IE Principle #6: Challenge the Food Police
Challenge the Food Police: Intuitive Eating Principle #6 🚔
Another crucial step in the intuitive eating process is learning how to challenge the food police. If you’re not familiar with the food police, they’re those judgmental voices in your head that label certain foods or eating behaviors as “good” or “bad.” You know, the ones that make you feel proud when you eat fewer calories or restrict certain foods, but guilty or ashamed when you indulge in something like a slice of pizza or dessert.
What is the Food Police?
The food police aren’t literal, of course—they’re the ingrained beliefs and judgments about food that we’ve picked up from years of exposure to diet culture. They pop up when you’ve eaten something you’ve labeled as “bad” or when you feel like you’ve failed to follow your eating rules. These thoughts are sneaky, and they often come out of nowhere, reinforcing feelings of guilt, shame, or pride based solely on what you’ve eaten.
For example, when you eat a salad for lunch and the food police tell you, “Good job, you’re being healthy!” that might feel validating at first. But what happens when you eat a slice of pizza? That same voice might turn on you and say, “You’re bad for eating that—you should have stuck with something healthier.” This constant back-and-forth between praise and guilt makes it impossible to have a peaceful relationship with food.
How to Recognize the Food Police
The first step in challenging the food police is to notice when they show up. Start paying attention to the thoughts that pop into your head when you make food choices. Do you hear that inner voice judging you when you reach for a treat? Does it congratulate you when you skip dessert or feel like you’ve eaten "perfectly" for the day? These are signs that the food police are influencing your relationship with food.
The problem with relying on the food police to feel “good” about what you eat is that it also sets you up to feel guilty when you don’t follow the rules. The same judgment that gives you a sense of accomplishment for restricting a “bad” food is the same judgment that punishes you when you eventually eat it. And let’s face it—no one can live under such strict rules forever.
Imagine a World Without the Food Police
What if you could enjoy the foods you once considered “bad” and not have any strong feelings about them at all? No guilt. No shame. No endless analysis or beating yourself up afterward. You could simply eat, move on, and continue living your life without obsessing over what you ate.
Challenging the food police is about reclaiming your mental and emotional space from the rules that diet culture has imposed on you. The less power you give to the food police, the less power food will have over your thoughts and feelings. And when food no longer dominates your mental energy, you’ll be able to listen to your body more clearly and return to eating intuitively.
How to Challenge the Food Police
Next time you notice the food police showing up in your mind, don’t engage in a battle with those thoughts. Instead, try this approach:
Acknowledge the thought. Recognize that it’s the food police talking, not your true self.
Challenge the thought. Ask yourself, “Why do I believe this food is bad? Where did this belief come from?”
Reframe the thought. Remind yourself that all foods can be part of a healthy, balanced diet and that no food is inherently “good” or “bad.”
Move on. Don’t dwell on the thought or let it control your emotions. Shift your focus to how the food made you feel physically rather than emotionally.
Remember, these thoughts didn’t appear overnight, and they won’t disappear overnight either. But each time you recognize and challenge the food police, you weaken their power over you.
Reclaim Your Relationship with Food
By consistently challenging the food police, you’re taking back control of your relationship with food. You’re giving yourself the freedom to enjoy food without judgment, and that’s a huge step toward achieving true food freedom. The more you challenge those voices, the more space you create to listen to your body and make choices based on what it needs, not on arbitrary rules.
Are You Ready to Challenge the Food Police? 🚫
The next time the food police try to tell you you’re wrong for eating something, take a deep breath, acknowledge the thought, and remind yourself that you no longer want to let these rules control your happiness. Food is meant to nourish and be enjoyed, not feared or obsessed over.
If this concept feels overwhelming or if you need support in silencing the food police, apply to work with me directly. Together, we can dismantle those old diet rules and help you rebuild a healthier, more intuitive relationship with food.
You have made yourself feel an overwhelming sense of guilt around food for long enough! It is time to get rid of the guilt you feel around food, let go of the fad diets and gimmicks that are holding you back, and create sustainable habits with food that leave you feeling confident and in control of your life!
