Chronic dieters consistently expect themselves to go hungry and are consistently unreliable about providing themselves with food. Nobody can be comfortable if she goes through life expecting not to be fed. The hazards of this behavior are both physiological and emotional. People deplete themselves nutritionally as they go on severe diets and don't get the nutrients they need. And there's the whole feeling that their eating is out of control, and therefore they are out of control.
Eating becomes a moral issue.
Like our children, we adults have an innate ability to regulate our food intake. Satter shares her views through her books, workshops and lectures. She is in demand as a speaker for gatherings of health professionals, who are typically either experts on nutrition or on mental health, but not both. To these groups Satter's views may seem radical, and, in fact, most of her colleagues have different orientations about food and eating. She says most health professionals focus on food selection and tend to regulate food intake more on the basis of externals than internals.