(Quote via Christy on Instagram + click and read the caption!)
Intuitive eating doesn’t mean “you can only eat when you’re hungry, you must stop when you’re full, and you must always eat exactly what you want”—that’s just a diet, and one that’s only accessible to the economically privileged.
If you really don't have enough resources—enough food, enough time, enough energy—intuitive eating is going to look VERY different from that diet-y interpretation.
For people with food insecurity, for example, intuitive eating means working toward consistent, reliable access to food, any food—and at the societal level, it means enacting progressive social policies to help end the poverty and economic injustice that creates food insecurity.
For low-income people working long hours or multiple jobs, intuitive eating often means eating when you’re NOT hungry to ensure you get your food needs met within the constraints of your day—and at the societal level, it means fighting for social change to enact a living wage and affordable healthcare and housing.
Also, when you’ve gone through the trauma of food insecurity, it’s really common to have a hard time stopping when your stomach feels full—and that’s a very understandable response to starvation. That’s your body looking out for you and your survival. That’s NOT “doing intuitive eating wrong.”
Intuitive eating is about getting your needs met to the best of your ability, whatever the situation—without the intrusion of diet culture and the fatphobia and food-phobia it creates.
And diet culture is a system of beliefs based on racism and misogyny, so dismantling it is essential to the project of social justice.
Intuitive eating is also the default mode, the way we’re all born relating to food and our bodies, before those diet-culture incursions—and we ALL deserve to get back there.
Intuitive eating is also the default mode, the way we’re all born relating to food and our bodies, before those diet-culture incursions—and we ALL deserve to get back there.
It won’t be “perfect,” especially in more difficult circumstances, but it’s worth fighting at the societal level to make it possible for everyone to get their food needs met.
This week on Food Psych, we’re replaying a fan-favorite episode that explores the impact of hunger and food insecurity on people’s relationships with food.
My guest, the incredible author, and activist Jes Baker, shares how growing up in poverty created a very deep sense of food scarcity for her, and how she’s working to heal from it.
We also discuss why talking about trauma is so important, why Jes uses the term “body liberation” instead of “body positivity” or “fat acceptance,” why we need to have more nuanced conversations about people's body-liberation journeys, how the experience of being “small-fat” differs from the experience of being in a larger fat body, and so much more.
Plus, I answer a listener question about starting movement again after a history of compulsive exercise.
Tune in right here, and be sure to subscribe via your favorite podcast platform so that you never miss an episode.
Here’s to getting your needs met in any way you need to,
Christy
Christy
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A note from Jes: You can also find more podcast interviews I've done right here, which answer many of the questions I'm often asked!
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