Intuitive Eating for Prediabetes: How To Balance Blood Sugar without Dieting

Welcome back to another episode of the Diabetes Digital podcast.

Today we’re going to be talking about intuitive eating for pre diabetes.

Many of you know if you listen to our podcast that we are big fans of intuitive eating.

Also, Health at Every Size and it seems like the traditional education and information for diabetes and pre diabetes seems to be in conflict with intuitive eating and Health at Every Size.

0:26
And today we want to set the record straight that you really can successfully use the principles of HAES and intuitive eating to manage your pre diabetes.

The reason we want to talk about this is because it can be challenging to manage pre diabetes, especially because there’s so many pressures out there to follow these different restrictive diets that promise quick results.

0:49
And so many of the experts on diabetes say that you have to lose weight to improve your blood sugar levels.

However, as we mentioned, we want to talk about intuitive eating and Hayes Health of every Size, which emphasizes a health and well-being overweight loss approach.

1:06
And so in today’s episode, we’re going to talk about why dieting may not work if you have pre diabetes, how to eat intuitively if you do have pre diabetes, the principles of intuitive eating, how it’s different from a diet.

What is the Hayes approach?

Because some of you may be listening, like Hayes, what we’ll tell you what it is, what are the facts about how intuitive eating can help manage pre diabetes, how we can get started today with applying these philosophies, and also how you can work with a dietitian if you need help incorporating these in real life.

1:38
Welcome to the Diabetes Digital Podcast.

I’m Wendy.

And I’m Jess, and we’re best friends, registered dietitians and diabetes educators.

Through our telehealth platform, Diabetes digital.co, we offer accessible and personalized virtual nutrition counseling for people with diabetes and pre diabetes.

1:55
Visit Diabetes Digital Co that CEO to book your first appointment.

We accept insurance and offer affordable self pay options.

Now let’s get into today’s episode.

So just earlier mentioned restrictive dieting and it’s very common if you’ve recently been diagnosed to turn to restrictive diets, it makes a lot of sense because you want something that is going to quickly reverse your pre diabetes.

2:21
You’re looking for a solution that’s going to be quick and that’s going to be effective.

So I can completely understand why someone would be like, OK, I’m going to cut out all carbs or I’m going to do keto.

I’m going to do intermittent fasting to help lower my blood sugar levels.

However, in our clinical experience and also with what the data shows, these diets, oftentimes they’re just not sustainable.

2:42
You end up feeling frustrated.

You’re on and off because it is unsustainable.

It’s like hard to just keep up with the practicality of eating.

Like whether you’re going out to eat in social settings or you have to meal prep or you have like a busy work schedule, it just becomes really, really hard.

2:59
And also you might just not feel satisfied.

Like when you’re cutting out things like carbs, which is what I think people naturally gravitate to when they get diagnosed with pre diabetes, they’re like, I’m just going to cut down on the carbs.

You end up feeling even more hungry or you’re craving those carbs in ways that are even stronger than you know, before.

3:19
I think the mind just works that way.

Like when you cut something out, you want it even more.

And so ultimately it leads to an unhealthy relationship with food where you can’t really trust your body with what to eat.

You’re, you’re just stressed out at thinking about, OK, what am I going to eat?

Is this going to help lower my blood sugar levels?

3:37
You feel deprived.

You might end up overeating sometimes if you’re restricting certain foods that you actually want.

And even though you might say, OK, whatever, this is worth it if it’s going to help improve my blood sugar levels, the reality is that it can actually make it harder to manage your blood sugar levels.

3:56
There’s a 2023 systematic review and meta analysis that was published by the British Journal of Nutrition, and it associated restrictive dieting with higher weight regain, leading to significant fluctuations in weight.

4:12
And also this can affect blood sugar levels as well, like if you’re restricting carbohydrates.

And the reason why I started the study and why I’m mentioning weight is not because we are using that as an indicator of health whatsoever, but I bring it up because oftentimes people associate improved health with weight loss.

4:32
And they do these diets in an attempt to lose weight and to keep off weight.

And the reality is that oftentimes they end up regaining the weight or they might even regain more of the weight when doing some of these diets.

And the same goes with like blood sugar levels.

There’s research to show that as well.

Like when you do all these restrictive diets, you actually get a lot of fluctuation with your blood sugar levels, which is not ideal.

4:54
Like your energy levels are going to be unstable.

You’re going to have a lot of cravings.

It’s just not great for long term health, which is generally why we don’t recommend these restrictive diets.

We’re all about doing what works for you long term.

5:10
And we always encourage people to experiment because some people are like, listen, I’m really interested in doing, you know, XI and I’ve heard great things like my friends and my family have done it.

And we always encourage you to experiment, but also to be informed and know that if it doesn’t work out, it’s not because you did something wrong is because it’s just really hard to like sustain a lot of these changes that, you know, they’re just like so out of reach.

5:39
And some of these diets are just like really bizarre too, with like, you know, the, the time windows that you can eat.

And it’s like you, you shouldn’t have to overthink it so much.

And the stress of it all is probably going to elevate your glucose levels along.

5:55
So today we’re going to talk about intuitive eating.

I want to start by just talking about what intuitive eating is.

And there are some principles which which just will go over, but intuitive eating can absolutely help with pre diabetes.

It’s a non diet approach that encourages people to tune into their bodies signals of hunger, fullness and satisfaction.

6:15
And instead of following external rules about what you should be doing.

And by external rules, I mean like what you’re reading online or what the next influencer is saying that you should eat.

You’re really tuning into what your body needs.

And that is a process.

It doesn’t just happen overnight, but we work with you to figure out, OK, what does listening to your body look like and what are the food choices that reflect that?

6:39
Yes, and for those of you who have never heard of Intuitive Eating before, as Wendy mentioned, there are 10 principles that help to guide individuals towards a healthy relationship with food.

Intuitive Eating was founded by two dietitians, Evelyn AAA, who has been on our podcast before in a least rush and the principles are rejecting the diet mentality.

7:02
So letting go of the idea that you need to follow strict diets to be healthy, honoring your hunger.

So that’s not skipping meals, that’s listening to your body’s hunger signals and eating when you’re hungry.

Also learning your body’s own subtle hunger cues.

It’s making peace with food, allowing yourself to eat all types of foods without guilt or shame.

7:21
Now people always say, wait a minute, I have pre diabetes, I can’t eat doughnuts all day.

That’s not what we’re saying.

We are saying making peace with food and really focusing on how foods make you feel.

How much doughnut do you need to feel satisfied?

7:37
Does that affect your energy levels later?

Maybe it’s figuring out pairing the doughnut with, you know, your meal, having after your meal doesn’t make you so tired, things like that.

So making peace with it and exploring from a curious lens.

Also challenging the food police, all those voices that tell you that certain foods are good and other foods are bad.

7:57
All foods can fit and we can use them in different contexts, right?

Like maybe you or someone with diabetes and your blood sugar is low.

In that case you’re going to need some quick sugars like juice to help bring your blood sugar back up.

8:13
So it’s more thinking about all foods can fit and what’s the context and what am I looking for?

Principle 5 is respecting your fullness.

This is huge because typically when people are having a harder time honoring their hunger, they have a harder time respecting their fullness.

8:28
So really paying attention to your body’s fullness signals and stop eating when you’re satisfied most of the time.

Speaking of satisfaction, it’s discovering that satisfaction factor, finding pleasure in the foods you’re eating and choosing foods that satisfy you.

If you know you hate brown rice, then don’t eat brown rice.

8:47
Like have white rice and maybe you pair it with other foods in that meal.

So it helps to stabilize your blood sugar, things like that.

Also, getting into feelings, right?

So honoring your feelings without using food, addressing your emotions without turning to food for comfort all of the time.

9:04
Some of the time it’s OK.

But if that’s your only coping strategy, then that might have a negative impact on your blood glucose levels.

Of course, there’s a body image component to it as well where it’s respecting your body, learning to accept it and not focus so much on weight, but focusing more on health and what your body can do.

9:24
And then the last two principles are exercise, really focusing on joyful movement.

And we talk more about that in our pre diabetes series where we go into, you know, the different types of movement for pre diabetes, diabetes that can be helpful.

And last but not least, honoring your health with gentle nutrition.

9:41
And this is something especially people who are dealing with a chronic disease, very important, but you have to kind of go through the other factors first, I would say.

So making food choices that on your health and your taste buds while also helping you feel good.

So these are all the principles.

9:58
What makes intuitive eating different from a diet is that a diet typically involves following a set of rules that include how much to eat, where intuitive eating is more so about trusting your body’s signals and making choices that feel right for you.

10:14
One person may feel better having less carbs.

Another person may feel better having more carbs.

One person may feel better having breakfast at 11.

Another person may feel better having breakfast at six.

And we shouldn’t be following all these arbitrary rules.

We should really be trying to focus on when do I feel my best?

10:32
And also, is this like when he said, is it getting so out of control in terms of like, I’m having to micromanage a million things?

That’s like not sustainable as well.

So what is helping you feel your best with ease?

I would say.

And intuitive eating is also flexible and personalized and encourages self compassion and mindfulness rather than restriction and control.

10:55
Exactly.

And just mentioned health at every size.

So I do want to talk a little bit about what that is health at every size.

It definitely works hand in hand with intuitive eating.

It promotes the idea that people of all sizes can achieve health and well-being by focusing on healthy behaviors over weight loss.

11:15
Often times when it comes to pre diabetes, the emphasis is on weight loss, unfortunately, and everything else gets overlooked.

And you know, people who have a higher body weight, they might be associated with unhealthier lifestyle choices like, oh, it’s assumed that like you’re eating a certain kind of way or that you might not be active.

11:37
And so with health at every size, we really look at the behaviors that is really the most important indication of health status along with your lab work.

And we also touch on things like self-care, intuitive eating, joyful movement, because even with the exercise part, it’s like, well, you need to do all this exercise to lose weight or to look a certain kind of way.

12:02
And when you’re exercising from that lens, oftentimes you’re not really enjoying it.

You’re just like, I have to get results.

And if I’m not getting those results, then this is clearly not working.

And that becomes very stressful.

So when we talk about joyful movement, we’re talking about movement that you actually enjoy, that you look forward to doing.

12:22
That has nothing to do with weight loss whatsoever.

And even aside from weight loss, just like having a certain body type, because that’s another thing too, just like the aesthetics of it all.

It’s like, Oh well, I want to have a flat tummy or I want to firm up my booty or like, you know, like all of those types of workouts.

12:40
And we really let go of all of that and, and focus on what feels good for you.

And I have found as a clinician that for people with pre diabetes, the health that every size approach can be really empowering because you focus on overall health instead of this pressure to lose weight.

12:58
You’re promoting behaviors that feel good to you.

There is like that mental health component as well.

And also just like having social support.

And so it’s nice because you’re able to look at the whole picture versus like hyper focusing on just one thing.

And that reduces stress, it reduces shame that’s often associated with pre diabetes, even with like weight gain.

13:21
And I think that it allows people to focus on what really matters, which is managing their health in a way that feels good and that is sustainable long term.

Yeah.

So you might be wondering how can intuitive eating help you manage your pre diabetes?

13:37
So that’s where we’re going to get into concrete effects that it can have.

It can be a really powerful tool because again, you’re focusing on your body’s internal cues to make food choices.

And people always ask, well, how many calories should I eat or how do I know how much to eat?

13:53
And it, your body is an amazing tool and it tells you through hunger, like when you should be eating.

And so I think that’s like probably one of the most important things people can do to, you know, help with their metabolism to stay strong is just eating when you’re hungry.

14:09
So here are three things specifically that intuitive eating can help with.

So number one is stabilizing your blood sugar levels because when you’re eating in response to hunger and fullness, you’re going to avoid more of those blood sugar spikes and crashes that often result from restrictive eating patterns.

14:24
Typically, if you’re eating when you’re hungry, you’re going to be eating throughout the day.

Most people naturally get hungry.

You know, I would say depending upon what you ate, typically like four or five hours after eating and by doing that your blood sugar is going to be a lot more staple versus like skipping meals and kind of binging at the end of the day.

14:44
Also, intuitive eating can help improve insulin sensitivity and it does this because it encourages that gentle nutrition, which is including a variety of foods that are rich in fiber, healthy fats, protein.

All those things are going to help improve insulin sensitivity and help manage your blood sugar levels by keeping them more stable as well.

15:05
And last but not least, because intuitive eating has a mindfulness component to it, it’s going to help reduce stress.

Many people don’t realize stress can have a very negative impact on your blood sugar levels.

Again, if you end up experimenting with a CGM, you can see on the days where you have stress that your blood sugar will most likely be higher.

15:28
And that stress can be variety of stress.

It can be from being sick.

I know when I had COVID, yeah, I was in Africa and I was went to the hospital and my blood sugar was through the roof just because I had COVID in my body was just like kind of going through a lot.

So keep that in mind that of course you can’t always control some stressful factors, but having a mindful approach, doing meditation can really help.

15:54
Another funny story, I was getting a massage and I had the CGM on and I was like Oh my God, that was the best for my blood sugar because just being in that calm state I was like my blood sugar is so stable right now.

And so not saying everyone needs to get a massage or can’t get a massage, but I’m just saying like those mindfulness things, however you can get them in will be helpful for managing blood glucose.

16:16
You know, I live for a massage, so that sounds like a great solution to me.

OK, so let’s talk about some ways to apply some of the principles that Jess was talking about.

So when it comes to honoring your hunger, the reality is that if you have not been listening to your hunger cues, you might overlook them because your body has just gotten used to not eating or to suppressing those cues.

16:39
And so it takes some practice and some routine where you might have to force yourself to eat if you’re not hungry and like, you don’t want to feel sick or feel unwell.

When I say like forcing yourself to eat, but I mean starting small.

Like maybe you have a piece of fruit to start your day if you’re not a breakfast person or you just have something that’s a little lighter just to get your body used to having something in your system.

17:03
Because for some people who don’t have that routine, they can go hours and hours without eating.

And that is not good for your blood sugar levels.

So you might have to just kind of retrain your body to develop first of all, and then identify those hunger cues again.

Now, if you’ve just spent, like if you’re getting hungry and you’re just kind of ignoring them, then we want to definitely listen to those cues.

17:27
Like start listening and start taking action and create a plan and say, OK, loosely, like these are some of the meals that I’m going to be having throughout the week.

I bought everything that I need.

I have a plan in place.

And maybe within 30 minutes of feeling that sensation that it’s time to eat, I eat, you know, because the more you suppress it, the more normalized it becomes to just look over those cues.

17:51
So that’s something that you can try out.

Also, when you are eating, try to slow down and really savor your meal.

You know, a lot of us are super busy with work, with school, and so we’re just scarfing down meals.

But really try to pay attention to like, what does this taste like?

18:07
How is this satisfying me?

Do I like the food that I’m eating?

And that can help you recognize when you are satisfied and prevent overeating because when you’re mindlessly eating, you know, next thing you know, you’re like, Oh my God, I feel so uncomfortable.

I ate too much.

And so pausing and slowing down is going to help with that.

18:26
And then there’s gentle nutrition.

So just mentioned with intuitive eating, it’s all about flexibility, but also it’s about making food choices that are going to honor your health and are going to help lower those glucose levels.

So with that, I would say incorporate a variety of nutrient rich foods, your whole grains, your vegetables, your foods, your proteins, your healthy fats and try to do them in combination so that it’s supporting blood sugar management.

18:52
Yeah, another thing that you can do to get started is just move your body more, find joyful activities that make you feel good.

You don’t want to feel rundown, you don’t want to get injured, so therefore you can’t do it anymore.

It’s so important to helping to manage pre diabetes and even prevent diabetes.

19:12
But it doesn’t have to be crazy intense or punitive, right?

Like oh, I ate this, therefore I must do that.

So find what you like, walking, dancing, swimming, yoga, weights, performer, Pilates, whatever it is that is definitely going to help.

Also working with a dietitian.

19:29
Of course we have to plug dietitians.

We are dietitians and diabetes educators.

We have a group practice that focuses exclusively on diabetes, pre diabetes, PCOS and metabolic syndrome and we accept insurance.

Dietitians can be super helpful to work with you to incorporate the principles of intuitive eating while managing pre diabetes.

19:48
We also provide a lot of personalized guidance on things like meal planning, blood sugar monitoring, and helping you make food choices that align with not only your health goals but also your values.

Right.

Your value might be fun and pleasure, and so we need to incorporate some of that in the food as well.

20:05
Last but not least, patience.

Intuitive eating is not a quick fix.

People I have seen it all the time get frustrated.

Oh my gosh.

Like it’s not working.

Or maybe even in the beginning, they may even gain a little bit of weight as their body is just kind of readjusting to eating more consistently, things like that.

20:23
And it takes time to unlearn these dieting behaviors and develop trust in your body and also your body to develop trust in you.

I think that’s one of the most important things with intuitive eating.

Like if I send you a signal that I’m hungry, are you going to ignore it?

Well, then your body doesn’t really have trust in you to know that you’re going to get the right amount of food in or that you’re taking care of it fully.

20:43
And not to blame anybody because I know we live in a crazy world and it’s hard to take care of yourself, but have that patients be patient with yourself, celebrate your progress along the way.

And we have seen first hand how all these principles which we use with our patients have a huge impact.

21:01
And we have a lot of case studies showing how these specific things have helped bring people’s A1C down significantly, and in most cases, not even using medication.

Yeah.

So if you’re interested in getting additional support with intuitive eating and you have pre diabetes or diabetes or PCOS, make sure you go to our website diabetesdigital.co.

21:22
We have a quick intake quiz that you can fill out.

Most people are completely covered by insurance, so you pay zero out of pocket and we would love to support you in lowering your A1C and eating more intuitively.

This episode was part of a pre diabetes series that we are doing so make sure that you go back to our older episodes if you haven’t already.

21:43
We have an introductory episode to pre diabetes.

We talk about what pre diabetes is lab values to look out for symptoms.

We also have another episode that we did on reversing pre diabetes.

Is it possible and how you would go about it?

So make sure that you give those a play and make sure you also leave us a review.

22:04
If you have been listening and you’re enjoying what we’re putting out, go on iTunes, leave us five stars and some kind words.

We do read all of your reviews and thank you so much for hanging out with us this week.

We have one more episode as part of our pre diabetes series and we’re going to be talking about exercise, which is so, so, so important.

22:22
We’re going to have a guest on who’s the exercise physiologist.

So make sure that you come back in two weeks for that episode and we’ll catch you next time.

Bye.

Thanks for joining us for today’s episode.

If you’re interested in nutrition counseling with one of our expert dietitians to help improve your pre diabetes or diabetes, visit us at diabetesdigital.co.

22:45
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23:05
We’ll catch you later.

Bye.