Am I doing this whole intuitive eating thing right?
What to do and how to tell when diet culture is playing games with your brain.
Good morning! Here’s my confession that I LOVE getting reader questions in my inbox—please, please, please send me your questions!
This one I’ve been sitting with for a moment and am excited to get into it. I considered making it a nutrition-by-addition type of post, but I felt that there was a lot more to this topic than simply acknowledging the nutritional power of eating fruits and vegetables. The reality is that guilt and shame can be present when we feel like we aren’t eating “right,” and it can feel like we are taking care of ourselves poorly when we make decisions based on our capacity or fail to honor our complex needs.
Without further ado, here it is:
Dear Gretchen,
I have been trying to eat intuitively for about 6 years now. However, despite now feeling more at peace with food, I still feel ashamed because I'm not eating a lot of fruit and vegetables. Sometimes I think this is because I don't like many fruits and vegetables. Other times, I think if I just had easy access to/ could afford to buy more of the fruits and vegetables I like (I have chronic fatigue, live alone, am not able to leave the house very often, and have minimal support), I'd eat more of them. It's probably a combination of the two. I also worry that I'm still eating too many "fun" foods. I feel like I'm the only one in this position, but logically, I'm sure there must be lots of others out there with similar issues.
Thanks,
Stuck in Diet Culture or Just Health Conscious?
A fantastic question, obviously, and one that, as always, requires nuance.
One thing I notice as a dietitian is that 95% of the people I work with know what they “should” be doing but aren’t able to do it for many reasons. Most of the time, I hear people say that they want to be eating ample fruits and veggies, cooking for themselves, and eating out less often, but that it feels nearly impossible due to complex factors in their lives. It’s not an education problem, it’s a resource problem.
It may surprise some of you, but most of my work isn’t doing science-forward nutrition education. I spend most of my sessions helping people to overcome the barriers that keep them from making choices that feel supportive to their well-being. Sometimes we have to do some myth-busting or unlearn some unhelpful nutrition beliefs, but even so, I’ve found that most of us understand the basics when it comes to eating a generally nourishing diet.
Most of us don’t have unlimited hours to spend grocery shopping, cooking, and eating food every day. Add chronic illness on top of that, and we’re going to have an even harder time doing the labor required to follow mainstream nutrition advice. Then we have the current trend of perfectionistic, good or bad, black and white nutrition rules that add even more pressure to what “eating right” looks like.
I wonder if there is room to open up the possibility that taking care of other aspects of your well-being might take priority right now? That being more flexible with what “counts” as eating well might actually feel better to your nervous system and body? I wonder if we can get creative with things that are shelf-stable, easy to make, and taste good, so that meeting our needs doesn’t require so much effort? How can we balance budget-conscious choices with time or effort-conscious choices?
Humans love an easy answer. We tend toward black and white thinking when faced with complexity. It’s hard to sit with the nuance that you might be supporting your health in some ways by eating more fruits and vegetables, but harming your health in others by spending more of your resources on eating a produce-rich diet. In these situations, it can be really helpful to throw the typical advice out the window and consider your personal experience and what might work well for you.
How does your body feel when you have more or less access to fresh produce? Does the difference feel significant enough to change the level of effort you put into acquiring and preparing these foods?
What tastes the best to you? Do you enjoy your food more when you have different quantities of fruits or vegetables? Does that enjoyment change your willingness to increase or decrease the amount of energy you put toward cooking?
What tends to be easiest for you to prepare or eat? Make a hierarchy of these foods. From there, you can prioritize what to keep in your pantry and fridge most often. For me, this is what a hierarchy might look like:
Apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, or other fruits that I can eat without slicing are the easiest to grab when I don’t have much energy.
Vegetables like baby carrots, mini cucumbers, salad mixes, or crudité are also pretty easy because they require minimal prep and just need a dip on the side.
I’m motivated to eat fresh strawberries, cherries, melon, and grapes because they taste good, but it can be hard for me to be motivated to wash and cut them.
Frozen or dried fruits are really easy for me to grab, but I often don’t enjoy them as much as fresh produce. I keep them around for granola/cereal/snacking/smoothies or when I’m in a pinch.
Vegetables that need to be cooked are reserved for dinners (a time when I make sure I’ve allotted time for cooking) or times when I have the energy and time to sauté, boil, roast, or air fry.
Who are you eating for? Are these rules and guidelines because they work for you or because of arbitrary standards that aren’t individualized? Can you release some of the pressure to conform to someone else’s definition of “healthy eating”?
Okay, but what if I want to meet those arbitrary standards anyway?
When we’re talking about how many fruits and veggies a person needs in a day, we might first look to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which asks that we try to consume about 5 servings of fruits and/or vegetables each day. Since I typically recommend people eat 4-6 times per day, this might mean eating some produce at every meal or snack, or doubling up on produce in a meal. It isn’t necessarily a bad goal to meet the five-a-day recommendation; you’ll notice that many of the principles for my “Nutrition by Addition” series can be met by eating more produce. At the same time, consider all of the questions above before drastically changing your diet or adding significant stress to your food management.
What does 5 servings of produce a day look like?
Breakfast: one banana
Snack: trail mix with 1/4 cup dried fruit
Lunch: a large handful of baby carrots and dip
Snack: ants on a log (celery with peanut butter and raisins)
Dinner: side salad (a fist-sized amount of fresh produce is considered one serving)
Or it could look like—
Breakfast: peppers, onions, and spinach in an omelet (1/2 fist of cooked produce is considered one serving)
Lunch: lettuce, tomato, and onion on your sandwich
Snack: an apple
Dinner: Canned marinara sauce on your pizza with maybe a few veggies on top, too.
Snack/Dessert: A serving of whole fruit, strawberry/rhubarb crisp
** Note that these examples would meet your fruit/veggie recommendations for a day, not your full caloric needs!
**Remember that canned and frozen vegetables and fruits are found to have the same nutritional value as fresh produce. If your life is made easier by exclusively buying canned or frozen options, you can trust that you are still getting the nutritional benefits!
That looks like way too much produce for me…
If this looks like a lot to manage right now, that’s okay! Often, dietary guidelines are based on what researchers have found will meet the needs of the majority of people, but could be more than enough for certain populations. It could also be that we need to slowly work up to this goal rather than trying to immediately double or triple the number of fruits and vegetables you’re currently eating. Also, lots of things “count” as produce even if they aren’t culturally thought of as such. You might already be doing more than you think!
Here are some ways you might be getting in some fruits and veggies without even realizing it:
Canned sauces like tomato sauce, curries, or pesto
Trail mixes or granola bars with dried fruit
Salsa or any other tomato or vegetable-based dip
Frozen or TV dinners that already have a vegetable mixed in or on the side
Juice or smoothies
Fresh herbs
Fruit in cobbler, pie, or other desserts made with whole fruits
Pickled vegetables
Sandwich toppings
And here are my favorite fruits and veggies to buy frozen:
blueberries - eat frozen or slightly thawed, in smoothies, baked goods
raspberries/blackberries - smoothies, baked goods
strawberries - eat thawed, smoothies, baked goods
bananas - smoothies, bread, pancakes
cherries - eat frozen or slightly thawed, smoothies
broccoli - steamed (it will still be soggy even if you roast it
green beans - keeps a bit more crunch than canned, also good steamed
cauliflower - will be pretty soft, good for soups/stews/blended soups
Spinach/kale/greens - good for soups, casseroles, pasta, smoothies
corn - keeps a pretty similar texture to fresh, cooked corn
You don’t have to have a giant salad for dinner each night to meet the recommended produce intake. There are so many ways you can add in fruits and vegetables without needing to overhaul everything you eat. Add to what you’re already doing instead of trying to reinvent the wheel. Utilize the easier resources when you can. And notice what feels good physically and mentally - there’s room to play around and find what really works.
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Thank you & happy Monday! Eat some yummy food. Do a nice thing for yourself—you deserve it!
Gretchen