Intuitive eating

Intuitive eating is an approach in which you let your body's signals guide your eating – hunger, fullness, how you feel – rather than calorie lists, bans and diet rules. It was developed by the dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch in 1995; their ten principles range from “Reject the diet mentality” and “Honor your hunger” to “Honor your health with gentle nutrition”.

The core idea: banning foods creates cravings. If you forbid yourself chocolate completely, you often end up thinking about it all the time and eating more of it in the end. If you allow yourself chocolate and really pay attention while eating it, you often find that two squares are enough. Other elements include telling physical hunger apart from emotional hunger, the hunger scale and respect for your own body, whatever its size.

What does the research say? Reviews covering dozens of studies consistently show that intuitive eating is linked to fewer binge-eating episodes, less emotional eating, a better body image and greater well-being. When it comes to weight, the picture is more mixed – most studies find stable or slightly decreasing weight, not large losses. To be honest: it isn't a weight-loss method, but a way of making peace with food. For people with many diets behind them, that's often the more important step. If you have or suspect an eating disorder, it's best to take this path with the support of a therapist; anonymous help is also available from the telephone counselling service of the German Federal Institute for Public Health (BIÖG, formerly BZgA) on 0221 892031.

For families, it's the natural state of things: young children eat intuitively – sometimes a lot, sometimes a little, but over the course of the day surprisingly well matched to their needs. Parents preserve this by deciding what, when and where food is served, and letting children decide whether and how much they eat. This division of responsibility goes back to the US dietitian and family therapist Ellyn Satter; similar recommendations for feeding young children exist in Germany too.