Nurture Notes- August/September 2018

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Welcome to Nurture Notes*, a discussion about how to use the principles of Intuitive Eating to nurture your whole self.

August/September 2018- Honor your Hunger

Eating is an important daily routine that nurtures our whole self. One important part of nurturing ourselves with food is honoring our hunger. In the third edition of their book Intuitive Eating, authors Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch discuss the importance of honoring hunger, "Keep your body biologically fed with adequate energy and carbohydrates. Otherwise you can trigger a primal drive to overeat" (p. 59). Hunger is a primal biological drive urging us to seek out food for our survival. We need food to fuel our bodies, just as much as we need oxygen in the air to breathe. Every cell in our body needs the energy from food to function optimally. Being biologically fed allows us to have the energy to be productive in our daily lives. 

We receive powerful messages from the world around us that hunger is something we can control with enough willpower. We are also given false messages that we can permanently shrink our body size by eating less. Sometimes we question our hunger and need for food (e.g., "I can't be hungry already, I just ate" or "It's not time to eat"), but seldom, if ever, do we question other body signals like a full bladder. Food deprivation (whether intentional or by circumstance) sets off a normal, primal biological drive to eat. Anyone who has experienced ravenous hunger may describe responses such as eating quickly, eating with intensity, feeling out-of-control around food, and feeling unsatisfied. Eating with intensity, especially a large volume of food at one time, can be an overwhelming and scary experience. We might think that we can't control ourselves around food (not true), but our body was just trying to protect our survival by getting us to eat. Eating less than adequate amounts of food is a set-up for future overeating. If we respond to the episode of overeating by under-eating, the cycle will continue unabated. 

Keeping our bodies biologically fed means we are honoring our biological hunger by eating in response to our hunger signals. Eating outside of biological hunger is also a normal part of the human eating experience, but we will save this for another post. The first step to honoring our hunger is learning how to identify our own unique hunger signals. Hunger signals range from gentle (e.g., starting to think about food, mild stomach gurgling), progress to less subtle (e.g., lightheadedness, difficulty concentrating), and can become urgent (e.g., irritability, anger, feeling faint, headache). Eating in response to gentle hunger is a more satisfying experience than quickly gobbling down food when feeling ravenous. Start to notice what types of hunger signals you experience. What are your signs of gentle hunger? What body signals indicate that you have reached a ravenous state of hunger?

Many people don't experience hunger as described above. Acute and chronic illnesses,  medications, negative emotional states (e.g., stress, grief), chronic dieting, and eating disorders can impact hunger cues in a variety of ways. For instance, what if you are taking a medication that suppresses your appetite, you have an illness that causes gastrointestinal symptoms, or your hunger signals have been suppressed due to an eating disorder- what do you do? Pay close attention to your energy and mood levels. If you notice you are feeling less energetic, anxious, tired, sluggish, cranky, etc. this may be your body sending a signal that fuel is needed. If you have a condition or emotional state where you don't feel hungry at all, consider setting a timer (on your phone perhaps?) every three to five hours to remind yourself to eat. Giving your body fuel, even if you don't feel hungry, is an act of self-care and body respect. 

After you have practiced noticing your unique hunger signals, you can start to check in with yourself every few hours and ask "Am I hungry?" Checking in with yourself every few hours will give you an approximate idea about how often you need to eat. In general, during waking hours, going longer than five hours increases the risk of ravenous hunger that could lead to overeating. Biologically, our liver stores carbohydrates from food for future energy use; the stores get depleted every three to six hours (during waking hours). Hunger levels vary greatly among individuals and change day-to-day. Keeping your body biologically fed means that you need to eat somewhere between every three to six hours. Again, this is a general recommendation that needs to be adapted to your schedule and needs. Start by taking note of how long it takes you from your last meal or snack to reach a state of gentle hunger. 

You have personal agency over your hunger. Only you know whether or not you feel hungry and when you need to eat to refuel your body. After you get more comfortable with identifying your hunger signals and checking in with yourself you can create strategies to ensure you are getting biologically fed. Consider the strategies in light of your family size/social support network,  lifestyle, occupation, daily schedule, time you have to shop and prepare meals (if desired), and budget. 

I want to conclude by making space in the discussion for everyone, including individuals and families that do not have consistent access to food and/or adequate food to remain biologically fed. Food insecurity is a reality in our neighborhoods, communities, states, in our nation, and globally. Nurturing ourselves means doing the best that we can to nourish ourselves (and our dependents) with food. All too often what someone eats is policed and judged by individuals (and society). What you eat/feed your family is your business, and not the business of other people. If a lunch of a fast food chicken sandwich and French fries will biologically feed you, is within your budget, is aligned with your taste preferences, and gives you the fuel you need to be productive, no one has the right to comment about your food.

If food insecurity is an issue consider seeking out assistance with food staples from your local food bank (some can also help with an application for SNAP [food stamps]. Shopping on a limited budget can be challenging and take some extra time, but there are resources at grocery chains (e.g., phone apps, online coupons, grocery circulars, promotional sales events) to help you get the most food for your money. We can all help by listening more, and not policing, judging, or commenting on anyone else's food choices.

Here's to honoring our hunger!

Tribole, E., & Resch, E. (2012). Intuitive eating: A revolutionary program that works (3rd ed.). New York: St. Martin's Griffin.

*Disclaimer: The information contained in this post is for educational purposes only, and is not a substitute for medical or mental health care. 

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