For the short term, diets such as the Paleo diet or Raw Food diet has helped people lose a lot of weight.
But for the long term, these diets simply don’t work, according to recent evidence.
Now, researchers say the solution to keeping weight off–and not just losing it–may lie in a new diet method called intuitive eating. In fact, some nutritionists call it a “non-diet” diet–a diet where you don’t have to watch what you eat, count calories, or even avoid certain foods, such as grains or hamburgers.
Linda Bacon, a nutrition professor and researcher at City College of San Francisco and the University of California, Davis, explains what makes this non-diet so special.
“Usually when people have a history of chronic dieting, what that means is they’ve learned to shut off their body’s signals,” explains Bacon to NYMag.com. “So they can’t even recognize hunger, because for so long they’ve thought that hunger is something you’re supposed to suppress–or ignore.”
In turn, banning certain foods or just restricting calories can cause a chronic cycle of dieting and binging, explains Bacon. Dieting teaches people to shut off their natural body signals and follow a set of regimented rules instead, causing them to lose touch with their natural craving and hunger signals.
Why Intuitive Eating Just Works
Unfortunately, the human brain can’t be controlled–and eventually people give in to binging.
But with intuitive eating, you eat what you want whenever you want–by listening to the natural signals you body gives off.
“I tell them to take a little bite of it [the chocolate], and notice all the sensations in your mouth and how it tastes,” says Bacon. “And then take another small bite. When you keep doing that, inevitably what people see is that the third or fourth bites don’t taste nearly as good as the first bite. You’re getting clues from your body, which is saying, ‘Slow down, don’t eat so much, I’ve got what I need.'”
But does it really help people lose weight? While the jury is out on that–more researchers seem to be concerned with the Paleo diet, for starters–Bacon says there’s evidence to back it up. In a two year study led to Bacon, she found that those who followed an intuitive eating plan kept off more weight than those who simply diet. It also helped those struggling with obesity: She reports her clients shed over 100 pounds following this method.
This diet doesn’t mean you can have a free-for-all on bad foods though, say experts–instead, it’s about balance.
“It’s a subtle shift in thinking: It’s not that you can’t have burgers and fries,” explains Michelle Gallant, a Harvard University Health Services nutritionist. “It’s just that if you’re really paying attention to how your food makes you feel, you won’t want to eat junk all the time. That’s the common misconception about this approach–that it’s a food free-for-all. But the point of intuitive eating is to eat what your body truly wants by figuring out what kinds of things make you feel best.”
Readers: Would you try this “diet?”
Source:
The Non-Diet Diet: Intuitive Eating – NYMag.com
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