Eating while multitasking has evolved into the new norm. A frequent approach to spending time while eating is to watch TV, browse social media, or work at your desk. However, this frequently results in less satisfying meals, less awareness of your food, and frequent overeating.

Humans can’t distinguish between how we eat and feel. Our dietary decisions are undoubtedly influenced—for better or worse—by our feelings, attitudes, and beliefs.

Consider adopting a mindful or intuitive eating style if you’d like to give your diet a more concentrated aim (or to free yourself from unhelpful food beliefs).

It’s simple to presume that intuitive and mindful eating refers to the same idea. After all, “mindful” and “intuitive” are nearly synonymous, with significant similarities between the two approaches. These eating strategies, however, have unique histories and differ in how they are used daily.

Here is what you can anticipate, regardless of whether your path leads you toward intuitive or mindful eating (or a combination of the two).

What Is Mindful Eating?

The foundation of mindful eating is mindfulness, a Buddhist idea.

With meditation, known as mindfulness, you may better understand and deal with your feelings and bodily sensations [1].

Numerous diseases, including eating disorders, depression, anxiety, and food-related behaviors, are treated with it [2].

To fully pay attention to your sensations, cravings, and physical indications while you eat, you must practice mindful eating [3].

In essence, mindful eating entails:

• Slowly and focus-free when eating
• recognizing your body’s physical hunger signals
• eating until you’re satisfied
• differentiating between real hunger and non-hunger causes of food cravings
• using your senses by taking in the sights, sounds, smells, textures, and tastes around you

To maintain general health and well-being, one must learn to deal with guilt and worry over eating. Generally, mindful eating helps you slow down, become more aware of what you’re eating, and encourage healthy eating habits while fostering a positive relationship with food [4].

Why Should You Try Mindful Eating?

A wide variety of culinary options allure consumers in today’s fast-paced culture.

In addition, distractions such as television, computers, and cell phones have taken people’s focus away from the actual act of eating.

A mindless, frequently hurried activity, Eating has become. Since it can take your brain up to 20 minutes to notice that you are full, this can be an issue.

If you eat too quickly, the fullness signal can only appear once you’ve consumed too much food. It frequently occurs during binge eating. Eating becomes a purposeful, slow-paced activity instead of instinctually when you eat thoughtfully.

You may also tell the difference between emotional and actual physical hunger by improving your ability to recognize physical hunger and fullness signs [5].

You also become more conscious of the factors that make you crave food even when you’re not hungry.

Understanding your triggers will help you distance them from your reaction, allowing you the time and discretion to decide how to respond.

What does Evidence say?

More mindful Eating has some demonstrable advantages (beyond just helping you enjoy your meals more).

According to a thorough systematic review published in the journal Eating Behaviours [6], people who underwent mindfulness training could lessen emotional eating and binge eating. Increased mindfulness has been associated in other studies with weight loss [7] and improved type 2 diabetes [8] self-management.

How to Practice Mindful Eating?

You need a set of exercises and meditations to cultivate mindfulness [9].

Attending a workshop, online course, or seminar on mindfulness or mindful eating opportunities can benefit many people.

But there are lots of easy methods to start, some of which can be very helpful on their own:

• Eat slowly, and don’t rush your meals.
• Chew thoroughly.
• Eliminate distractions by turning off the TV and putting down your phone.
• Eat in silence.
• Pay attention to how you feel after eating.
• Eat till you are satisfied.
• Examine your motivation for Eating, your level of hunger, and the nutritional value of the meal you choose.
• Start by choosing one meal every day to concentrate on these themes.

It will become more natural to practice mindfulness once you get the hang of it. You can next concentrate on incorporating these routines into more meals.

What Is Intuitive Eating?

Intuitive eating offers a more targeted approach than mindful eating, which involves applying mindfulness to diet in general. Even though there is a lot of overlap between the two systems, Elyse Resch and Evelyn Tribole, two dietitians, created the Intuitive Eating program in the 1990s.

Intuitive eating seeks to liberate individuals from the constraints of harmful food-related attitudes to develop judgment-free eating. It educates users to be mindful of emotional eating while simultaneously eating in response to physical hunger and satiety indicators. It aids users in developing the capacity to recognize and name bodily sensations of hunger, fullness, and satisfaction as they appear. The program achieves this by focusing on ten key themes [10].

Core Principles of Intuitive Eating

• Reject the diet mentally
• Honor your hunger
• Make peace with food
• Challenge the food police
• Feel your fullness
• Discover the satiation factor
• Cope with your emotions
• Respect your body
• Movement – feel the difference
• Honor your health

What does Evidence Say?

Intuitive eating, as opposed to mindful eating, focuses on letting go of unhelpful attitudes related to previous negative experiences or unrealistic diets.

A few ways intuitive Eating can help you move toward a clean mental slate towards food include:

• Giving yourself unconditional permission to eat.
• Not categorizing meals as “good” or “bad.”
• Treating challenging emotions with self-compassion.

The program additionally promotes physical exercise that you enjoy.

Higher self-esteem and lower levels of disordered eating, body image issues, and psychological discomfort are linked to intuitive eating. Even though intuitive eating does not aim to lose weight, multiple studies have found a potential link between intuitive eating and a lower body mass index [11].

How to Practice Intuitive Eating?

There are methods to get started if you feel that knowing more about intuitive eating might benefit you.

Start evaluating your eating habits and attitudes objectively. When you eat, consider whether you are physically or emotionally hungry.

If you feel physically hungry, consider rating your level of hunger or fullness on a scale of 1 to 10, from extremely hungry to stuffed. When you are hungry but not starving, try to eat. Stop when you’re satisfied but not overstuffed.

The Bottom Line

While intuitive eating is a specific, ten-tenet program created by dietitians, mindful eating is a general concept that incorporates numerous applications of attention to eating.

Either approach can assist you in acquiring a more wholesome attitude toward food. Use separately or together; either way, you’ll profit from living in the now, eating just when you’re hungry, and savoring each bite.

You might attempt to determine which eating strategy—mindful or intuitive—is better for you. The beautiful thing about these eating habits is that they may be combined and work well together. When you employ both methods, you can find tranquillity in all facets of eating.

As you move away from typical, diet-influenced ways of thinking about eating, making decisions about where, when, and how much to eat might become less stressful. Intuitive and mindful eating are excellent ways to enhance your connection with food.

Work Cited

1. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25361692/
2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15256293/
3. https://jimhopper.com/pdfs/bishop2004.pdf
4. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19241400/
5. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21130363/
6. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1471015314000191?via%3Dihub
7. https://www.jscimedcentral.com/FamilyMedicine/familymedicine-5-1152.pdf
8. https://www.jandonline.org/article/S2212-2672(12)01348-2/fulltext
9. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21977314/
10. http://www.intuitiveeating.org/10-principles-of-intuitive-eating/
11. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eat.23509

Would you like to learn how apply intuitive and mindful eating? Schedule a session today with Tradena N. Rayner, MS, RDN, CDN, the Weight Inclusive Dietitian. She accepts Aetna, Anthem, BCBS, United Healthcare, Sana Benefits, and self-pay.