Intuitive eating (by Lídia Algar)

What this video is about

In this video, psychologist Lidia Algar, from the Centro de Psicología Elemental, talks about eating disorders and intuitive eating. She describes them as dysfunctional patterns related to a poor relationship with food and with the body, which can include risk behaviours such as restriction, compensation through vomiting or laxatives, and compulsive exercise. To explain them she uses the metaphor of the iceberg: the visible behaviours sit on the surface, and underneath lie aspects such as low self-esteem, high self-demands, the need for control or the fear of rejection and abandonment.

She points out that diets can be a risk factor and that in therapy it is common to meet people with a long history of unsuccessful diets, accompanied by guilt and frustration. She criticises the so-called “bikini body” season and the idea of having to compensate for what one eats, and notes that those close to the person may detect signs such as a progressive reduction in food intake or comments about their own body.

She defines intuitive eating as a way of eating based on the free choice of foods, without judgement and listening to the body’s signals. Finally, she describes her role as a therapist: first attending to basic needs and, at the same time, working respectfully on the myths of diet culture.

Topics: eating disorders, intuitive eating, diet culture, body image