10 Principles of Intuitive Eating
Have you ever heard of intuitive eating? This kind, compassionate approach encourages listening to and respecting your own needs and offers several benefits for your health. In this article, Karine Gravel, a nutritionist and doctor of nutrition, explores intuitive eating and its 10 core principles, as formulated by dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch.
What is intuitive eating?
Intuitive eating is supported by scientific data and is often offered as an alternative to weight-loss diets. It focuses on the body’s physiological signals of hunger and fullness to help regulate eating, and takes into account emotions related to food. It also proposes that food preferences help guide the quality of what you eat. Intuitive eating invites you to become aware — without judgment — of why you eat beyond hunger and to make peace with your relationship with food.
The 10 Core Principles
1. Reject the diet mentality
Let go of the idea that weight-loss diets — and their promises of control through calorie counting — are the solution to your relationship with food.
2. Honour Your Hunger
Hunger indicates the need to eat, without determining the amount necessary to feel full. Ask yourself if intense hunger ever leads you to eat more than your body actually needs.
3. Make Peace with Food
Restricting certain foods can create feelings of deprivation that influence your food choices or the amounts you want to eat.
4. Stop Categorizing Foods
Thoughts about “good” or “bad” foods — like criticizing yourself for eating cake — are unhelpful. Notice the food-related thoughts that fill your mind and question them.
5. Discover the Pleasure of Eating
Sensory pleasure — the taste, smell, and texture of food — lets you enjoy eating with all five senses. Consider how much enjoyment eating brings you compared to your other sources of pleasure.
6. Consider Your Fullness
Your feeling of fullness tells you how much food is needed for your stomach to feel comfortable, not your head. Reflect on the usual reasons you stop eating.
7. Cope with Your Emotions with Kindness
Food can sometimes be used to comfort, reward, distract, or even punish yourself emotionally. Notice which emotions might lead you to want to eat.
8. Respect Your Body
Respecting your body means accepting your natural weight — the healthy weight that your body maintains without extreme efforts — and appreciating the parts of your body you like or rely on.
9. Feel the Benefits of Physical Activity
Exercising solely to “burn calories” is usually not a motivating long-term reason to be active. Instead, consider your preferences when choosing how you move your body.
10. Honor Your Health and Your Taste Buds
Food should be seen holistically: no single food is responsible for deficiencies, health, or weight change. Think of your diet as a whole rather than striving for perfection.
***
Article updated on January 21, 2026.