Intuitive Eating from a Biblical Perspective
I honestly think Adam and Eve were intuitive eaters in the Garden of Eden. There was no such thing as dieting back then, no Weight Watcher meetings to attend, and no Keto cookbooks to buy. Intermittent fasting wasn’t a thing, and neither was macro counting yet!
But, do you know what was a thing back then for little Miss Eve and her hubby? Body cues.
I’m a certified health and life coach, specializing in intuitive eating and body image improvement, coaching from a Christian perspective. Basically, I teach people to rewind the clocks and act around food as I believe the first two people did, and as they did right from the womb! Eating how they were naturally designed to, until someone taught them differently. You never see a baby saying, “Oh, how many grams of protein is there in this breast milk, ma? I think it doesn’t fit my macros today, so that’s a hard pass.”
You never see a toddler glance at the clock at 7 p.m. and say, “Oh, I’m hungry, but it’s too late. The kitchen is closed after supper, you know.”
No, kids eat when hungry. They stop when full. They pick foods they enjoy, and they hold their noses up at ones they don’t like. They own their current preferences and respect their body cues for rest, food, water and more. Sometimes they eat tons of blueberries, other days scrambled eggs, and next week they are all about the meat or carbs!
They role model our bodies being designed to crave balance overtime, to enjoy both nutrient dense foods and fun foods, as we intentionally label foods in our home both with positive wording. Health is the sum of our behaviors over time, and we can’t lose or gain health at a single meal or day or week of eating.
Kids honor satisfaction and don’t attach moral worth to eating a carrot over chocolate chip cookies. No toddler feels food guilt! Not until they are wrongly taught through praise that some foods are better morally, so you are “better” if you eat them. But the Bible doesn’t say that, it just says we are - present tense - fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). It says that he loves us. Period. (John 3:16, Isaiah 43:4 and a hundred other places).
We have worth and are lovable, not because of how we look or what we eat, but because of who made us. We are made off the blueprints of Worth himself, so we just have worth that our eating can’t decrease or increase. Our worth is a static, unmeasurable, fixed amount!
You don’t need to teach kids to become intuitive eaters, you just have to preserve it. What if you don’t feel so great with your own relationship with food? Know it’s never too late to change your mindsets and behaviors toward it. Psalm 18:29 tells us with God we can scale any wall. He can help us change any unwanted habit or mindset. Find hope in that fact.
Learning your body cues is a skill, one that was there from birth but might need relearning. It takes time to get reacquainted with body cues if you have been ignoring them for a while.
What is intuitive eating? It’s a non-diet approach to eating that was created by two dietitians over two decades ago. Now, years later, there are many scientific studies on it, proving it works! It’s meant to create a long-lasting, positive relationship with food, so food is joyful and simple again, instead of something you think about 24/7 - AKA an idol.
Intuitive eating changed my life and has been a Godsend. Before I became a coach myself, coaching women worldwide over the phone, I hired my own Christian intuitive eating coach. And wow - just wow! Intuitive Eating was a tool God used to help me heal from a very disordered relationship with food - think anorexia, binge eating and orthorexia - that I had since I was in elementary school. I won’t shut up about intuitive eating because I want to share with others who are where younger Nyla was that there is a freer approach to food!
Friends, we can trust our bodies because we can trust the one who created them. Our body cues can be trusted because the designer of them is trustworthy. God is so wise and, since we are made in His image, our body cues are a direct reflection of his wisdom.
I’ve had fun looking at scripture through an intuitive eating lens:
Romans 12:2 - “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” AKA - don’t think about food, weight and bodies in the way “diet culture” does.
What is diet culture? A viewpoint of food and bodies that some hold in society that demonizes some body shapes and food types, while elevating others, attaching more worth and value to those with thin bodies or who eat and exercise in certain ways.
Acts 10:28 - “But God has shown me that I should no longer think of anyone as impure or unclean.” AKA - food shouldn’t be categorized as clean or dirty. No food is bad or wrong to eat. All foods are not nutritiously equal, but all are morally neutral!
Genesis 3:4-5 - “‘You will not certainly die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” AKA - Satan has been feeding us destructive food lies through various sources and voices since humans were in the Garden of Eden.
2 Peter 2: 17-19 - “These false teachers …. They promise them liberty, when they themselves are the slaves of depravity.” AKA - the faces of diet companies. They are in chains themselves and are putting others in chains by ruining their relationships with food. We are wired by God for freedom, and that’s why we rebel when rules and restrictions are placed on us. You have never failed a diet, friend. It is a broken product, designed to fail, so you keep giving money to a company.
John 10:10 - “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” AKA - any eating plan that steals joy from you and destroys your relationship with food and body image is from the devil. Intuitive eating brings joy and freedom, which is what God wants for us.
Ephesians 4:20 - “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” AKA - that includes speaking with kindness and appreciation towards your body and being gracious to yourself when you make mistakes, as you learn by trial and error how to best incorporate intuitive eating into your life.
For more teaching on intuitive eating from a Christian framework, you can follow Nyla on Instagram @nutritionwithnyla!