Mindful and Intuitive Eating

1. Mindful and Intuitive Eating

Numerical, objective measurements like calories and percentages of macronutrients can be helpful in seeing how our own eating habits compare to the recommendations for health. However, it can be unhealthy or triggering for some individuals to have a main focus on calories. An individual may become so fixated on staying under the estimated daily calorie amount that they forgo nutrient-dense foods just to stay within their calorie counts. Restricting calorie intake to 2,000 calories a day can lead to shortages of important nutrients if those calories are coming mainly from processed foods (Camacho & Ruppel, 2017). Being consumed with calorie counts can provoke negative feelings like shame and guilt when an individual exceeds their estimated calorie amount. As noted in the previous lesson, focusing on the big picture of a health-promoting diet is more sustainable than adhering to an exacting calorie count every day.

While you’ve learned about the principles of a healthy diet, such as variety and balance, the enjoyment factor of eating is also an important part of our nutritional habits. Food is a central part of our lives since we need to eat regularly. Food serves as a way for us to connect with other people by sharing a meal or celebrating. Food also allows us to derive satisfaction from tastes and textures that are pleasing to us. Mindful eating and intuitive eating are both principles that can help us derive greater enjoyment and satisfaction from the food we eat.

1a. Mindful Eating

Mindful eating is focusing nonjudgmentally and intentionally on thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations in the present moment to experience and enjoy food (Harvard School of Public Health, 2020). Mindful eating does not focus on calories or macronutrient amounts. It focuses instead on savoring food and being fully present while eating (Nelson, 2017).

There are many benefits to mindful eating. One major benefit is that eating mindfully is the opposite of eating mindlessly or while distracted. In our busy lifestyles, it is common to try and eat while multitasking, like eating while driving or watching TV. When we eat mindlessly, we are not fully focused on our food, which can lead to overeating and weight gain (Stanzus et al., 2019).

reflect

Do your eating habits tend to be distracted or mindful? For example, do you often eat meals on the go in your car, while using your phone or computer, or while watching TV?

A second benefit is that mindful eating prompts us to slow down and savor our meals. Your brain needs time to register that your stomach is full and satiated, so this slower pace can lead to eating less but enjoying it more. In addition, slowing down to eat helps our digestion work more effectively. Some research has found that distracted, mindless eating provokes less effective digestion, which can cause symptoms like gas and bloating (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2021).

A third benefit is that eating mindfully can reduce emotional eating, which is eating in response to emotions or stresses to cope with them. Since emotional eating is driven by emotions and not true hunger, it can cause overeating, especially comfort foods that are high in sugar, salt, and fat. You’ve learned in the lesson titled “Acute and Chronic Stress on Health” that we tend to reach for these types of foods when we are feeling stressed.

EXAMPLE

While we might tend to associate emotional eating with negative emotions such as stress, anger, or loneliness, research shows that positive emotions can also provoke emotional eating (Bongers & Jansen, 2016). For example, a social event or celebration with friends can make us eat more than we normally would. A significant accomplishment might prompt us to want to reward ourselves with a favorite food.

hint

There are many tactics and methods to implement mindful eating into your own habits. One example of five mindful eating steps uses the acronym PASSS and is adapted from the American Heart Association (2020). You can try these steps the next time you eat a meal or snack.

• Ponder: Check in with your emotions and hunger level before you start to eat. Consider if you are eating because you are truly hungry or for some other reason like boredom or stress.
• Appraise: Before you start eating your food, use your senses to evaluate it. How does the food look? Notice its colors and textures. How does it smell? Can you picture where the food came from and all the steps it took to get to you?
• Slow: Slow down your eating so your brain can register when it is full. You might consider putting down your eating utensil between each bite, eating with your nondominant hand, or taking a sip of your beverage between every few bites.
• Savor: Enjoy your food and find something satisfying about each bite. Perhaps it has an interesting crunch or texture, a unique taste, or changes as you mindfully chew it.
• Stop: Stop eating when you are full. Don’t feel pressured to finish your food or clean your plate. See if you can tune into your body’s knowledge of when it feels satisfied.

terms to know

Mindful Eating

Focusing nonjudgmentally and intentionally on thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations in the present moment to experience and enjoy food.

Emotional Eating

Eating in response to emotions or stresses to cope with them.

1b. Intuitive Eating

Intuitive eating is eating based on physiological hunger and satiety cues rather than external cues like emotions or social settings (Tribole & Resch, 1995). The framework behind intuitive eating was created by two dietitians in 1995 to steer away from mentalities like dieting and focusing on calorie goals (Grider et al., 2021).

The following are central to intuitive eating (Tribole & Resch, 1995; Van Dyke & Drinkwater, 2014):

• Having unconditional permission to eat when hungry
• Eating for physical reasons rather than emotional reasons
• Relying on the body’s own hunger and satiety cues to establish how much should be eaten and when
• Not restricting any type of food unless there is a medical reason

The practice of intuitive eating also includes principles that may challenge our preconceived notions of food. We might mentally categorize foods automatically into “good” or “bad.” For example, we may think vegetables are always good and cake is always bad. While it is true that vegetables are typically more nutrient-dense than cake, we’ve learned that both types of foods can fit into our eating patterns.

We might feel a loss of control or guilt for “giving in” to eating certain foods. However, these mindsets are problematic and not productive toward promoting our best sense of health. When we define foods as “bad”, we can start to think negatively about ourselves each time we eat them. Thinking of foods as “bad” and off-limits also tends to set up cycles of depriving ourselves of the food, then craving it, and finally giving in to eating large amounts of the food (Intuitive Eating, 2019).

think about it

The creators of the intuitive eating framework used the term “diet police” to describe messages from the media on what foods are “good” or “bad,” or messages about losing weight quickly and easily by restricting calories or certain types of food. As you go through your day using the internet, your phone, or watching TV, do you spot any “diet police” messages?

term to know

Intuitive Eating

Eating based on physiological hunger and satiety cues rather than external cues like emotions or social settings.

1c. Comparing Mindful and Intuitive Eating

Both mindful eating and intuitive eating are ways of viewing food for its subjective qualities, such as enjoyment and satisfaction, instead of focusing on objective aspects like calories. Therefore, they are both considered non-diet approaches that utilize the body’s cues in one’s eating patterns (Grider, 2021). As you may have noticed from the information in this lesson, mindful eating and intuitive eating have some overlaps and can be used as complementary approaches to each other.

The creators of the intuitive eating framework consider intuitive eating to be a broader philosophy than mindful eating (Intuitive Eating, 2010). Mindful eating centers around what is happening in the present moments as you eat, or before you select your food. However, the main difference with intuitive eating is that it not only includes one’s behavior and thoughts around food but emphasizes respecting the body and finding ways to feel good about one’s body (Intuitive Eating, 2010).

IN CONTEXT

Physical activity is an important health-promoting behavior and can be inextricably linked to thoughts or perceptions about food. For example, a person may feel that they need to “burn off” a significant number of calories after eating a large amount of food. Another principle of intuitive eating is to be active simply for the sake of feeling good, rather than to meet calorie-burning or weight-loss metrics (Intuitive Eating, 2019). Focusing on benefits like feeling more energetic or having a better mood is more motivating and useful than viewing exercise as an obligation or punishment to balance out what we eat.

Neither mindful eating nor intuitive eating has a primary focus on weight loss or changing the foods that an individual eats, though some research has shown that weight loss can be an outcome when these eating frameworks are used (Grider et al., 2021). However, some research reflects that both mindful eating and intuitive eating can lead to positive choices that promote health, as well as positive psychological outcomes. Studies on both mindful and intuitive eating have found that they are associated with improved psychological health aspects like positive body image and positive self-esteem (Linardon et al., 2021), as well as improvement in other health indicators like blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood glucose levels (Van Dyke & Drinkwater, 2014; Daubenmeyer et al., 2016).

REFERENCES

Bongers, P., & Jansen, A. (2016). Emotional eating is not what you think it is and emotional eating scales do not measure what you think they measure. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1932. doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01932

Camacho, S., & Ruppel, A. (2017). Is the calorie concept a real solution to the obesity epidemic?. Global Health Action, 10(1), 1289650. doi.org/10.1080/16549716.2017.1289650

Daubenmier, J., Moran, P. J., Kristeller, J., Acree, M., Bacchetti, P., Kemeny, M. E., ... & Hecht, F. M. (2016). Effects of a mindfulness‐based weight loss intervention in adults with obesity: A randomized clinical trial. Obesity, 24(4), 794-804. doi.org/10.1002/oby.21396

Grider, H. S., Douglas, S. M., & Raynor, H. A. (2021). The influence of mindful eating and/or intuitive eating approaches on dietary intake: A systematic review. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 121(4), 709–727.e1. doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2020.10.019

Harvard School of Public Health. (2020. Mindful eating. www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/mindful-eating/

Intuitive Eating (2010). The difference between mindful eating and intuitive eating. www.intuitiveeating.org/the-difference-between-intuitive-eating-and-mindful-eating/

Intuitive Eating (2019). 10 principles of intuitive eating. www.intuitiveeating.org/10-principles-of-intuitive-eating/

Koenigsberger, D., & Fortney, L. (2010). Mindful eating: discovering a better relationship with your food. University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. www.fammed.wisc.edu/files/webfm-uploads/documents/outreach/im/handout_mindful_eating.pdf

Linardon, J., Tylka, T. L., & Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, M. (2021). Intuitive eating and its psychological correlates: A meta-analysis. The International Journal of Eating Disorders, 54(7), 1073–1098. doi.org/10.1002/eat.23509

Nelson J. B. (2017). Mindful eating: The art of presence while you eat. Diabetes Spectrum: a publication of the American Diabetes Association, 30(3), 171–174. doi.org/10.2337/ds17-0015

Stanszus, L. S., Frank, P., & Geiger, S. M. (2019). Healthy eating and sustainable nutrition through mindfulness? Mixed method results of a controlled intervention study. Appetite, 141, 104325. doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2019.104325

Tribole, E., & Resch, E. (1995). Intuitive eating: a recovery book for the chronic dieter: rediscover the pleasures of eating and rebuild your body image. St. Martins Press.

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. (2021). Mindful eating: enhancing your relationship with your food. Whole Health Library. www.va.gov/WHOLEHEALTHLIBRARY/tools/mindful-eating.asp

Van Dyke, N., & Drinkwater, E. J. (2014). Relationships between intuitive eating and health indicators: literature review. Public Health Nutrition, 17(8), 1757–1766. doi.org/10.1017/S1368980013002139