Intuitive Eating for Diabetes Principles

Intuitive eaters have an enhanced ability to perceive physical sensations that arise from within the body, which is known as interoceptive awareness. Intuitive eaters are able to both receive (interoceptive sensitivity) and act (interoceptive responsiveness) on internal cues from their bodies with regard to food. This may mean noticing and responding to hunger by seeking out food. It may be the ability to sense whether a food feels or tastes good. And while intuitive eaters may sometimes get overly full (we all do!), most of the time, their body awareness will lead them to eat until satisfied and pleasantly full.

The ten principles of intuitive eating were originally defined by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch in their first edition of Intuitive Eating back in 1995.

In my work as a registered dietitian and certified intuitive eating counselor, clients often ask me if they can really allow themselves to eat intuitively if they also have a health condition or concern. The answer is a resounding YES!

Below, I’ve outlined the intuitive eating principles with special consideration to diabetes management. A double asterisk (**) marks those principles that improve interoceptive awareness and a single asterisk (*) marks those principles that remove obstacles to interoceptive awareness.

Principle 1: Reject the Diet Mentality*

The diet mentality is a mindset that over-values thinness and holds to a rigid view of what constitutes “healthy” eating for diabetes. Reject the diet mentality by saying no to food and body rules and yes to food flexibility and body peace. Diabetes treatment needs to be individualized and diets have no place here.

Principle 2: Honor Your Hunger**

Keep your body nourished with regular, adequate meals and snacks. Help yourself achieve blood sugar stability by eating consistently throughout the day and honoring your hunger signals.

Principle 3: Make Peace with Food*

Adopt an “all foods fit” mindset and let food preoccupations diminish. Contrary to common nutrition myths, there are no foods that are off limits for people with diabetes! Food restrictions create a feeling of scarcity, which often leads to unfavorable eating behaviors (such as out-of-control eating) when the food rule is temporarily bent.

Principle 4: Challenge the Diabetes Police*

The diabetes police encourage binary, inflexible thinking about diabetes, food, nutrition, movement, self-monitoring, and medications. It categorizes actions within these topics as good and bad, healthy and unhealthy, right and wrong. To challenge the diabetes police, talk back! This may mean talking back to your own thoughts or to unhelpful comments and unsolicited advice from others.

Principle 5: Discover the Satisfaction Factor**

Have you ever eaten a meal or snack only to find yourself still searching for something to eat afterwards? It’s possible that the eating experience or food was not satisfying. This commonly happens when people eat diabetes-targeted diet foods that aren’t filling enough, don’t taste great, or are eaten in a rush. Bring joy back to meals and snacks and aim to eat foods that have pleasing sensory properties to discover the satisfaction factor of intuitive eating.

Principle 6: Feel Your Fullness**

What does it feel like to be pleasantly full? It’s okay if you’re not sure. See if you can experiment with paying attention to different signs your body may give to signal that you’re done: diminishing taste, slowing down, feeling less interest in your food, the physical feeling in your belly. Many people find it helpful to check in with the body part-way through a meal to gauge how much more food they might want. (Note: some diabetes medications and conditions impact the feeling of fullness. Discuss your specific situation with a trusted health care professional.)

Principle 7: Cope with Your Emotions with Kindness*

Sometimes food can feel like the perfect response to an emotion—be it boredom, sadness, or elation. Eating something comforting can be a kind way to treat the body when feeling down. However, it can’t be the only way we know to treat our emotions. It’s great to have a wide array of tools in our toolbox for helping us through our feelings, such as creating art, using sensory objects, or listening to a podcast or music. One important note to keep in mind: restrained eating that results in out-of-control eating is sometimes labeled as “emotional eating” when it’s really just the result of primal hunger. (Hypoglycemia can lead to out-of-control eating as well.) If you’ve thought of yourself as someone who eats emotionally, can you get curious about whether you may have some restrained eating going on?

Principle 8: Respect Your Body*

Imagine treating your here-and-now body with unconditional respect. Doesn’t your body deserve to be taken care of, nourished, and treated with dignity? Some people experience anger toward their bodies for getting diabetes. It’s understandable to feel frustrated or disappointed by this diagnosis. Can you accept the diagnosis without feeling that anyone or anything is at fault, and take good care of the body you have anyway?

Principle 9: Movement—Feel the Difference**

There’s no one way to move the body. You could move fast, slow, or in between. You could be sitting, standing, in the water, or on wheels. What’s important here is that you find a way to move that feels good. Physical activity can be beneficial in just ten-minute spurts, and doing so is just as good as doing a longer duration all at once. Just ten minutes of any type of movement can reduce blood sugar spikes when done after meals (Buffey et al. 2022). Let’s figure out what works best for you.

Principle 10: Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition*

This principle captures a number of points: You can honor your health and eat the foods you love simultaneously. It takes eating a variety of food groups regularly throughout the day to nourish your body. There is no one right way to eat. People all over the globe use various cultural foods to nourish their bodies.

What questions do you have about intuitive eating with diabetes? Schedule a complimentary call using the button below to see how working with a registered dietitian may benefit you.

Not quite ready to talk? Be sure to click here and get our monthly nutrition tips and strategies to manage your diabetes and your overall health and well-being.