Why Not Diet

There’s a ton of pressure in high school to diet. It’s trendy to restrict ourselves from eating instead of creating a healthy relationship with food. Enter intuitive eating, a method to find a better balance! We spoke to Gila Glassberg, a registered dietitian and certified intuitive eating counselor in Woodmere, NY, about the concept.

The concept of intuitive eating began as a book written about 30 years ago. Two dietitians, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, were noticing that their clients would lose weight and look and feel amazing… until suddenly, it all fell apart. They’d start eating much more, losing control of their eating habits, and feel horrible about themselves.

This kept repeating itself over and over. The clients would blame themselves after and were really angry and disappointed. Additionally, the dietitians couldn’t find any studies that showed that people on diets lose weight long-term (for five years or more). Out of this, they developed intuitive eating.

Intuitive eating is a set of principles designed to help someone have a healthy relationship with food without focusing on weight. They’re great life skills in general and can be applied in many different ways.

THE DIFFICULTY

Some people have a hard time focusing on food and not on losing weight. Some people lose weight, some don’t, but the purpose isn’t to lose weight.