Trust Your Gut: The Anti-Diet Approach to Try Out This Season

By: Juliana DiCesare

I never thought a pan of Betty Crocker brownies could make me feel so guilty.

I’ve always had a sweet tooth. If I were Gretel, I would 100 percent meet my end in the witch's house made of candy. Sharing a big pan of brownies with friends seemed like an ideal way to spend the night. So, why did I feel awful about eating something that I loved?

At the time, the holiday season was kicking into full gear. As it always does, talk of diet-related New Year's resolutions came with it. Just by scrolling through Instagram, I was suddenly more conscious about my body and the changes it’s gone through during my first semester in college. I couldn’t avert my eyes or get it off my mind — a feeling that, unsurprisingly, many young women have to grapple with.

Disordered eating is on the rise, according to studies conducted by the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA). At the unnamed college surveyed by NEDA, roughly 33 percent of women had a documented eating disorder — a 10 percent increase over the 13 years of the study. Disordered eating patterns can occur that don’t exactly “fit the bill” as diagnosable.

“Essentially, the person would have a preoccupation with food,” said Lori Lorditch, a Temple University Student Health Services’ nutritionist and registered dietician.

The preoccupation in question can manifest itself in a number of ways. If someone’s eating for reasons other than hunger, using compensatory behaviors, rigidly counting calories, or isolating themselves from social situations centered around eating, an unhealthy relationship with food may have formed.

“Another red flag is when you hear someone cutting out foods or food groups entirely,” Lorditch said.

Like the sugar in those brownies, guilt creeps in when we consume foods that we’ve practically demonized. The problem is worsened in today’s diet culture where this way of thinking is extremely common. Lorditch talked about what she refers to as “quick fix” diets that pop up on our timeline. Trends like keto and paleo are often unsustainable, and worse, tend to backfire for many who try them.

“[These diets] never teach them how to eat in moderation,” Lorditch said. “They lose the middle ground. Also, it’s about deprivation. Your body is deprived of something it needs.”

With all of the chatter that heightens during this time of year, it might be time to ditch the toxicity of diet culture and embrace the new anti-diet approach that’s become a movement: intuitive eating.

Over that pan of brownies, the topic of eating made its way into our conversation. The air became quieter as my friends and I reflected on eating and body image in college. It became apparent over the next few weeks that the topic takes up headspace for more people than we’re conscious of.

“I’ve become a lot more aware,” said Tseten Tashi, a Temple freshman. “I never really thought about what or when I was going to eat, but having a meal plan has made me more thoughtful about it.”

While spending time with friends, one of them recommended an episode from Life Kit, a podcast by NPR, about the topic of intuitive eating.

“It’s kind of like a non-diet, hunger based approach to hunger,” Lorditch said, who often teaches intuitive eating principles.

On a fundamental level, intuitive eating is about listening to the biological hunger cues we all have hardwired into our being, as our ancient ancestors did. Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full.

Sounds simple, right?

The key takeaway from intuitive eating is to find satisfaction in the fullness. To do so, it completely rejects the diet mindset that gives us tunnel vision toward weight loss and deprives us of our favorite foods.

“As soon as you say, ‘Oh, I can’t have that,’ you’re going to want it more,” Lorditch said.

Instead, making room for foods that we know will satisfy us is the approach taken. Want a cupcake instead of a rice cake? Great. Want a rice cake instead of a cupcake? Also great. At the same time, intuitive eating encourages us to relinquish that dark cloud of guilt when we do decide to choose a less nutrient-dense option, another principle that’s shown to improve body image.

With that in mind, intuitive eating is not about spiraling out of control as many fear it would be. By giving ourselves permission to eat when and what we want without judgment, we learn our bodies’ inherent needs.

After all, it’s called intuitive eating, which means trusting your intuition and body. Food doesn’t exist to be considered good or bad, but it has been assigned certain black and white labels by society. Intuitive eating can help us unravel our complex relationships to make peace with food.

“It’s used to develop a healthy relationship with food, but also the mind and body,” Lorditch said.

For students that do decide to engage in diet or fitness-related resolutions, Lorditch stresses balance. Avoiding the “all or nothing” mentality is the healthiest way to go about them. She also reminds students to check in on their intentions.

“Think, I want to improve my health, endurance, strength, and maybe weight loss will come,” Loritch added, which she believes is a healthy outlook.

If you’re curious about intuitive eating, a quick Google search will get you nearly 25 million results. For those that want to start a little bit smaller, you can check out The Intuitive Eating Workbook, which is available as an e-book through Charles Library.

Lori Lorditch is also just a hop, skip, and a jump away at SHS. Collectively, students often don’t take advantage of SHS and all of the resources available to them. For any questions or nutritional counseling, currently enrolled students can make an appointment in TUportal.

Intuitive eating can admittedly be easier said than done. But in the clutter of our daily lives, it might be worth a shot at simplifying the dynamic between our mind and gut.

Cover Photo by Elena Koycheva on Unsplash.