time going label by label through the store, makes me seriously cranky. The minute I add a diet to my intentions, I find myself anxiously binging on my favorite foods in anticipation of their loss. And a few days into any diet, I swear I would mug a Girl Scout for her cookies! However, I am quite overweight (we call it plump in my house) and diabetic; my doctor is always on me to loose weight. What is a person to do?

I really do NOT want to be hassled with the dieting frustration, but the anxiety of not taking care of myself, the encouragement from my doctor to drop even five pounds, the unintentional (or otherwise) pressure of friends and family who are all dieting, add up to unbelievable amounts of guilt. In an overture to alleviating some of this guilt, I recently attended a nutrition seminar during one of my lunch breaks. I must confess that I really had no intention of starting yet another exercise in proving just how little self-control I have, but I went.

Everything the nutritionist said I’ve heard before. I know it all by heart. Blah. Blah. Yadda. Yadda. And then towards the end of the hour, she mentioned a book she highly recommended called Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. In the material she distributed about the book, it had the catch phrase, “Free yourself from chronic dieting forever.” Well! That did catch my attention. I went back to my office and ordered the book.

It was an excellent purchase. As it turns out, I am hardly the only person completely fed up with being guilt-ridden into diets that only serve to undermine my self-esteem and crank my weight up a few more pounds. And I discovered that some of what I considered my weirder eating habits are actually quite common.

http://bipolar.about.com/od/weightiss...(less)

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May 27, 2013 Kate LaChapelle rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone, no seriously, everyone should read it

Shelves: favorites, own

I started reading this book the other day and while it has only been a few days, I can see how much its ideas are transforming my life. Since I was a young girl I have struggled with body image, food issues, and disordered eating and my struggle has only gotten more difficult and more pronounced as I've gotten older, this book feels like it's the remedy I've been waiting for.

I hate diets. They don't work and only serve to exacerbate my disordered eating and my unhealthy relationship with my body...more

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May 10, 2012 Julia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: clinical-work

For my final pre-internship year, I'm going to be working with individuals with eating disorders. I figured I'd try something completely new. When I asked my supervisor what books she'd recommend as introductory readings, "Intuitive Eating" is where she sent me, telling me that it's the only self-help nutrition book out there that she not only tolerates, but actually likes. In short: her assessment is spot-on.

People ask me for book recommendations fairly often (and I'm only a grad student, so I...more

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Mar 10, 2011 Kathy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: food-habits, nonfiction, self-help

I came across a mention of this book on a blog and thought it sounded interesting. It's about losing the diet mentality and having a healthy relationship with food and our bodies. The book is geared toward chronic dieters, which I am not. I don't think I've ever seriously dieted. Sometimes I'll focus on smaller portions or eating healthier, but I'm not about denying myself foods or counting calories. If I'm hungry I eat. Even though it's not written with me in mind so much, I got some useful and...more I came across a mention of this book on a blog and thought it sounded interesting. It's about losing the diet mentality and having a healthy relationship with food and our bodies. The book is geared toward chronic dieters, which I am not. I don't think I've ever seriously dieted. Sometimes I'll focus on smaller portions or eating healthier, but I'm not about denying myself foods or counting calories. If I'm hungry I eat. Even though it's not written with me in mind so much, I got some useful and interesting things out of it. While reading it I was more aware of my eating habits and learned interesting things about myself that I hadn't realized. I noticed it's not hard for me to wait until I'm hungry to eat unless I am stressed out. Then I just want to eat. I realized if I take smaller amounts and really think about if I'm satisfied before getting more, I usually am and don't need more. I learned that I have a tendency to want to eat food just because it's available and yummy, whether I'm hungry or not, like at a buffet. I don't like letting food go to waste and tend to clean my plate. I liked the author's comment that it's not going to waste, it's going to waist. The book helped me shake off some of those behaviors, at least while reading it. Since I finished it over a month ago, I've become somewhat less conscious again.

The authors' ideas are basically that we should give ourselves permission to eat whenever and whatever we want, but we need to be conscious about it. Think about if we are hungry, if the food is really what would be most satisfying to us right then, and so on. And then, even if the answers are no, we can eat it anyway if we choose, but it makes us more aware of why we are eating and prevents us from getting into a deprivation mentality where we then turn to eventual splurging and overeating to compensate. We should also stop eating when we are satisfied, rather than just mindlessly eating because there is still food there. It also covers having a realistic expectation of our bodies and learning to accept and appreciate them for what they do. The ideas made a lot of sense to me and it seems like a healthy, balanced approach to eating.(less)

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Sep 11, 2010 Jezzyka rated it 5 of 5 stars

Hmm... Sigh...

This is, essentially, the way to eat. A lot of people do, naturally, it's not like a special, new-age restrictive idea. But for many of us, who see "Drop a Pant Size in 2 Weeks" and constant headlines on the obesity crisis, we can't help but be affected, to feel that something is wrong with us and we have to be perfect. PERFECT. We have to look like this-- on top of being this, acting like this, and anything less means that something is wrong. We don't have enough "will-power".

Not...more

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Jun 09, 2010 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I wish, wish, wish that every one of my friends who struggles with her weight, thinks she should diet, or who mentally tallies in her mind what she’s eaten that day or that week to determine if she can eat that “cookie” (or whatever) would read this book. Before reading this book, I thought I was an intuitive eater because I lived by the mantra “eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full”, but reading this book has brought me a new level of peace with food.

The basic premise of intuitive eati...more I wish, wish, wish that every one of my friends who struggles with her weight, thinks she should diet, or who mentally tallies in her mind what she’s eaten that day or that week to determine if she can eat that “cookie” (or whatever) would read this book. Before reading this book, I thought I was an intuitive eater because I lived by the mantra “eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full”, but reading this book has brought me a new level of peace with food.

The basic premise of intuitive eating is that when we really listen and tune into our bodies, we will know what to eat and how much. (Several studies on toddlers have found that when small children have free access to a variety of foods, they eat a balanced variety that meets their nutritional needs. We are born knowing what we should eat and how much, but from a very small age we begin to be conditioned as to what we “should” eat. Intuitive eating tries to help you find that inner knowledge about food again.)

We should eat when we’re hungry, eat what we want that will truly satisfy us (lose the idea of what we “should” eat), and stop when we’re full. The primary goal established in this book is to make peace with food so it loses its power, a power I can relate to. Even though I believed in eating when I was hungry and stopping when full, often I would make a mental tally of what I’d eaten that day, or think that I “could” eat 3-4 cookies because of how far I’d run that morning. However, with intuitive eating, I’m learning to block out all the messages of what I “should” eat and how much is appropriate, and really dial into my body’s cues of what I need in that moment. And I’ve never felt healthier or had such a feeling of energy and well-being.

Weight-loss can be a secondary goal of intuitive eating, but the authors, (two registered dieticians with Master’s degrees in nutrition) stress that you really have to be process-focused to make the process work. This means letting go of the scale or whatever metric you use to gauge your weight-loss progress. Instead you need to focus on you feel and the well-being you derive from the process of intuitive eating. Someone who has dieted frequently interspersed with periods of overeating will likely lose weight with intuitive eating until he/she arrives at her natural healthy weight. The authors have repeatedly found that to be the case with their clients.

Probably my favorite parts of the book were reading the science cited by the authors of why dieting both biologically and psychologically DOES NOT WORK for 90-95% of people. Yet people blame themselves rather than the process of dieting, leading to depression, anxiety, and an obsession with food. Not only does dieting reduce your metabolism, but calorie-deprivation leads to periods of overeating. I read on one of the author’s blogs this morning that a review of 31 long-term studies on dieting by UCLA scientists found that dieting is a consistent predictor of weight gain: http://nutrition-info-411.evelyntribo....

I can still hear the skeptic in you saying that if you were given complete permission to eat whatever you wanted, you’d be eating cinnamon rolls all day long, right? I have found through my experience that I actually crave sweets and baked goods at an all-time LOW. My theory is that because my body is constantly receiving the calories I need, I no longer crave desserts like I did before as an assured, quick way to meet (and in some cases exceed) my caloric needs. Additionally, when I know I can have sweets anytime (with full, sincere permission), I don’t need them as much. However, for me, I think the biological process is the more real one for me. Meeting my calorie needs consistently reduces cravings and periods of overeating. The authors have found the same results in their practices; their clients generally arrive at a point where they eat 90% healthy foods and 10% play foods (their term for junk food) through intuitive eating.

I love this process and wish I had found it sooner. I highly recommend this book.
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Apr 22, 2009 Stephanie rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who wants to stop dieting, eat naturally, and maintain a healthy weight

I initially read this book for a college course and the following is excerpted from a paper I wrote about becoming a lifelong intuitive eater; thus, it is what I learned from this book. The reference to Hirschmann and Munter (1998) is for their book entitled Overcoming Overeating.

Because dieting fails, a new way of eating must be discovered and developed. Such an appropriate eating style is termed “intuitive eating,” or, as Hirschmann and Munter (1988) call it, “demand feeding.” Intuitive eatin...more I initially read this book for a college course and the following is excerpted from a paper I wrote about becoming a lifelong intuitive eater; thus, it is what I learned from this book. The reference to Hirschmann and Munter (1998) is for their book entitled Overcoming Overeating.

Because dieting fails, a new way of eating must be discovered and developed. Such an appropriate eating style is termed “intuitive eating,” or, as Hirschmann and Munter (1988) call it, “demand feeding.” Intuitive eating involves first recognizing the damage of dieting and vowing to discard dieting (Tribole & Resch, 2003). Before engaging in intuitive eating, body acceptance must be cultivated alongside an anti-dieting attitude because it is difficult to reject the diet mentality if one is “unrealistic and overly critical of [his or her:] body shape” (Tribole & Resch, 2003, p. 27). Hirschmann and Munter (1988) frequently refer to the “Change Your Shape and Change Your Life” game in which players believe in the fantasy that if they change their shape through dieting, then their life will magically improve; therefore, players engage in chronic dieting and end up more miserable than when they started. Thus, the key to dumping the diet is to accept one’s body at any size by looking at one’s body objectively in the mirror, tossing the scales (both real and pseudo-), and redoing one’s wardrobe so that clothing is comfortable (Hirschmann & Munter, 1988). Once body acceptance and an anti-dieting mentality are established, a person may begin to engage in intuitive eating.

According to the logic of intuitive eating, if one no longer diets or adheres to restrictive food rules, then he or she must eat on the basis of biological or “stomach” hunger, which is a person’s physiological need to eat (Hirschmann & Munter, 1988). Therefore, intuitive eating involves avoiding psychological or “mouth” hunger, which occurs when a person eats for emotional reasons or because the food looks good or simply because food is available (Hirschmann & Munter, 1988). Such a task may seem daunting at first; therefore, it is important that intuitive eating is approached as a process (unlike one’s approach to diets that demand perfection and quick results) that initially involves a state of hyperconsciousness while eating that will eventually taper off into mindful eating (Tribole & Resch, 2003).

Being conscious of one’s eating includes being able to recognize hunger, neutrally observe one’s food choices, satisfy hunger, and stop eating when one is full (Tribole & Resch, 2003). According to Tribole and Resch (2003), the key to respecting one’s fullness (that is, to stop eating when one is full) is to give oneself unconditional permission to eat.(less)

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Jul 11, 2012 L. Worwood rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: inspirational, self-help, health, favorites

I already love my friend, Lolene, but offering her copy of Intuitive Eating alone would be enough to endear her to me forever! I just kept feeling so much relief as I read this book.
Written by two nutritionists, it offers a way out of all the dieting and overeating craziness.

I will always be a fan of Weight Watchers--it's healthy and I've had quite a bit of success with it. HOWEVER, I get tired of focusing on food: the point counting, the shopping, comparing of options, trying new recipes that...more

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Nov 23, 2009 Felicia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: self-help

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 20, 2013 Courtney rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Dieters

Shelves: books-about-food, 2013, 5-stars, non-fiction

It's amazing how many people feel their lives have been this never-ending battle against food. The women in my family who have disordered, bizarre, guilty, self-hating relationships with food outnumber those who don't. It's a sickness, and one that has been the cause of so much stress and sadness in my life. This book, although not a cure-all, has given me an entirely new way of thinking about how I eat. Instead of creating rules for myself, it says to just listen to your body. Listen to when yo...more It's amazing how many people feel their lives have been this never-ending battle against food. The women in my family who have disordered, bizarre, guilty, self-hating relationships with food outnumber those who don't. It's a sickness, and one that has been the cause of so much stress and sadness in my life. This book, although not a cure-all, has given me an entirely new way of thinking about how I eat. Instead of creating rules for myself, it says to just listen to your body. Listen to when your body wants to eat. Ask it how much. Ask it what sounds good. And the amazing thing is, once you stop obsessing over eating, your body tends to only want as much food as keeps it nourished. Your weight balances out. The compulsive tendencies subside.

I started dieting when I was 13. I started seeing food as numbers. Calories. Fat grams. Portion sizes. The time I had last eaten. The time I had to wait until I should allow myself to eat again. The weight I wanted to be. The weight I was. The weight I had been last week. Clothing sizes. The calories per day I had to eat to attain that clothing size. The minutes of running it would take to burn it off.

The diet I began at 13 will continue to have ramifications for the rest of my life. It mentally fucked me up. I was so successful during that first diet and ended up getting to below 90 lbs at 5'3", but I wanted to lose more. My entire life was a battle against what I wanted to eat. I would dream of food every night. I would wake up from nightmares where I'd eaten cake. I knew the calorie content for every single food I might encounter in my day-to-day life. To this day, I still do. I can't help it.

Of course, deprivation like that isn't sustainable. Then came the life-long roller coaster of severe deprivation and bingeing. I'd gain 20 lbs in 2 months, then lose 20 lbs. by never allowing myself one thing "bad." As soon as I'd fuck up that one time, however, it was a free-for-all.

This book has introduced me to a way of eating that rejects this. I don't want to live this way, and this book gives me some hope that one day I can stop battling food and embrace eating as natural, pleasant, and anxiety-free. (less)

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Jan 18, 2011 Laurie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book has completely changed the way I eat. I have always considered myself a positive, upbeat person who is kind and loving to everyone including myself. This book showed me how I was denying myself food and torturing myself every time I ate. I was not being kind to me.

No more dieting. No more denying myself food because it is "not good for me". It is just like she says in the book --if you tell a child they can play with any toy in the room but the pink elephant, the pink elephant is the o...more

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Sep 08, 2012 Emi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: emotional eaters, disordered eaters

Pre-ordered this book and received it Aug 11 2012.
Very good book for those who never want to look at another diet book again because THIS IS NOT A DIET BOOK!
It has helped me work through my emotional eating issues and taught me how to something other then surround my life happenings with food.

Great book for those who have disordered eating as well.

It doesn't read like a diet book, and nutrition is actually the last thing in the book you read before getting to the stuff about eating disorders.

Al...more

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Jan 22, 2010 Jen V rated it 5 of 5 stars

Now that it's been almost 7 years since first being introduced to Intuitive Eating I can honestly say the concepts in this book actually really did change my life and allowed me to "make peace with food". I think I have the first edition (there are now 4) which although the writing is a little (okay a lot) hoakie the concepts are priceless. I do have to say I initially read this book as part of coursework while studying nutrition at USU so I never had the experience of picking it up and just rea...more

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Apr 25, 2008 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars

I loved this book. If you are SERIOUSLY tired of the diet roller coaster, this book is a great alternative. Due to the pregnancy (where my body has NO intuition), I've kind of stopped following it. It's not a quick lose weight method, but it's all about being sane and healthy.

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Mar 05, 2010 Christina rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Christina by: Becky Robinson

Shelves: nonfiction-health

This is an excellent book about listening to your body's signals when eating and exercising. It sort of reminded me of French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure except that the authors are well-qualified nutritionists with a lot of experience helping people with eating disorders.

This book contains very few guidelines on nutrition. Instead, the focus is on our having a healthy relationship with food - enjoying what you eat, eating for hunger instead of boredom, neutrally choos...more

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Apr 05, 2013 Matia rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone sick of dieting

This book is another great anti-dieting resource. Diets are known to fall far short of all the promises, and worse, even contribute to obesity by creating the famous yo-yo or rebound effect.

I am pleased to be reinforced by these principles to trust my body and my intuition, avoid deprivation, and to be less influenced by the body-obsessed thinking of our culture.

A couple of other books that I have found very helpful in this area:
I Can Make You Thin
Overcoming Overeating: Conquer Your Obsession W ...more

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Aug 21, 2009 Kimberly rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really loved this book. It referenced Covey's Seven Habits "paradigm shift" at the beginning, stating that that perspective shift was the purpose of the book. Having been trying to lose baby weight off and on for the last 9+ years I related to a lot of this and had several "aha" moments. I found it very insightful and helpful and will reread this in the future. (As for being "revolutionary" it is actually sad they felt the term was applicable. It is about healthy balance and moderation, with n...more

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Jun 19, 2012 Lolene rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book was written for and about me. I publicly acknowledge that I have been addicted to diets since the age of ten. If you know me, you know that dieting has NOT worked for me...except to make me fatter. This book is all about giving up dieting and finally making peace with food. Food is not the enemy. Lack of willpower, guilt, self-hatred, etc. are not characteristics that need to dog everyone's footsteps forever. This book was a revelation to me...I saw myself on every page. I underlined,...more

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Sep 08, 2012 Suzanne Stewart rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: self-help, eating-disorders

this book is OK but tries to help you eat healthy and yada yada....but people with true eating disorders usually cannot start this process on their own. I've been there and done that. It's truly almost impossible to pick up a book and "fix yourself" because they tell you how to eat and what to eat. If you could do that, you wouldn't have that problem! So I think this book is OK if you just want to lose a few pounds and you can do the things it tells you to do, but if you have the full blown eati...more

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Dec 28, 2010 Nancy Cluff rated it 4 of 5 stars

A program for those who have hit "diet bottom" to help learn to eat naturally, without emotional eating or overeating.
My main complaint is that it's hard to put the principles into practice with the book alone. It would be great to have a support group. I've also purchased the audio from the same authors which includes what they call "practices" to help learn the principles, almost as if you were seeing them for diet counseling.
I've not lost much weight (yet), but I've made peace with food and...more

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Mar 02, 2009 Liz rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ok, I've never read a diet book, but I was assured before hand that this wasn't a diet book. It turned out to be a fabulous read. This was our January book club book and it turned out to be a great discussion on eating habits and the way we view food. There is a lot to the concept, but it revolves around not feeling guilty for eating, listening to your body, and being healthy.....no dieting. I like that it kept emphasizing that there are no 'bad' foods. Anyway, there's lots to this concept, but...more

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Aug 10, 2012 Chavonne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: clinical-resources, favorite-books-of-all-time, health-and-wellness, mindful-eating, recovery, nonfiction

I have read the second version at least three times and "read" this version by audio during workouts. It is a lot of the previous version but has chapters devoted to raising intuitively-eating children, using intuitive eating when recovering from eating disorders, and to discuss the recent studies exploring intuitive eating. It was wonderful to read this again and get a "tune up". I fully believe in the Intuitive Eating/Health at Every Size philosophies and credit them for helping me eat with le...more

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Mar 08, 2009 Elisa rated it 5 of 5 stars

My personal trainer recomended that I read book when we started our workout sessions together. This was an amazing book that really allowed me to break away from "dieting" and really just focusing on making smarter choices with the foods I ate....while, not denying myself yummy treats now and then (...and in moderation). Everyone has an eating story that they could relate too. Plus it's written by registered dietians, that give excellent "real life" advice. I highly recommend anyone that has eve...more

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Sep 04, 2009 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: my-scripture-shelf

I greatly enjoyed this insightful, if slightly overselling explanation of intuitive eating, the authors' working method in the field of nutrition. Their approach is empowering and practical, and unique in the field. I believe that many, many people who struggle or have struggled with food will find something of value in this, whether you use parts of their ideas to supplement your relationship to food or commit to their complete process.

First, an example. A couple months ago, I sat with a half-e...more I greatly enjoyed this insightful, if slightly overselling explanation of intuitive eating, the authors' working method in the field of nutrition. Their approach is empowering and practical, and unique in the field. I believe that many, many people who struggle or have struggled with food will find something of value in this, whether you use parts of their ideas to supplement your relationship to food or commit to their complete process.

First, an example. A couple months ago, I sat with a half-eaten supper in my bowl, and I spoke out loud about the struggle I was having just then. I didn't want to stuff myself uncomfortably, but it seemed to be the only way I could have a satisfying supper. Gabe said to me, "You know, if you stop eating now, you can always eat more later if you get hungry." I could eat later? But there are rules! I can't eat too late in the evening! I then decided that my desire for a satisfying and pleasant supper experience was more important to me than following an old rule. I ate and I listened to my body with care, stopping when I felt full, knowing that I could get more later if I needed it. Since making the decision to do that frequently, I've gone from stuffing myself to discomfort at supper about 80% of the time, to doing it about 10% of the time.

Without either of us knowing it, we were enacting a central tenet (and strategy) of this book. It is the authors' basic premise that our bodies can be trusted to know what they need and when they are hungry, if we can strip away the unhealthy conditioning we've taken in and stop second-guessing our bodies. For many of us, and for the authors' primary target audience, this means thoroughly understanding and letting go of the diet mentality in all its guises, and nurturing healthy, positive, productive self-talk. The key is completely removing ourselves from rules, which create forbidden actions and foods. These taboos can trigger a starvation response in us... which is surprisingly rampant in our culture of food abundance. By encouraging ourselves to know on a deep level that we can eat what we want and that we will not deprive our bodies, we free ourselves of primal triggers that have us battling scarcity thinking. By removing rules we have imposed on ourselves from the outside - from innumerable sources, many of them well-meaning - we can remove obstacles to hearing our own intuitive interactions with food. This is a fundamental trust in the wisdom of our bodies, something I deeply value.

The book gives a psychologically sound framework for understanding some of the inner voices that can affect our relationship to food, and provides many different strategies for strengthening our own "intuitive eater." The book's content does sometimes get quite repetitious. But since we're talking about changing embedded beliefs, it's logical to review and repeat the pertinent ideas over and over again, to absorb them deeply. Before completing this book, a reader will have already had the opportunity to reflect on the ideas and dig out a few obstacles they may find to their own healthier eating habits.

In a chapter towards the back, the authors address that group of individuals that have required another step before finding that inner voice -- those battling full-fledged eating disorders, that need interventions to minimize the threat before proceeding to the practice of hearing more subtle cues. The authors don't pretend to offer a easy-to-follow manual to exit out of such complex issues... but in addressing eating disorders, they have the same type of deep respect for the body and its survival mechanisms that Kate Bornstein did in "Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws". Both sources value all coping mechanisms as something sacred and imaginative, as creative problem-solving. When we start from a place of respecting the ways we manage our problems, we can look practically at what survival and health really mean, and how to expand our healthiest survival skills.

I read parts of this book years ago, and began then to incorporate some ideas. I love getting the feedback from two trained nutritionists that a body's desires for food can be respected and trusted. At that point in my life, I didn't want to leave the more traditional strategy of counting calories and using math to get the pounds down. But now, I am more interested in feeling good and not fighting with food. They have convinced me that they have some great ideas that I want to incorporate into my lifestyle.
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Nov 07, 2008 Rachelle rated it 5 of 5 stars

It took me a long time to read this book, mainly because I read it very slowly so that I could absorb all of the concepts. This book is all about making peace with food and with the body you have. It is not another diet book; in fact, the main theme of the book is the necessity of rejecting the "diet mentality" once and for all. The authors point out that almost all diets eventually fail, and most people chastise themselves for not having the “willpower” or “self-control” to be successful on a d...more

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Aug 08, 2011 Jennifer Glass added it

This is the last time I read a dieting or anti-dieting book. Reading about food just makes me want to eat more of it, whether it's reading about how to diet or how not to diet. Seems like these authors have a good program, but reading about people who have solutions to help me obsess more about food, or people who have programs to help me not obsess about food, ends with the same result: obsessing about food. Moral of the story is exercise a lot and try to eat healthy and don't think too much ab...more

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May 10, 2013 Megan rated it 5 of 5 stars

An excellent book describing how to get in touch with our innate ability to eat for satisfaction and overall health. The program was initially used for treating eating disorders but it would be useful to anyone who wants to improve their relationship with food and get out of the diet- and body-obsessed trap.

As a dietitian, the idea to "eat whatever you want" for enjoyment without worrying about health seems counter-intuitive, but the authors (also dietitians) make an excellent case for using in...more

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Aug 20, 2008 Mindy rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone who is tired of the dieting game and wants to eat in a healthy manner

I debated entering this here, as this is more about my eating issues than literature. But hey - it was a book I read and ill likely read again soon, so I added it.

It's basically about reteaching ourselves to eat when we're hungry, and to eat what we want. Sounds simple, but I find I really have to think about it and not just eat because it's 9AM or Noon, etc.

It's also about eating "real food." I'm no longer fixating on low-sugar, low-calorie, fat-free stuff. I'd rather eat creamy vanilla yogurt...more

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Apr 08, 2012 M J rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, library

This is the best book I have found so far explaining Intuitive Eating in a relate-able, knowledgeable way. There are other great books out there that compliment this one wonderfully, but this is the best I've found. I found myself nodding along with almost everything the authors had to say. Dieting mentality really messes with your brain and I"m so thankful to find Intuitive Eating to find a healthy balance listening to the wonderful body that God gave me.

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About Evelyn Tribole

Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD is an award-winning registered dietitian, with a nutrition counseling practice in Newport Beach, California. She has written seven books including the bestsellers Healthy Homestyle Cooking and Intuitive Eating(co-author). Her newest book is the Ultimate Omega-3 Diet.

Evelyn was the nutrition expert for Good Morning America, appearing from 1994-’95 and was a national spokesper...more

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Books by Evelyn Tribole

Healthy Homestyle Cooking: 200 of Your Favorite Family Recipes-- With a Fraction of the Fat

The Ultimate Omega-3 Diet: Maximize the Power of Omega-3s to Supercharge Your Health, Battle Inflammation, and Keep Your Mind Sharp

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