What’s the Difference Between Mindful and Intuitive Eating?
As humans, it is nearly impossible to separate our dietary habits from our mental health. Our emotions, attitudes, and beliefs undoubtedly influence our dietary choices—for better or worse.
If you want to bring more concentrated intention to your diet (or break free from unhealthy food attitudes), consider taking a mindful or intuitive approach to eating.
It is common to believe that mindful eating and intuitive eating are synonymous. After all, the phrases mindful and intuitive are nearly synonyms, and the methodologies share several characteristics. However, these eating styles have separate histories and are used differently in everyday life.
Here’s what to expect if your journey leads you to mindful or intuitive eating (or a combination of the two).
What is Mindful Eating?
Although mindfulness is popular these days, it isn’t a new notion. Nonjudgment, patience, and living in the present moment are all classic Buddhist concepts. It wasn’t until the twentieth century, however, that adding them to, say, a slice of pizza gained popularity.
Well-known mindfulness activities for food (such as eating a raisin at a slow pace to partake sensations via all five senses) paved the way for more intentional mealtimes.
As more people have embraced mindful eating in recent years, its fundamentals have become increasingly common. However, mindful eating is not a branded diet regimen, and there is no clear agreement on which activities or ideas characterize it.
In essence, mindful eating entails cultivating present-moment awareness before, during, and after meals. This can entail several practices.
Mindful Eating Principles
Limiting interruptions when eating, such as keeping your phone on do not disturb or turning off the TV.
Enjoying the flavors and sensations of food.
Exploring food with all five senses
Eating slowly and chewing thoroughly.
Taking smaller bites or resting utensils between bites
Practicing appreciation, i.e., saying thanks before meals
Paying close attention to the body’s hunger signs when eating.
Recognizing sentiments regarding or reactions to diverse foods without judgment.
Evidence suggests that mindful eating can have good impacts beyond simply increasing enjoyment of meals.
A major systematic study published in the journal Eating Behaviors indicated that mindfulness training helped adults reduce binge eating and emotional eating. Other studies have connected mindfulness to weight loss and improved self-management of type 2 diabetes.
What is Intuitive Eating?
Whereas mindful eating is a broad application of awareness to diet, intuitive eating takes a more specialized approach. In truth, while there is a lot of overlap between the two approaches, Intuitive Eating is a distinct program created in the 1990s by two dietitians, Elyse Resch and Evelyn Tribole.
Intuitive Eating seeks to liberate people from harmful assumptions about food (and, in many cases, about themselves), with the objective of promoting judgment-free eating. It educates users to eat based on physical hunger and satiety indicators while also being mindful of emotional eating. It teaches users how to observe and identify sensations of hunger, fullness, and contentment as they occur in the body. The program accomplishes this by highlighting ten essential principles.
10 Key Principles of Intuitive Eating
Reject the diet mentality!
Honor your appetite.
Make Peace with Food
Challenge the food police.
Discover the satiation factor.
Feel your fullness.
Deal with your emotions with kindness.
Respect your body.
Movement—feel the difference.
Honor your health with compassionate nutrition.
What The Evidence Says
Unlike mindful eating, intuitive eating focuses on letting go of negative thoughts that may arise from past life experiences or unrealistic diets.
Giving oneself unconditional permission to eat, without classifying meals as “good” or “bad,” and responding to challenging emotions with self-compassion are just a few ideas of how intuitive eating can help you achieve a mental clean slate with food. The program also encourages you to engage in physical activity that you enjoy.
Intuitive eating is linked to improved self-esteem and reduced levels of disordered eating, body image issues, and psychological distress. While weight loss is not the goal of Intuitive Eating, multiple studies have found that it may be related with a lower BMI.
Body Mass Index (BMI) is an out-of-date, biased statistic that fails to take into account various characteristics, including body composition, ethnicity, race, gender, and age.
Despite being a faulty measure, BMI is nevertheless frequently employed in the medical field since it is a low-cost and quick way to assess possible health status and outcomes.
However, even the founders of Intuitive Eating deny that the technique is designed to help people lose weight. Rather, the idea is to reorient your connection with eating so that you can feel more free and less guilty.
Resch and Tribole’s program certifies nutritionists, psychotherapists, and other practitioners. You can find an intuitive eating counselor in your region by using the program’s directory.
How Mindful and Intuitive Eating Work Together
Mindful eating and intuitive eating are not mutually exclusive. While several of the Intuitive Eating principles integrate aspects of awareness, practicing mindfulness does not imply that you will automatically incorporate intuitive eating principles.
Both ideologies address how our mental state influences our food choices and urge similar actions such as recognizing sensations of fullness when eating and enjoying meals and snacks.
They can also help alleviate food-related stress in several ways. Mindful eating achieves this by eliminating distractions during meals, whereas Intuitive Eating uses mindfulness and other skills to reconnect with the body while addressing deeply ingrained negative attitudes about the body and food. The decision between mindful and intuitive eating (or both) will be based on your personal wellness goals.
If you want to focus on your nutrition, you may employ mindful eating to become more conscious of how you’re fueling your body. However, if your objective is to heal an unhealthy relationship with food, Intuitive Eating may be a better option.
Parting Word from HealthMapp
Mindful eating is a broad word that refers to many applications of mindfulness to eating, whereas intuitive eating is a precise, ten-point program designed by dietitians.
Either strategy can help you create a healthier attitude toward food. Use them separately or in combination—whichever you choose, you’ll reap the benefits of being in the moment, eating when you’re actually hungry, and savoring every meal.