Intuitive eating as a counter-cultural process towards self-actualisation: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of experiences of learning to eat intuitively

Abstract

This research presents an in-depth idiographic study that illustrates how learning to eat intuitively involves socio-cultural challenges, strategies of resistance and self-actualising processes. Interviews were conducted with eight women who had been practising intuitive eating (IE) for at least 1.5 years. Data was analysed using IPA and four themes were drawn inductively from the data: IE as an ongoing process, perceived judgement of others, strategies of resistance and processes of self-actualisation. Further research is needed to explore experiences of learning to eat intuitively amongst different samples and with different cultures, and to further investigate the relationship between IE and the actualising tendency.

Keywords: biopedagogy; counter-cultural; interpretative phenomenological analysis; intuitive eating; self-actualisation.