Intuitive Eating in Sport Series Principle 3: Make Peace with Food

Hey there! My name is Rebekah. I am a Registered Dietitian in Ottawa, Ontario, specializing in sports nutrition and Intuitive Eating. This is the third of my 10-week series on Intuitive Eating in Sport, in which I will take you through each of the 10 principles of Intuitive Eating and discuss how they can be applied to sports nutrition.

Photo from: https://www.intuitiveeating.org/our-books/

The 3rd principle of Intuitive Eating is to Make Peace with Food. This principle focuses on removing the moral labels we give to food. We are not "good" because we ate vegetables and we are not"bad" because we ate a cookie. When we restrict foods we deem "bad" we give them the power driven by our body's response to deprivation. What happened during COVID when everyone was buying up all the toilet paper? Our natural reaction was to stock up whenever we could. The same mentality happens within our body in response to food deprivation. It is not your lack of"willpower" that is to blame for your "falling off the wagon"; it's the system of dieting itself.

I watched my 16 month-old son in amazement just the other day. He happily enjoyed melon and ignored the rice krispie treats he also had access to. He had enjoyed some of the sweet treats the day before and seemingly had had enough. He wanted the melon. This is such a great example of eating intuitively before diet culture sinks its claws into us.

By allowing all foods to find their place in your diet we are more likely to see habituation. This is the idea that familiarity breeds ordinariness. Consider the feeling when you get a new car. It's clean, shiny, and has that new car smell. You are more likely to take special care and be excited about driving. But what about 2 years later...are you just as excited to drive it? Are you being as careful about keeping it clean?

The same thing happens with food. You may go through a period of "test-driving" those previously restricted foods more often But eventually, this transitions those novelty foods to ordinary foods. Consider Thanksgiving foods - do they still hold as much excitement on day 4 of eating them as leftovers. Yeah, didn't think so.

In sport, there are many well-meaning people in your circle who might encourage you not to eat certain foods because they are "unhealthy". I encourage the entirety of the athlete's support team to avoid making comments about food and body size. The athlete feels enough pressure from the outside world on their own. Anxiety over fueling their body can increase the risk of Low Energy Availability, Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport, disordered eating and eating disorders in sport.

I want athletes to consider what they can ADD to their nutrition plan, not what they should restrict. When an athlete is well-fueled, enjoying a variety of foods (including some fun foods when they crave them), they are more likely to eat intuitively and meet their nutritional needs for health and performance.

I discussed this last week, but Intuitive Eating is not the eat-whatever-you-want diet. We know there are many well-researched nutrition recommendations for sport including what types of foods to include and when. The idea here is to take in those evidence-based recommendations, choose which ones suit your sport and lifestyle, and apply them while also considering your body's innate intuition.

For example: you have just finished your workout and head home to have your meal that supports recovery (carbs + protein + fluids). You get home to find a fresh batch of cookies that were made. They look delicious and you want one!

Diet culture would tell you to ignore the fresh cookies no matter what - it doesn't fit into your diet.

Intuitive Eating would suggest that if you'd like to have a cookie, enjoy one. Maybe include it with your recovery meal so you don't delay in getting those carbs and protein to your muscles.

Are you ready to make peace with food and challenge the way you think about food in sport? Book your FREE DISCOVERY CALL today and we can get started! I can't wait to meet you!

Talk soon!