Intuitive Eating
How to Hear What Your Body Needs

By Cathy Wong, About.com

Updated: January 13, 2008

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by our Medical Review Board

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How to improve your intuitive ability

Start by paying attention to how different foods make you feel.
- What foods leave satisfied?
- What foods give you energy?
- What foods make you tired or unable to concentrate?
- What foods make you anxious or edgy vs. calm and content?
- What foods make you bloated, uncomfortable, or cause pain?
Reduce the amount of junk foods and sugar in your diet.
- Substitute fruit and then gradually decrease. If you have a sweet tooth, try to gradually substitute the sugar in your diet with fruit. Fruit contains sugar but also has fiber, phytochemicals and antioxidants. Gradually taper the fruit until you are at a level that feels right to you.
- Use a herbal sweetener. The herbal sweetener Stevia can be used to add sweetness to any dish. Some brands are better than others -- if you try a brand that tastes quite bitter, keep looking.
- Try spices with a sweet flavor. The spices cinnamon and cloves have a sweet taste, even though they don't contain any sugar. Try making Chai tea, or adding cinnamon to drinks, sauces and desserts for a sweet flavor.
- Healthier sweeteners. If you do use sugar, try mixing unrefined blackstrap molasses with just enough honey or another natural sweetener to take the bitter edge off the molasses. One tablespoon of blackstrap molasses contains about 179 mg of calcium and 518 mg of potassium. All natural sweeteners such as honey and molasses are still forms of sugar, so don't go overboard on these thinking they are okay.