From the Slavery of Habits to the Wisdom of the Body: How Can a Person Regain Their Natural Eating Instinct?

If the first step in the Tayyibat journey is changing the way you view food, then the second step is rebuilding the relationship between you and your body.

According to Dr. Diaa Al-Awady, the problem does not lie only in the type of food we eat, but also in the way we have come to deal with eating itself.

Modern people have become accustomed to eating because the clock says it is eight in the morning, because lunchtime has arrived, because everyone around them is eating, or even because they feel bored, upset, or stressed.

Over the years, true hunger has become mixed with psychological desires and social habits to the point that many people can no longer distinguish between a genuine need for food and a simple desire to chew and taste something.

For this reason, Dr. Diaa repeatedly emphasized that the first skill a person must learn is to listen to their body.

In his view, the body does not make mistakes when it sends its natural signals.

Hunger is a message, thirst is a message, and fullness is a message.

 The problem is that external noise has become louder than these messages.

When a person experiences true hunger, the body has already used part of its energy and is ready to receive food and benefit from it in the best possible way. However, when food enters the stomach without a real need, it becomes an additional burden on the body's various systems.

For this reason, he used to say that food is a great blessing, but it becomes a problem when it is consumed outside the body's natural need.

In this context, the Tayyibat system does not treat the traditional three meals a day as a sacred rule that everyone must follow.

There is no fixed number of meals that suits all people.

Some people need two meals, some need three, and some may be satisfied with only one meal on certain days.

The true standard is not the clock or the schedule written on the refrigerator, but the signal sent by the body itself.

This principle does not stop at meal timing; it also extends to the amount of food consumed in a single meal.

Instead of following the idea of “eat until you can barely move,” Dr. Diaa encourages leaving the table while still having a little room left.

The goal of food is not to overload the stomach, but to satisfy a need.

This concept is based on the belief that people often do not need the large quantities of food they have become accustomed to consuming, and that a significant portion of what they eat daily belongs more to the realm of habit than to genuine need.

Another principle he emphasizes is reducing the number of ingredients within a single meal. The more different items that are included on the plate, the more complicated the digestive process becomes.

For this reason, the Tayyibat philosophy promotes limiting a meal to two or three main components, making food simpler, clearer, and closer to what the body actually needs.

This is considered one of the most frequently discussed aspects of the system.

Water also occupies a different place compared with many traditional dietary systems.

Instead of turning drinking water into a mandatory task linked to a specific number of liters, Dr. Diaa encourages returning to the natural signal that God created within human beings: thirst.

Just as hunger tells you when you need food, thirst tells you when you need water.

Therefore, he believed that the more a person learns to listen to these natural signals, the closer they come to the natural state in which they were created.

Another central idea is digestive rest. According to this perspective, the body does not only need food; it also needs periods during which it stops receiving food so that it can carry out other functions.

For this reason, fasting occupies an important place within the philosophy of Tayyibat, not only as a great act of worship, but also as an opportunity that gives the body time to reorganize, cleanse itself, and restore balance.

Dr. Diaa often linked fasting with the body's ability to eliminate accumulated burdens resulting from the modern lifestyle.

In this sense, food no longer becomes the center of life, as it is for many people. Instead, it becomes a means of serving the body rather than a goal for which a person lives.

The aim is not for a person to spend the entire day thinking about the next meal, but for food to return to its natural place in life:

a blessing to be eaten when needed, left when one is satisfied, and appreciated with gratitude to God without excess or waste.

It is precisely in this change of mindset that supporters of the Tayyibat system see the beginning of real transformation, because, in their view, repairing one's relationship with food comes before improving the quality of food itself.

When a person learns to listen to their body and distinguish between need and habit, and between true hunger and a passing desire, they have taken the first step on the path advocated by Dr. Diaa Al-Awady.