Fad diets, prolonged dieting, and restricted eating patterns can all contribute to a negative connection with food. Food is supposed to be both nutritious and pleasant. Here, we want to bring your attention towards finding your own bio-individual approaches to eating that nourishes both body and mind by promoting both health and satisfaction.

Let’s look at what sustainable eating is, what it implies, what it can do for you, the 6 fundamental principles, and how to put it into action.

Why Sustainable Eating?

Dieting means restricting food intake, usually in an attempt to lose weight or fat. But, as studies show, it’s not as simple as the “calories in, calories out” equation that many people focus on. There are many pitfalls of dieting like slow metabolism, disruption of one’s body set point while can increase stress and self-judgement and at same time doesn’t address emotional connection.

It’s difficult to ignore diet culture, especially when it’s promoted by the media. This might lead to bad feelings towards our bodies and the things we consume. Restrictive dieting does not result in long-term weight loss and, in some cases, even results in weight increase. On the other hand, it has been discovered that a strategy that values the health of all sizes provides both psychological and physical advantages. Following are some examples:

• Sustainable eating has been linked to improved emotional functioning and fewer eating disorders.
• We may become more aware of what we’re consuming and why by practising intuitive eating. This permits us to be more conscious of our eating habits.
• Dieting tendencies can be reduced and more sustainable, long-term behaviours can be enabled by intuitive or sustainable eating.
• Intuitive eating has been linked to greater motivation to exercise, particularly for pleasure.
• The more we appreciate our bodies, the happier we tend to be. Intuitive eaters have been reported to have greater degrees of body appreciation and lower levels of body image worries.

Overall, eating in a way that is joyful rather than restrictive is the best sustainable approach to healthy eating. Sustainable eating is a flexible and adaptable method that may be used by everyone.

6 Fundamental principles to follow for sustainable eating

Here are some very basic principles, which you should follow for practising sustainable eating or intuitive eating. As it is the only way to follow a healthy diet throughout your life truly.

Your body deserves respect:

We’re taught as children to treat people the way we want to be treated, it’s the same as how we want to treat ourselves. All body types deserve love and acceptance. It will be difficult to reject diet culture if we have unrealistic objectives or expectations for ourselves. We can respect our bodies no matter where we are.

It’s the same body that pumps our hearts without our knowledge; it delivers oxygen to our lungs; it helps us feel love for those we care about; it feels warm; it smells great food; it does everything for us, every day. When we love and appreciate our bodies, we respect and honour the food we feed them. Whether the meal is good for the soul.

Refuse to believe in diets:

There are generally some bad thoughts floating about when we think about how dieting makes us feel, both psychologically and physically. Many individuals start dieting to reduce weight, yet studies have repeatedly shown that dieting can have the opposite impact.

Dieters may lose weight during periods of restriction, but the weight eventually returns, maybe with a bit more than before the restriction. Diet culture frequently promotes weight loss that is either temporary or ineffective. The rejection of the diet concept is the first step toward intuitive eating.

Find out what gives you satisfaction:

Let’s assume we want a dish of ice cream but don’t want to eat it, so we have an orange instead. That wasn’t quite enough for us, so we had some hummus with crackers. We eat something different because it didn’t “strike the spot”. Our bodies may be physically satisfied, yet we may not be satisfied emotionally.

We ultimately give in after a few hours when the urge persists. This might be followed by feelings of shame for not being able to control our desires. Instead, what if we give in to our desires as they arise? Allowing oneself to enjoy food without feeling guilty. To feel and taste the pleasure that eating provides us.

We eat the stuff we like because we want to, not because we’re being punished. It’s simpler to listen to the inner voice that says, “I’ve liked that, thank you, that’s enough for now” with this perspective. It aids in the development of a better relationship with food.

Feel your completeness:

Sustainable eating requires us to pay attention to our bodies. It might be tough to tell when we’re hungry and when we’re full if we’ve had a history of continuous dieting. This is because diets induce us to ignore these cues. We may become more aware of when we’re full by becoming more mindful when eating.

Here are some suggestions for experiencing our fullness:

Slowly consume food to allow our bodies to respond and digest it. When we’re eating, we should take a moment to check in with our bodies. Do we want to keep eating or are we satisfied and satisfied?

Make food your ally:

Food is intended to provide us with energy and replenish our cells from within. Food is also something that draws people together. It offers joy, happiness, and fulfilment.

Food also serves to nurture our spirit in this way. Rather than thinking of meals as “good” or “bad,” we might conceive of them as “daily” and “occasional” foods depending on our body’s signals. All foods have a place, so let’s make peace with them. To avoid the restrict-binge cycle, make a food truce.

Take on the food police:

The food police are there in every one of our minds. They’re the diet culture’s watchdogs. The food police are the inner voice that warns us “don’t eat that,” “you need to exercise now to compensate,” and “this food is terrible, and that meal is excellent.

“Unreasonable eating standards have emerged as a result of diet culture. These norms are embedded in the minds of many of us. When we don’t follow these unjust dietary standards, our inner critic makes us feel guilty, ashamed, or have other bad feelings. When the food police get involved, it’s impossible to enjoy your meal.

Each time the food police speak in our brains, we can strive to detect them. As soon as you hear voices, recognize them. “That’s not me talking, that’s the food police,” tell yourself. When they try to instruct us what to do once we’ve recognized them, counterattack by saying “no.” Examine their authority; is what they’re saying accurate? Probably not. This allows us to reclaim control over our dietary choices rather than relying on the food police.

Conclusion

References

1. Wolpert, S. (2007). Dieting does not work, UCLA researchers report. UCLA Newsroom.
2. Carreiro, A. L., Dhillon, J., Gordon, S., Jacobs, A. G., Higgins, K. A., McArthur, B. M., Redan, B. W., et al. (2016). The macronutrients, appetite, and energy intake. Annual Review of Nutrition, 36, 73-103.
3. Sifferlin, A. (2017). The weight loss trap: Why your diet isn’t working. Time. 
4. Kärkkäinen, U., Mustelin, L., Raevuori, A., Kaprio, J., & Keski-Rahkonen, A. (2018). Successful weight maintainers among young adults—A ten-year prospective population study. Eating Behavior, 29, 91-98.