Food Psych #267: The Nuances of Hunger and Fullness, the Importance of Satisfaction, and Intuitive Eating in Eating-Disorder Recovery with Elyse Resch

Photographer: Khali MacIntyre

Introduction & Guest Bio:

Anti-diet dietitian and Intuitive Eating co-author Elyse Resch returns to Food Psych to discuss the role of satisfaction in intuitive eating, the nuances of hunger and fullness, intuitive eating in eating-disorder treatment, the forthcoming Intuitive Eating Journal and Intuitive Eating Card Deck, and so much more. Plus, in “Ask Food Psych,” Christy answers a listener question about how a smaller-bodied therapist can navigate the nuances of advocating for HAES® when working with larger-bodied clients. 

Elyse Resch, MS, RDN, CEDRD-S, Fiaedp, FADA, FAND, is a nutrition therapist in private practice in Beverly Hills, California, with thirty-eight years of experience, specializing in eating disorders, Intuitive Eating, and Health at Every Size®. She is the co-author of Intuitive Eating, now in its 4th edition, The Intuitive Eating Workbook, and The Intuitive Eating Card Deck (available June 2021), and the author of The Intuitive Eating Workbook for Teens and The Intuitive Eating Journal (available June 2021).

She is also a chapter contributor to The Handbook of Positive Body Image and Embodiment and has published journal articles, print articles, and blog posts. She also does regular speaking engagements, podcasts, and extensive media interviews. Her work has been profiled on NPR, CNN, KABC, NBC, KTTV, Los Angeles Times, AP Press, KFI Radio, USA Today, and the Huffington Post, among others. Resch is nationally known for her work in helping patients break free from diet culture through the Intuitive Eating process. Her philosophy embraces the goal of developing body positivity, with the belief that all bodies deserve dignity, and reconnecting with one’s internal wisdom about eating. She supervises and trains health professionals, is a Certified Eating Disorder Registered Dietitian and Supervisor, a Fellow of the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals, and a Fellow of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

We Discuss:

  • What Elyse has been up to since her last Food Psych appearance, including during the COVID-19 pandemic

  • Christy’s experience recording the Anti-Diet audiobook

  • The forthcoming Intuitive Eating Journal

  • Satisfaction as the driving force behind intuitive eating

  • Connecting gentle nutrition to satisfaction, and why gentle nutrition is the last intuitive eating principle

  • Sensory-specific satiety

  • The privilege of prioritizing pleasure and satisfaction in food

  • How intuitive eating may differ at different points of the socioeconomic spectrum

  • Ellyn Satter’s Hierarchy of Food Needs

  • The intersections of diet culture, food insecurity, and other forms of oppression

  • Christy and Elyse’s experiences with diet culture growing up, and how diet culture has evolved over time

  • Food habituation

  • The power of deprivation, including future deprivation

  • The problem with comparison

  • Raising intuitive eaters

  • The nuances of fullness

  • Why intuitive eating is not the “hunger-fullness diet”

  • Intuitive eating in eating-disorder treatment

  • Having permission to eat in response to all types of hunger

Resources Mentioned

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Ask Food Psych

Listener Question:

“How can a thin, white healthcare provider advocate for the Health At Every Size movement when working with larger-bodied clients?”—Elizabeth

We Discuss: 

  • Naming our privileges, including sample phrases

  • Empathy, and making space for lived experience

  • Motivational interviewing, and its role in HAES

  • The role of HAES providers

  • How to support clients who are actively pursuing weight loss without supporting their weight loss efforts

Resources Mentioned: 

 
Christy HarrisonIntuitive eating, COVID-19, satisfaction, gentle nutrition, satiety, pleasure, hunger, fullness, diet culture, food insecurity, oppression, privilege, habituation, deprivation, eating disorders, eating-disorder treatment, Health At Every Size, HAES, motivational interviewing, anti-diet, S821