Lets not throw the baby out with the bathwater
....which means... 
Be careful not to discard something of value
with something that is of no value.

I see and share various thoughts and ideas here at DietHobby that come from many different sources.  If an idea or article is posted here, I’ve found some of its concepts interesting, enjoyable or valuable to me in some way.
 It does NOT mean that I agree with all of that author’s basic food beliefs or way-of-eating philosophies.

Here is the third of three articles about the basic Intutive Eating Concepts by UK addiction counselor, Gillain Riley, who appears to share my point of view about the general ineffectiveness of this Diet. Ms. Riley states her professional knowledge about these concepts in a thoughtful and precise manner, and I am sharing this series here at DietHobby.

Advocates of Intutitive Eating insist that this diet / manner-of-eating / way-of-eating / lifestyle is "not a diet". My belief is that EVERY diet works for someone, and this includes Intutive Eating.

The other two of the three articles can be found at:
"Does Our Body Tell Us WHAT to eat - Intutive Eating 1"
“Eat When You’re Hungry? – Intutive Eating 2”

HOW TO END A MEAL
         by Gillian Riley, Author of Ditching Diets (Revised edition of Eating Less)

A great many people do most (if not all) of their overeating at meals, especially their evening meal. You may be one of those who consistently buys, prepares and serves what you know is way too much food but finds it impossible to contemplate cutting back. Or maybe your meals aren't too huge to start with but you find it tough to stop, taking second helpings, finishing off what others have left, picking on things in the kitchen while you're clearing up and then finding things to snack on for much of the evening.

The third principle of Intuitive Eating, suggesting that you 'stop eating when you're full', attempts to address this problem. As with the two other principles we've looked at over the past two newsletters (eat whatever your body tells you it needs and eat when you're hungry), it ASSUMES a reliable, innate wisdom in our bodies. Those who promote Intuitive Eating argue that it's your ignorance of this wisdom that makes you overeat. If you simply pay attention to it, your body will let you know when you've had enough.

Of the 5,000 or so medical academic journals that are published every month, a good number of them, as you might expect, are dedicated to issues concerning food, obesity and appetite. Over the past ten years I've made it my business to spend time in the (absolutely fabulous) British Library in London, hunting down the latest research. I've not found anything to convince me about the theory of Intuitive Eating, and in fact have found quite a bit of research that very much calls it into question.

One paper I've come across that seeks to promote Intuitive Eating reports that in surveys, 'normal eaters' (those who describe themselves as not having a problem with eating and weight) state that they stop eating when they feel full. It's then suggested that this is ideal; the goal overeaters should aim for. (1)

First of all, I suggest that 'fullness' is vague and entirely subjective;. It's a personal evaluation, specific to each individual. Whatever physical sensations are interpreted as 'fullness' by one person will feel like 'just getting started' to another. Research has shown that how 'full' people report feeling before eating doesn't show much relationship to how much they actually consume. (2)

I suspect that many of those who overeat also think they stop eating when they're full. Isn't that what you do? Don't you think that if you tried to eat less at meals, you wouldn't feel full, and that is precisely the problem? Saying that 'normal eaters' stop when they're full doesn't say anything at all about the process of change, about how an overeater becomes a 'normal eater'.

YUMMY FAT
In terms of this process of change, there are both physical and psychological elements that need to be taken into consideration. As for the physical side of things, the kind of food eaten has an effect on the feelings of fullness, in particular the amount of fat contained in the food.

It has been well established in research that higher fat content inevitably leads to greater consumption of calories. This is thought to be because fat contains more than twice the amount of calories than protein or carbohydrate, gram for gram. (3)

But fat, more than anything else, is what makes food so delicious. Fat is the dressing on the salad, the gravy on the roast and the butter in the cookie. We often think of sugar addiction, but few people compulsively eat sugar directly out of the packet. Add fat to that sugar, though, and you've got something entirely moorish. It's no fun at all to completely eliminate fat, so our challenge is to eat enough to make our food enjoyable but not so much as to make us unwell.

HOW FULL IS 'FULL'?
In a rare example of solid research confirming urban myth, feelings of fullness are delayed, developing around 20 minutes after eating. There are two ways to use this information: to do whatever you can to slow down how fast you eat and, most importantly, to accept that it's best not to feel full when you finish your meal. The way to deal with that is to consider waiting to see how you're feeling in a few minutes, and if you still feel hungry you can have some more. This will work best if you've already got that second helping included in your Plan (see Eating Less, Chapter 6).

The notion of being 'full' seems to make sense because we know, for example, that when we fill a cup there's a point at which it will not accept any more filling. It becomes undeniably full and will begin to spill over. Even something elastic, such as a balloon, at some point gets so full that it bursts. But our stomachs don't work quite that way - which may be a good thing or a bad thing! That nauseous, bloated, sleepy, overstuffed feeling of fullness is WAY BEYOND the appropriate stopping point.

As you probably know, our stomachs expand over time to accommodate larger amounts of food. This is why one kind of weight-loss surgery simply reduces the size of the stomach so that larger amounts of food cannot easily fit into it.

Your stomach is supposed to be the size of your fist, but for many people it's become larger due to years of overconsumption. To correct this and to overcome overeating, your goal would be to decrease the size of your stomach, preferably without the use of surgery. Surely, if you consistently eat until you feel full, you will not be working towards that goal. The aim, I would think, is very much not to feel full at the end of your meals.

This, however, presents the problem that few people are talking about, especially of course those who advise Intuitive Eating. How can you finish your meals when you don't feel full - and continue to do that for long enough to make any real difference? To a great many people this seems impossible and unrealistic, which is why it's so often ignored as a viable solution.

This is what's different about the work I'm doing. It addresses this very question and leads you towards a workable resolution of this difficulty. This is one aspect of what I refer to as managing your addictive appetite, the aspect here being the excess appetite, the feeling of not being full at the end of meals.

The truth is that hunger and fullness are very difficult to define and usually only experienced at their extremes. When you give up thinking that you should rely on your body's signals, then you can see that there is an entirely different solution, and one that is both powerful and empowering.

NOTES
1. "Development and psychometric evaluation of a measure of Intuitive Eating." Tylka TL Journal of Counselling Psychology (2006) 53 (2), 226-240
2. "Reproducibility, power and validity of visual analogue scores in assessment of appetite sensations in single test meal studies." Flint A, Raben A, Blundell JE International Journal of Obesity (2000) 24 (1): 38-48
2. "The role of energy density in the overconsumption of fat." Rolls, BJ The Journal of Nutrition (2000) 130: 268S-271S
See Chapter 6 in EATING LESS: "What to do about Wanting More
 

Here's a link to my book review of Ditching Diets (2013) by Gillian Riley.

Ms. Riley is a Counselor on Addiction, not a medical professional or Nutritionist. Her own personal way-of-eating appears to Paleo based.  Here’s a link to my previous book review of the Perfect Health Diet (2010) by Paul Jaminet, which is on her short recommended reading list.

NOTE: Originally posted on 3/17/13. Reposted for new viewers.

Recently I ran across a series of three articles about the basic Intutive Eating Concepts by UK addiction counselor, Gillain Riley, who appears to share my point of view about the general ineffectiveness of this Diet. Ms. Riley states her professional knowledge about these concepts in a thoughtful and precise manner, and I am sharing this series here at DietHobby. 

Advocates of Intutitive Eating insist that this diet / manner-of-eating / way-of-eating / lifestyle is "not a diet". My belief is that every diet works for someone, and this includes Intutive Eating.

The first of the three articles can be found at: "Does Our Body Tell Us WHAT to eat - Intutive Eating 1"

Are You Hungry? 
      by Gillian Riley, Author of Ditching Diets (Revised edition of Eating Less)

The assumption behind this advice is that hunger means you are depleted of energy or nutrients, and therefore in need of food. But it's considerably more complicated than that. For example, when people fast or follow extremely low calorie diets, their hunger doesn't become increasingly more intense as time goes on and nutrient stores dwindle. Any anorexic will tell you that after a short time without food, their hunger fades away. If hunger accurately reflected nutritional status, this wouldn't happen. The reverse would happen, and hunger would intensify day by day.

To make the same point in a different way, if hunger expresses genuine nutritional need, it would begin to subside after the first few mouthfuls of a meal. But this doesn't necessarily happen either, and most people have at least some experience of the reverse occurring. Many people can begin a meal not feeling especially hungry, and then, after just a few bites of tasty food, feel a strong sense of hunger suddenly arrive. It doesn't make sense that your body would signal depletion after those bites but not before. (1)

We often think of those first few bites as a way to stimulate hunger, to awaken it. After all, the whole point of the 'starter' course is supposed to be to awaken our appetite and get our 'gastric juices flowing'. But how can we rely on this hunger signal if it needs to be stimulated to appear in the first place?

Rather than a signal of nutritional need, hunger is, to a great extent, a response to cues, at least some of which will be learned. The cue prompts an expectation of eating, and it's this expectation that sets off all those hungry sensations in our stomach. The cue could be the time of day, or the sudden availability of food along with the sights and smells of its arrival. There may well be no problem at all in responding to this by eating.

The problem arises for those who have overeaten so much that the cues triggering feelings of hunger happen much too frequently. It's okay for the expectation of eating to produce a sensation of hunger, unless you expect to eat every 15 minutes or so. Trying to follow the advice to eat when hungry isn't helpful if you feel hungry all the time.

Then there are those who tend not to feel hungry, even though it would be a very good idea for them to eat something. I've had a number of clients attend my seminars who have told me similar stories when they previously participated in a seminar promoting Intuitive Eating. They complete the seminar, quite excited by the prospect of looking out for hunger signals before eating. They go past breakfast time and don't feel hungry. They don't feel hungry at lunchtime, so they don't eat anything then either. Then, by the end of the afternoon, they feel weak, faint, irritable and shaky. They can't concentrate on their work and there's no food available except chocolate and sweets.

One factor here could be stress, which can have the effect of blocking hunger signals. When an animal is genuinely stressed, perhaps because they are about to be attacked, the last thing they are going want to do is eat. Part of the automatic stress response is to direct blood to the limbs in order to fight or take flight. The digestive system shuts down until it's needed again when the animal is safe and the stress has subsided.

Our present day human stress, though, is usually a more chronic state. Stress builds throughout the day and many people, not feeling hungry, go for many hours without eating. Typically they eat something when they get home and then overeat throughout the evening, probably on food that is not the most nourishing.

A paper published in the medical journal Physiology and Behavior proposes a phenomenon called 'hedonic hunger', which is hunger specifically for the more desirable (but less nourishing) kinds of food. (2) 'Hedonic hunger' is one manifestation of what I call the 'addictive desire to eat'. For example, if you feel hungry for toast and jam while completely uninterested in cucumber, you've probably got some hedonic hunger (addictive appetite or desire). The crucial point is that it feels like hunger, so it's very easy to assume you have an entirely appropriate need of food.

Again, it helps us to take into consideration the food environment in which our bodies evolved. A paper from the Journal of the American Dietetic Association makes this point: "...there is no clear adaptive advantage for an organism to consume just enough food to maintain energy balance. Such a system would fail to protect against future gaps in food availability. A strong hunger drive would act to encourage overconsumption and promote energy storage for use during intermittent food shortages." (3)

The question remains, if we have such an unreliable experience of hunger, why is Intuitive Eating so widely recommended?

The reason is that Intuitive Eating is presented as an alternative to prohibitive thinking (restrictive eating). It's well known - both in research and in many people's everyday experience - that it is counter-productive to think prohibitively about food. Trying to follow rules to restrict and deny yourself may work initially but creates stress, a miserable sense of deprivation and eventually a rebellious return to overeating. So the idea is to replace prohibitions around food with Intuitive Eating; to wait, for example, until you are hungry before you eat.

But these two ideas are not mutually exclusive. There are plenty of people who will think prohibitively in order to prevent themselves from eating before they're hungry. 'I mustn't eat if I'm not hungry' is just another rule to obey - or not!

The alternative I teach is neither of these alternatives. I do encourage people not to think prohibitively because it certainly is destructive. And it's fine if you are hungry when you eat, so by all means make your best guess as to when you think you'll need food again. But the way that's done, I believe, is through intellectual evaluation. We can quite simply develop a fairly good idea of what, how much and how often to eat, put together by our grasp of our nutritional needs, our schedule and the availability of nutritious food throughout our day.

Of course you also need to be able to manoeuvre yourself around the addictive appetite you may well have for all that food you don't need. But don't trust your body to tell you what's addictive and what isn't. If your pattern of eating isn't producing weight loss (assuming you are overweight) it's likely that eating even less will deliver the result you're after.

NOTES
1. What can hunger teach us about drug craving? Kassel JD, Shiffman S Addictive Behaviors Research and Therapy (1992) 14: 141-167
2. Hedonic hunger: A new dimension of appetite? Lowe MR, Butryn ML Physiology & Behavior (2007) 91: 432-439
3. Appetite: Measurement and Manipulation Misgivings Mattes RD, Hollis J Journal of the American Dietetic Association (2005) 105 (5): S87-SS97
More on this topic in the chapter "The Trouble with Hunger" in EATING LESS.

Here's a link to my book review of Ditching Diets (2013) by Gillian Riley.

NOTE: Originally posted on 3/16/13. Reposted for new viewers.

 
Intuitive Eating is a Diet which claims it is not a diet.
I've shared about the IE concepts here on DietHobby before, and I personally believe they are ineffective for almost everyone. However, it is NOT a one-size-fits-all world, and I am certain, that ... just like every other diet ... Intuitive Eating works for someone.

One of the primary eating concepts of Intutive Eating is:

 "eat whatever you want - because your body has natural wisdom about what it needs, and it will provide you with that information."

Unfortunately, this is an Untrue Statement,... merely a crock of magical, wishful thinking with no basis in reality,... not through Basic Science, Research Studies, or documented Real Life Experiences of People. I find it amazing that Nutritionists and other Medical Professionals continue to adopt and broadly disperse that totally flawed concept.

Recently I ran across a series of articles about the basic Intutive Eating Concepts by UK addiction counselor, Gillain Riley, who appears to share my own point of view on this matter. She states her professional knowledge about these concepts in a thoughtful and precise manner.

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT TO EAT?
                  by Gillian Riley, Author of Ditching Diets (Revised edition of Eating Less)

'Intuitive Eating' promotes eating when hungry, stopping when full, and eating whatever you want. I've heard people say that this makes so much sense, they don't understand why they can't manage to do it. Well, this advice doesn't make any sense to me at all, so maybe you'll let me know what it is that I'm not understanding!

These ideas are widespread, having been promoted by Susie Orbach for years, among many others. Just google 'intuitive eating' and you'll see it's all over the place. This will take a while to cover, so I'll start with the suggestion to 'eat whatever you want' (because the innate wisdom of your body lets you know what it needs) and continue with the other aspects of this advice in my next newsletter.

The experience of 'wanting to eat' something is going to feel very different to each person, and even for each person from occasion to occasion. It's feeling attracted towards some food, certainly, and most likely thinking you would enjoy eating it, that you fancy it. This attraction could be barely conscious, but when we are aware of it, it often gets called a craving. (I think of attraction, desire, urge and craving as the same thing, with varying degrees of intensity, just as irritation is a less intense form of rage.)

I have heard people say that they crave greens sometimes, and perhaps that's true for you. But if you had some raw spinach leaves in a bowl in the kitchen and a slice of cake on a plate next to it, we surely know which one would be more likely to grab your attention and not let go. A 'craving for greens' may be no more than the awareness that you haven't had any for a while, a purely cognitive process rather than an expression of your body's need for B vitamins. The reason I say this is because what is craved by most people most of the time is food that contains various combinations of high-density, starchy carbohydrates (such as sugar, potatoes and processed grains) salt and fats.

A Tufts University study looked at the eating habits and self-reported food cravings in a group of overweight women over a period of six months. (1) They found that those foods that were craved were more than twice as high in energy density as other foods in their diet. Not only were they high in energy density, but the craved foods had higher fat content and lower fibre and protein content. The reason is simply that the starchy carbs and fat have greater reinforcing properties, biochemically speaking, and this has been well established in research.

Of course all food contains some reinforcing properties, but a natural food, such as broccoli, has those reinforcing properties in a natural balance. When a 'food product' is manufactured, it has a far greater proportion of these highly reinforcing elements. And that 'food product' might be manufactured outside your home, or it might be put together by yourself and called dinner!

I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to accept that this is always a matter of degree. Fat in particular is what makes our food enjoyable, and it's very important to enjoy what you eat. But for many who overeat, they enjoy too much. They satisfy an appropriate delight in food but on top of that they satisfy excessive, addictive desire too often. They do this because they have trained themselves to expect more of the more addictive elements more often. So they eat more fat and more starchy carbs at meals, often quite literally mixed up on the plate with the food that's really needed. Then more fat and sugar for dessert after the meal. And maybe some more fat, carbs and salt for snacks later on that evening.

They develop that habit and repeat it daily for years. And then, whenever they stop to listen to what their body 'needs', guess what? It 'needs' sugary fat! It's like a smoker asking her body if it needs a cigarette. Of course it seems to, but this is the twisted reasoning of addiction speaking.

There isn't a great deal of research on this aspect of 'intuitive eating', I suspect because the people who do the research on appetite don't take it seriously enough to study. One study, though, at the Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania sums it all up for me. (2) They put the pharmacological elements of chocolate into capsules and gave them to self-confessed 'chocolate cravers' to see if the capsules would satisfy their cravings. They didn't. At all. As you might expect.

I could go along with this idea of tuning into my genuine needs if I lived in an environment where I had only ever encountered and eaten purely natural foods, and where sugar and fat were very occasionally on offer. But why would a reliable, natural system exist when it's only relatively recently that we have had access to such abundance and such an enormous variety of food available year round, and especially so much high-density, manufactured food? It makes no sense (to think) that my body has evolved with built-in intuition to help me manage my appetite for all this stuff.

I know I used to think that there were probably some nutrients I needed that were contained, for example, in ice cream. It's just not true, though. Ice cream is just more processed carbs and lots of fat. By all means eat it if that is your choice. It tastes good because anything with that much fat and sugar in it is going to taste good. But it's still not nutritious.

So how do I know that? I read books. I read the most thoroughly well researched books on nutrition I can find, such as The China Study (outstanding, although a hefty read) and Anti-Cancer. (3) I educate myself about what my body needs because both the quality and the quantity of my life depend on it.

If you don't have the time or inclination to read, remember the idea is not to cut this stuff out entirely, but clearly if you want to eat less, then it's most likely low-nutrient, high-density processed carbs and fat that you would do best to cut back on. Getting clear about the nature of your desire for them will help you to achieve that, so the first step is to let go of this idea that your body transmits its wisdom about what you need.

How you eat less of the food you crave - without feeling like you're missing out, being restricted or deprived, without becoming obsessed with the food you're not eating, and without becoming rebellious and eating even more - how to manage all that is contained in the technique I write about and teach. The end result is that you learn to enjoy food that has less fat and starchy carbs. You realise that the less you eat of it, the less you feel like you need it. As that happens, the more you will enjoy the food that doesn't have so much of those highly reinforcing, addictive elements.

Just one more point, and that is that my body does tell me what to eat but in a completely different way, and this is after eating, rather than before. When you tune in to the different effects eating various foods have on your body - in terms of energy, sleep, digestion, joint aches, head aches, mood, to name a few - you tune in to the most powerful and effective motivation there is to eat differently and to eat less.

NOTES
1. "Food cravings and energy regulation." Gilhooly CH, Das SK, Golden JK International Journal of Obesity (2007) 31(12): 1849-58.
2. "Pharmacological versus sensory factors in the satiation of chocolate craving." Michener W, Rozin P. Physiology and Behavior (1994) 56(3): 419-22.
2. The China Study (2006) is by T. Colin Campbell, PhD and AntiCancer (2007) is by Dr David Servan-Schreiber.
Also see pages 192-193 in EATING LESS by Gillian Riley

Here's a link to my book review of Ditching Diets (2013) by Gillian Riley.

NOTE: Originally posted on 3/15/13. Reposted for new viewers.

The women in this picture are different shapes and sizes, but all are professional athletes at the peak.

It’s not a one-size-fits-all world. Every Diet works for Somebody, but not Every Diet works for Everybody. 

Also, the evidence seems to suggest that Some people can’t lose AND MAINTAIN WEIGHT-LOSS LONG-TERM on Any Diet.

Although as Human Beings, all people share certain physical characteristics, we have genetic variations which make us different from each other.  There are tall people and short people, males and females.  People can have different hair and eye and skin colors. Our facial features differ. 

There are also natural differences in body types. Some people tend to be a pear-shape, - naturally carrying more weight in their bottom half.  Others tend toward an apple-shape, naturally carrying more weight around the middle of their bodies.  Some bodies are shaped like an hour-glass, with a larger top and bottom divided by a small middle. Some bodies are rather straight with bodies that tend to be the same size from top to bottom.  Some are more triangular, having a smaller bottom half and carrying most of their weight in their upper half, chest, shoulders, arms. Some people are naturally more muscular. Some people have a stocky build, while others are naturally lean.

All of these differences are based on differences in Genetics, and mostly people understand and accept these differences. So why is it so hard for our society to Understand, Believe, and Accept that …..just like those other differences,….. the bodies of some people naturally work to collect fat, while the bodies of other people naturally work to stay thin. And, that just like some people are supposed to have blue eyes and others to have brown eyes, some people are supposed to be fat, while other people are supposed to be thin. 

Yet, …as is stated in the compelling article posted below,… our Society’s belief is that a Fat Body is Evidence that a person is Doing Life Wrong.

Or Maybe Fat People
Aren’t Doing It All Wrong
         .....excerpt from article....
         by Ragen Chastain - danceswithfat

Every day we are lied to about dieting, weight loss, weight, and health by people who profit from the lies. We are told that anyone who tries hard enough can lose weight and maintain that weight loss.  This despite the fact that there isn’t a single study, anywhere, in which more than a tiny fraction of the subjects were able to do so. Still, anyone who claims to have a method of weight loss that works seems to be able to get airtime, and to get their idea reported in the news as if it’s fact, despite the actual fact that there is simply no evidence to suggest that it will work.

There are obvious issues with this.  The most obvious is that it contributes to a world where the governments enthusiastically oppress fat people and try to recruit others to do the same. It sets fat people up for a life of yo-yo dieting, and putting the lives we want on hold until we get thin, which will never happen, thus ruining our lives and making the weight loss industry money (to the tune of over $60 BILLION a year,) selling a product that they know doesn’t work.

But there are also consequences that are more insidious. With all the weight loss plans out there we are told all kinds of things will lead to weight loss – the gym, “healthy” eating, vegetarian diet, boot camp workouts, vegan diet, crossfit, paleo diets, yoga, pilates, yogalates, intuitive eating, meditation, you name it and I can pretty much guarantee that someone has made diet out of it.

Of course the truth is that fat people participate in all of these things and remain fat, and that there is no reason to believe that any of them will lead to long-term weight loss. (And let me be clear that not everyone who is involved in these things sells them as a diet, but there are people who do.) But such is our trust in the diet industry that instead of using the opportunity to question stereotypes and beliefs about weight loss and body size, people simply claim that fat people must be “doing it wrong.”

If we are fat athletes, we must be doing athletics wrong (because, we’re told, the only “good” outcome of being involved in fitness/movement/athletics is a thin body.)  If we’re fat vegetarians we must be doing that wrong.  If we’re doing a diet but not getting thin we must not be able to properly measure a quarter cup of rice. If we’re meditating but still fat we must be doing meditation wrong.  

The belief is that a fat body is evidence that we are doing life wrong. And that’s oppressive, and it’s bullshit. If you did something to get thin and you didn’t get thin (especially if you lost weight and then gained it back) then welcome to the “Almost Everyone Club,” you should know that what happened to you is exactly what we would expect to happen based on all the research that exists.

There are many online female body-positive, life-coaches, who claim to have a great deal of previous personal experience with diets and dieting.

The majority of them appear to be aged around the mid-thirties; with bodies that never became morbidly obese, but instead generally maintained at or near a normal body weight. 

Most of these online gurus of normal weight claim that they once bought into our advertisement culture which demands excessive thinness; that they dieted, restricted and binged in attempts to achieve an "ideal" body, but eventually decided to accept their normal bodies. They then began some type of intuitive eating, which caused them to continue maintaining their body at a normal weight.  Now they put themselves forward as experts who accept money to “coach” others along the path that they have discovered for themselves.

The concept of being able to trust one’s body to tell one what and when to eat (Intuitive Eating) is an appealing one.

I like the content of much of what proponents of IE have to say, and think that their message might hold true for people who have bodies that have always been near a normal weight (within 20-50 pounds). 

Unfortunately, people who have bodies that are well into obesity, or are “reduced obese”, have increased their number of fat cells, and have ratcheted their Set Point up to the place where trusting their body NOW,...  and following its eating instructions, ... will simply take them, and keep them, at or near the point of their highest bodyweight.

My own opinion is … IF you can accept having a body that stays at-or-near your highest weight, then trusting your body to tell you what to eat could bring a great deal of relief and peace of mind.  At this point, I’m not there.  However I cannot help but find what they SAY appealing.  Below is one of the articles written by one of these  “Life-Coaches”.

Organic Food and The Fuck It Diet
                by Caroline Donner

My prescription for obsessive eating or orthorexia is : eat. Let go of any and all food rules and restriction and acceptable eating amounts. Eat more than you ever thought you should. Neutralize all foods. Allow binges (and by doing that, it becomes not a binge.)

Eat and eat and eat, and eat the things you are scared of, until eating is just eating and food is just food.

It works. Especially when you are supporting your emotions and fears, and helping create a new expansive identity beyond food and body obsession.

It heals your metabolism and fixation on food.

It is the way to get to true intuitive eating. Attuned eating. Eating where you are able to simply listen to your hunger and cravings and not judge them for not being healthy enough, or not being what you expected or heard was acceptable.

“Healthy Food”

Lots of people think Yea well, I’ll eat, but I’ll only eat good healthy foods.

I want to share my view on “healthy” and organic foods.

Besides the fact that “healthy” is subjective, and the healthiest thing for you is what you crave in this very moment. And therefore healthy changes from day to day depending on what you need….

I LOVE healthy and organic foods. Maybe selfishly, I truly wish we lived in a world where access to healthy, sustainably and humanely raised, organic, non GMO, real delicious buttery food was the norm. I wish we could get back there. I wish it was accessible to everyone. I wish that was the food we ate. At least I wish that was the food I found everywhere I go.

In general, I like that food better. It tastes better to me. It feels better to me. And, perk, it helps our planet too.

And I’m not talking about low cal BS. I’m talking the real stuff.

But… it still doesn’t help to fear the other stuff. The” shit food”, as I call it, it IS all neutral. It is important to eat that food when you want it. In whatever quantity you want it. Forevermore. It is important to enjoy it, release all fear of it, and enjoy it.

Remember this: Perfect health does not exist by eating perfect foods.

Sorry about it. Eating pure perfect foods isn’t the be all end all. If it was, I would have cured myself doing the paleo diet and I never would have started The Fuck It Diet. Perfect food (whatever that is) does not cure all our earthly woes and health problems. And some “shit food”, as I sometimes call it, will not ruin our health.

It just won’t.

As Linda Bacon says in Body Respect, what has more impact on our health than anything else is how much power, autonomy, and agency we have in our lives. Feeling stressed, marginalized, financial burdens, prejudice, and fear of the very things we are using to sustain our life force cause more health problems than any health habit.

Fearing food is not good for us.

Part of orthorexic or food obsession recovery is about  truly neutralizing food and weight. And that includes eating any and all food you want. Especially foods that scare you. Rancid fried oils in your nachos? Bring it on. It can not will not ruin your life or your health. It just doesn’t hold that much power.

Realizing that no one food has the power to heal or destroy you (unless you are legit allergic to it, in which case, more power to you! Become aware of that stuff. Thank your body for communicating so amazingly to you.)

Are rancid fried restaurant oils the best? Surely not. Does it matter in the big picture. NO.

Pop tarts might be just the thing for you. It will help you heal your fear of foods, it’ll let your whole being know you are feeding and taking care of yourself physically and emotionally, and it’ll do just as much work to speed up and repair your metabolism as a “healthier” food.

Intuitive Health Food

It is so essential to eat foods because you want and crave them. The best bet to getting to a place where you are really eating what you want and crave, is to get through all fear and food fixation. If you are eating wild salmon because you are forcing yourself to, as opposed to when you really really really want it, your health will flourish so much more from eating it when you crave and want it.

Organic, whole foods are great. I think you are great for your health, happiness, taste buds, and the planet, but trust your body when it wants other things. Trust this process.

Do not force health foods on yourself. Be open to eating and exploring them when you want them. Until then, realize that your nachos and pop tarts are exactly where you need to be. You can trust your body to lead you right. Give it time.

While I love the sentiments expressed in the above article, I have to take what seems workable for me, but leave the rest  .... BECAUSE.....

the advice does NOT come from a “reduced obese” person, who has lost weight from high obesity, and thereafter maintained a normal weight for decades. 

Very few such people exist, and all of them who can be found, indicate that ongoing vigilance with food and/or calorie restriction is necessary for their personal weight-maintenance. 

This has also been my own personal maintenance experience during the past 10+ years.

The author, Caroline Dooner seems to be in her mid-30s and appears to naturally be a normal weight. She puts herself forth as a body positive Life-Coach, with emphasis on “Life Recovery, finding food and body ease”.   

She has written a couple of eating disorder “recovery” books, and recommends Health at Every Size,  Body Respect, Lessons from the Fat-O-Sphere, as well as books by Byron Katie, Elizabeth Gilbert.