Have you ever heard of the “Apple Test?”
The basic idea is that if you’re truly physically hungry, you’ll happily eat an apple (or other produce—you know, something “healthy”).
If you don’t want an apple, you’re probably not actually hungry.
While I believe its intent is to help you decipher physical hunger from emotional hunger, the messaging behind this diet culture nonsense basically says that:
1/ you can’t trust your hunger or your desires, and
2/ if you want to eat something other than an apple, banana or carrot sticks, you’re engaging in bad behavior and ultimately a bad person.
Mistrust, Question and Judge
Diet culture messes up your relationship with food in many ways, including teaching you to mistrust, question and judge your hunger.
It sounds something like this…
I just ate breakfast an hour ago but I’m hungry again. I shouldn’t eat so soon after a meal.
I’m famished! I could have my lunch now but it’s not the right time to eat.
I feel hungry but I’m probably just thirsty. I’ll have a glass of water.
I can’t believe I’m hungry already! My appetite is out of control.
My stomach is growling but I have to wait # hours between meals.
I’m feeling a bit hungry, but it’s bad to snack.
I’m hungry but I shouldn’t eat so close to dinner.
What’s wrong with me? Why am I always so hungry?
I feel hungry but I’m likely just bored.
If I’m not hungry enough to eat an apple, I’m not truly hungry.
If any of these scenarios sound familiar, you’re not alone.
When my clients and I explore their relationship with hunger, they are often surprised to discover how much diet culture influences how they respond to their body’s hunger signals.
We Know Better Than You
Diet culture tells you that you and your body can’t be trusted, that it knows better than you do when you’re hungry, when it’s okay to eat, what’s okay to eat, and how much is okay to eat.
It makes you believe that you should only eat when you’re really hungry and if you are, you should only eat certain foods. Eating at any other time, for any other reason, is bad, excessive, and a lack of discipline and willpower.
Diet culture says that to be a “good eater,” you must adhere to its external rules instead of listening to your internal cues.
Eating Isn’t Easy
As you may know very well, when diet culture is in charge, eating feels complicated, stressful and guilt-ridden.
You may find yourself debating every eating decision, white knuckling it until it’s the “right” time to eat, or feeling guilty when you eat at the “wrong” time or for the "wrong" reasons.
You may frequently delay eating until you’re ravenous and then, understandably, need as much food as possible as fast as possible, which usually isn’t a very satisfying experience.
Your Hunger is Valid
A big part of Intuitive Eating is rebuilding trust in yourself and your innate body wisdom.
This includes, to the best of your ability, learning how to become more attuned to your body’s various hunger signals and honoring its nourishment needs in a timely manner—without any judgment, hesitation or second-guessing.
Of course, in addition to diet culture, there are other factors that can interfere with your ability to hear and honor your hunger cues, such as stress, sleep deprivation, certain health conditions, medications, neurodivergence, schedule constraints, food insecurity and more.
But let’s start with the pervasive role diet culture plays and with getting clear on one very important thing: your hunger and desires are real and valid even if you don’t want to eat an apple.
