Can You Eat Intuitively With Diabetes?

So you received a diagnosis of pre-diabetes or diabetes from your doctor. After digesting this information you asked yourself - “Now what? How do I deal with this?” 

You probably tried to do some of your own research, and you were maybe even given some advice from your health care team or from friends or family. And what did you end up with? A big long list of all the foods that you can’t eat anymore. No more pasta, no more bread, and certainly no more birthday cake. Shucks, hey? 

Well what I am about to tell you might just blow your mind - you can manage your diabetes by ditching the diet and restriction, and by welcoming a life filled with a variety of foods that all fit.

How you ask?

With intuitive eating!

What is Intuitive Eating?

Intuitive Eating is an evidence-based model that guides you to a life of food freedom. It is a non-diet approach that guides you to change your eating behaviours and patterns by focusing on your inner cues, like hunger, fullness and satisfaction, instead of the external rules and restrictions. It helps you make peace with food, and it creates a healthy environment with eating, your mind and your body [1]. 

Won’t Ditching Diets Make My Diabetes Worse?

Actually, the reality is quite the opposite. Research shows that dieting doesn’t work.

1. Dieting is not sustainable - To date there are no studies looking at the long-term effects of dieting that show people were able to maintain the diet and their weight loss over six years. In fact, what it does show is that 95% of people end up reverting back to old habits and regaining any lost weight. It also shows that two thirds of those people who regain weight actually gain back more than what they had initially lost [2]. 

2. Dieting leads to the viscous yo-yo diet cycle - This is the cycle of starting a diet and restricting food intake, which inevitably leads to feeling deprived and food cravings over time. Then, life happens (ex: stress, celebrations, etc.), and you “fall off the wagon”. Being that you have broken all the rules you feel guilt and shame, which makes you want to make a change (diet), and the cycle starts again. The research shows us that this ongoing cycle is more harmful to your health than simply staying at a higher weight [2,3,4]. 

“Embrace that becoming an intuitive eater is an adventure.”

How Intuitive Eating Benefits Diabetes?

Now if everything you were made to believe about dieting isn’t true, you probably want to know exactly HOW intuitive eating can help you with your diabetes, so let’s take a look at the research [5,6].

1. It is associated with better blood sugar control.

2. It lowers stress levels, and higher stress levels can cause a rise in blood sugars.

3. It improves cholesterol levels.

4. It increases motivation for regular physical activity, which in turn improves blood sugars.

5. It reduces the likelihood of binge eating.

6. It improves your overall confidence and self-esteem

7. It makes you happier overall!

How Do I Start Intuitive Eating?

Ok ok, so now you know all the amazing things intuitive eating can do for you but how do you get started? Here are 4 tips to getting started:

1. Ditch the diet! Just as we talked about above, dieting doesn’t work, so the sooner you can stop restricting large groups of food and delete the calorie trackers the better.

2. Stop trying to control your weight. Throw that scale away. You don’t need it! Fixating over the number on the scale is not going to help you get your blood sugars under control, and in fact, it will certainly toss you right back into that ever so damaging yo-yo diet cycle.

3. Get curious. You don’t need to be scared. Try eating a variety of foods and mix it up. Every body is different and no two people can eat the exact same way and end up with the exact same blood sugar readings. The only way you will learn what works for you is by getting curious and testing it out.  

4. Embrace that becoming an intuitive eater is an adventure. It is not a quick fix but rather one that will last forever and getting there takes patience and persistence. We promise it will pay off!

The Nutrition Room specializes in intuitive eating for diabetes, so if you feel like you are ready to get your diabetes under control while living a life where all foods fit then you are in the right place. Click the link below to set up a FREE meet & greet call and get started!

 References:

1. (2019, July 17). Definition of Intuitive Eating. The Original Intuitive Eating Pros. Retrieved February 24, 2023, from https://www.intuitiveeating.org/definition-of-intuitive-eating/

2. Mann T, Tomiyama AJ, Westling E, Lew AM, Samuels B, Chatman J. Medicare's search for effective obesity treatments: diets are not the answer. Am Psychol. 2007 Apr;62(3):220-33. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.62.3.220. PMID: 17469900.

3. Lowe MR, Doshi SD, Katterman SN, Feig EH. Dieting and restrained eating as prospective predictors of weight gain. Front Psychol. 2013 Sep 2;4:577. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00577. PMID: 24032024; PMCID: PMC3759019.

4. Lee JS, Visser M, Tylavsky FA, Kritchevsky SB, Schwartz AV, Sahyoun N, Harris TB, Newman AB; Health ABC Study. Weight loss and regain and effects on body composition: the Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2010 Jan;65(1):78-83. doi: 10.1093/gerona/glp042. Epub 2009 Apr 14. PMID: 19366882; PMCID: PMC2796877.

5. Soares FLP, Ramos MH, Gramelisch M, de Paula Pego Silva R, da Silva Batista J, Cattafesta M, Salaroli LB. Intuitive eating is associated with glycemic control in type 2 diabetes. Eat Weight Disord. 2021 Mar;26(2):599-608. doi: 10.1007/s40519-020-00894-8. Epub 2020 Mar 30. PMID: 32232778.

6. (n.d.). Intuitive Eating Studies. The Original Intuitive Eating Pros. Retrieved February 24, 2023, from https://www.intuitiveeating.org/resources/studies/