I’m not in any one dietary camp.
I can see pros and cons of being vegetarian or vegan, following keto or carnivore, and everything in between. These aren’t necessarily approaches I encourage, but I also wouldn’t deter someone from trying them if they felt it was right for them.
If I had to choose the approach to eating that makes the most sense to me it would be Intuitive Eating.
Intuitive Eating
Intuitive Eating was created by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch in the mid-1990s, building on early anti-diet movements from the 70s. It’s built around principles like:
Letting go of rigid food rules
Listening to hunger and fullness cues
Building trust with your body
Reducing guilt around food
Eating in a way that honours both physical and emotional needs
It’s a solid philosophy.
But even solid philosophies exist within a context – and it’s important to acknowledge that Intuitive Eating was created before our current food environment exploded into what it is today.
Our food environment has changed dramatically
Back when the ideas behind intuitive eating were forming, food culture was different. The principles made sense in a world where:
- Food wasn’t available round the clock.
- Most food was minimally processed and far less engineered for overconsumption.
- Convenience foods were limited – no apps, no instant access.
- Eating required effort: cooking, planning, leaving the house.
Today, we live in an abundant, hyper-palatable, always-available food environment. You could realistically live alone, barely move, and still have three highly-calorific meals a day delivered to you. That has never been possible in human history – and it is a serious challenge.
In that context, pure intuitive eating becomes much harder for many people.
Which means most of us need a slightly different approach.
So what do we do instead?
We create guidelines for ourselves, we educate ourselves on nutrition and, importantly what works for us – becuase there is a lot of subjectivelty in nutrition and health in general.
Guidelines – not rules that leave us feeling guilt or shame when we “break” them – but flexible guidelines we stick to most of the time, while giving ourselves permission to bend them.
Some examples:
Time Resistricted Eating – not as a magic fat-loss tool, but because time boundaries reduce mindless grazing. For example, I’ll eat between 9am and 6pm.
Protein with Each Meal – not strict, but a rough aim to improve satiety. For example, I’ll eat protein with all of my meals.
Indulgence with intention – enjoying treats because you truly want them, not just because they’re there or you’re bored. Making them part of a moment, an occasion, or good company.
No phone or TV while eating – to increase awareness and reduce overeating.
Shopping rules – don’t buy the snacks you overeat, but enjoy them out of the house.
Simple plate structure – half veg, quarter protein, quarter carbs, most of the time.
These aren’t diets.
They’re personalised constraints – positive constraints – that support better choices without feeling restrictive.
Billy Connolly said it well
**“If you eat brown bread for your whole life and I eat white bread for my whole life, how much longer are you going to live than me? A fortnight? Ten days?
And it isn’t a fortnight when you’re eighteen… it’s a fortnight when you’re in an old folks’ home, pissing your pants.”**
it’s funny – and it’s true.
The point isn’t life extension at all costs
If you don’t look after yourself, your quality of life will diminish.
But if you become so fixated on health, rules, and optimisation, your quality of life will also diminish – just in a different way.
Tim Ferriss uses a phrase I think about often:
“Are you enhancing your life… or are you avoiding death?”
They’re two very different things.
The bottom line
Health isn’t about finding the perfect plan.
It’s about finding the right plan — the one that fits your psychology, your preferences, your values, and your real life.
Sometimes the “best” programme is the one you enjoy.
Sometimes the “optimal” diet is the one you can sustain.
Sometimes the most effective path forward isn’t about being perfect – it’s about accepting you are imperfect.