Neurodivergent Perspectives: Is Intuitive Eating Right For Me?
Interest in Intuitive Eating, developed by Elyse Resch and Evelyn Tribole, has been growing within the fields of eating disorders and disordered eating.
Intuitive Eating is a great framework for helping chronic dieters break out of the dieting cycle and can be a great tool in eating disorder recovery.
Working with many neurodivergent individuals over the years has shown me that intuitive eating isn’t the right fit for everyone in their journey to a more peaceful relationship with food.
Want to find out whether intuitive eating is the right fit for you? Read on :)
Hunger, Fullness and Interoception
A key tenant of Intuitive Eating is being able to sense and respond to hunger and fullness cues. This requires a level of interoception that can be difficult for neurodivergent people.
Intuitive eating also requires a degree of predictability and flexibility.
Because of the complex interplay of external and internal sensory input, time management, and decision making involved in eating, it can be impractical, impossible or exhausting to prioritize all this information at every eating opportunity.
While we don’t want to rely on calorie counting or rigid ways of relating to food in order to know when or how much to eat, it is important to recognize that relying on hunger and fullness cues is just one way to gain freedom from diet-culture.
To ensure we are eating enough, we can also use external cues such as:
time of day
visual information
familiar/repeated food routines
These external cues can be especially important for someone who is taking a stimulant medication to treat symptoms of ADHD.
Neurodivergent people may also have unique hunger cues that are specific to their body. For example, I get an annoying, tingly feeling in my lips when I’m really hungry. Even when my stomach isn’t telling me that I’m hungry, I know it’s time to eat!
This doesn’t mean that neurodivergent people can’t work towards intuitive eating, just that it may need to be modified. It is also important to acknowledge that eating intuitively is not morally superior to any other way of eating.
Valuing Differences in Eating
Those with a history of chronic dieting or an eating disorder may engage in food behaviors that they want to change in order to have a more peaceful relationship with food. Intuitive Eating is a great framework to address this.
When we add one or more forms of neurodivergence (like ADHD, autism, OCD or BPD) into the mix, it is important to recognize that some food behaviors deemed outside of the “norm” may not need to be changed in order for someone to live a full life.
You are the expert on your own relationship with food.
There is nothing wrong with eating differently than other people, as long as it is not preventing you from living the life you desire.
What is right for you?
Maybe you recognize that intuitive eating on its own doesn’t seem like the right fit for you. Or you are interested in learning about other ways of eating that allow you to have a more peaceful relationship with food.
If you identify as neurodivergent, it can be especially important to find a provider who understands the nuances of being a unique eater and who is willing to meet you where you are in your journey with food.
Pulling together components from intuitive eating, like ditching the diet mentality and challenging the food police, and using them in addition to components of other behavioral therapies (like ACT and DBT) can result in a treatment plan that is more tailored to your individual needs.
If you’re interested in learning more about whether a modified intuitive eating approach may be right for you or just have more questions about your own relationship with food, I am here to help.
Please reach out via email at madison@unravelnutrition.com or by clicking the button below to get in touch with me.
For further reading on adapting intuitive eating for neurodivergent folx - check out this blog post from RDs for Neurodiversity written by Shira Collings, MS, NCC (she/they)
