The different types of eater
Before getting to the heart of the matter, we must understand what type of eater we belong to.
First there are the internal eaters, who will let themselves be led by their emotions. Sadness, stress, joy, the desire to party, whether the emotion is positive or negative, it doesn’t matter, it’s what’s in charge!
Then there are the external eaters who are influenced by their environment: advertisements, magazines, surroundings, etc.
THE restricted eaters eliminate certain foods and monitor calories.
And finally the intuitive eaters listen to their body, and know how to recognize the signals of hunger, but also – even more important – those of sacrosanct satiety.
What is intuitive eating?
Isabelle Siac. Intuitive eating is simply eating when you are hungry. Some people feel more or less hungry and full. Intuition is the same, it’s good, but it has to be good. You have to know how to listen to your body and internal signs.
It is often said that some people “eat” their emotions.
IS. There is an emotional part and an instinctive, sensory part. I prefer to talk about the emotional part of food, because it’s not just emotions, it’s also things that are linked to memories, habits. There are food cultures in families, people who have never learned to eat.
That’s why today we talk a lot about rebalancing our diet because there are lots of people who don’t know how to eat, who have never really learned, and it’s passed down from generation to generation.
How in this case can the switch be made successfully?
IS. It’s a lot of work to listen to yourself, to listen to your body. When we do psychotherapy work in CBT, that is to say Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, we teach people to note what they eat and the associated emotions.
By noting, people pay more attention, and quickly realize that they do not feel full or at certain times eat without feeling hungry. Awareness is really the first step.
Afterwards, there are people who have not learned to eat, others who have a poorly regulated internal system, with a very high level of satiety and therefore do not really feel hungry. It’s very complicated for them.
There are also people for whom it is relatively simple. These people who, either in adolescence or in their fifties, start to gain weight, because their metabolism changes. They’re going to have to learn to recognize what they’re eating because they’ve never really paid attention. Whereas women who have had a mild anorexic past in adolescence, know themselves very well and have a very good capacity for intuitive eating.
At the moment, intermittent youth is helping some people regain the feeling of hunger, so it might not be bad, but it’s really counter-intuitive! There are people who will become aware. Anything that goes in that direction is very good. But it’s always the same, there are people for whom intermittent fasting will become an entry into anorexia or bulimia. And deprivation creates lack.
Do diets go against intuitive eating?
IS. The basic diet, where you are told you have to eat this and that, yes, but once again, it can be a gateway. More and more nutritionists are doing dietary rebalancing and not diets, and afterward, it’s up to the person to find their rhythm.
Does eating intuitively necessarily mean eating healthy?
IS. For me, intuitive eating and healthy eating are two very different things. You can have a relatively well-regulated intuitive diet and, for example, eat McDonald’s one day and know how to regulate yourself naturally for the next meal.
Healthy eating is something else. It’s important to separate the two. There’s even a new part of anorexia, orthorexia, where healthy eating becomes obsessive.
Why does eating healthy seem so boring?
IS. Because it is a constraint. Healthy eating is not associated with the notion of pleasure. The healthy side, like anorexics who purify themselves, is ascetic. There is a monastic side, not super fun, whereas you can very well have a healthy diet with pleasure.
This very expression of healthy food has been subverted. For example, a good fruit tart with quality products is very healthy. It is important to remember that junk food is a departure from something healthy because the big, outrageous pizzas of certain chains are not healthy, but the pizza maker’s good pizza is no problem.
How to recognize the satiety signal? Can we no longer feel full?
IS. Indeed, that is the problem. With satiety, there are no 36 solutions, you have to eat slowly, take a break between dishes.
What do you think of the “clean plate” rule?
IS. We have to stop with this. It’s very guilt-inducing for the child and the future adult: if I don’t finish my plate, it’s not good. What’s more, that means that I’m not able to dose, I took too much, so I’m a glutton. I have to accept that I’m a glutton.
Can you tell us an example of an intuitive eater?
IS. One of my therapeutic successes that marked me the most was a patient of around 35 years old, who lost 25 kilos which she did not gain back at all by eating exactly what she wanted to eat. . All while being careful of course. Festive alcohol is also an important factor. When on a diet, people often withdraw from the community. As a result, it adds frustration, counter-intuitively. This patient therefore lost 25 kilos by drinking glasses and cocktails. Sometimes she ate whole baguettes of bread and butter. She arrived at a completely intuitive diet where she didn’t deny herself anything, and only relied on her hunger.
Why do we overindulge? Sometimes making yourself sick?
IS. It is the principle of compulsion which fills a void at a moment, soothes, takes us out of reality because when we eat, we are in a sort of excitement.
Is intuitive eating recommended for all profiles?
IS. Intuitive eating is the holy grail when treating eating disorders. It shifts control from the brain to sensations in the belly. It is often said that the stomach is the second brain. Don’t worry, the brain will never be absent, and the notion of pleasure will always be there.
Find all of Isabelle Siac’s advice on her site http://troublesalimentaires.net
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