Have you ever heard of mindful eating? How about intuitive eating? If you have, you may be wondering what's the difference between the two (they sure do sound similar).
While mindful eating and intuitive eating share some similarities, they are actually different techniques that can be used to help you improve both your physical and mental health. They can also help you heal a broken relationship with food in different ways.
In this post, we'll look at mindful eating and intuitive eating closely, plus any similarities and differences between the two.
What is mindful eating?
Mindful eating is rooted in mindfulness, or being fully present and aware while doing something, like eating.
It's important to point out that mindful eating is not a diet. Instead, it's a set of techniques that teach you to connect with all your senses while you eat.
Mindful eating techniques help you slow down and enjoy food in a non-judgmental way. Unlike restrictive diets, mindful eating doesn't have rules.
Busy Americans have basically become pros at eating quickly or on the go. And while having meals and snacks in this way is convenient, it tends to cause mindless eating.
Unlike mindful eating, mindless eating involves giving little to no thought to the food you're putting into your body. This mindlessness can lead to overeating, not getting all the nutrients you need, and not enjoying your food.
To practice mindful eating, you'll need to be able to get into a state of full presence and awareness. It may be helpful to practice some short mindfulness meditations to learn how to be mindful during meals.
A mindful eating meditation may walk you through an exercise where you'll slowly eat some food while noticing what it looks like, how it smells, its textures, its flavors, and more. It may feel silly at first, but doing these types of mindfulness exercises even just a few times can help you start to enjoy your food and learn to put more thought into what you're eating.
Mindful eating can even help you if you've struggled with disordered eating habits like emotional eating and binge eating.
You won't become a mindful eater overnight, but it's well worth the time and patience.
You can undo years of chronic dieting and unlearn food rules by learning to eat mindfully and in a nonjudgmental way. As a mindful eater, you're fully able to be honest with yourself when it comes to foods you like and dislike.
You'll even be able to become more aware of true hunger and satiety cues, two things many of us have unknowingly unlearned from years of mindless eating due to busy schedules and other factors.
When you're mindful about your eating, you'll start to realize how certain foods make you feel.
If you regularly overeat, for example, you may eventually notice that doing so causes you to have an upset stomach and other unpleasantries. On the flip side, you will probably start noticing that you gain more energy from nourishing, balanced meals.
What is intuitive eating?
Intuitive eating teaches you how to take more charge in your food choices. It can be rather empowering.
Many people feel out of control around food or confused about what they "should" and "should not" eat. And while there's no denying that some foods are more nutrient-dense than others, it's also important to know that all foods can fit into a healthy diet (this is one of the many things intuitive eating will teach you).
One of the most basic and fundamental aspects of intuitive eating is re-connecting with your interoceptive awareness when it comes to hunger and fullness.
Chronic dieting and food rules can unintentionally teach you to no longer trust your body or your internal cues. But diets and rules were made up by flawed humans and don't work for every unique person.
Intuitive eaters don't stress over their weight or every little thing they eat. (Now doesn't that sound nice?). They even sometimes put pleasure from food over nutrition, which is perfectly okay to do.
The point is, intuitive eaters know how to eat for both nourishment and pleasure and they don't have to think twice.
Depending on past experiences with dieting and eating in general, you may or may not be able to imagine living life without almost constantly thinking about food. Anyone who has dieted before knows what it's like to be thinking of the next meal while still eating the current one.
If this feels like an impossible dream right now, rest assured that you too can get to this point through intuitive eating. This is something I know from personal experience!
Intuitive eating was developed by two registered dietitians, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. These two literally wrote the book on intuitive eating.
They also used their expertise to come up with the intuitive eating principles:
Reject the diet mentality.
Honor your hunger.
Make peace with food.
Challenge the food police.
Discover the satisfaction factor.
Feel your fullness.
Cope with your emotions with kindness.
Respect your body.
Movement - feel the difference.
Honor your health - gentle nutrition.
But intuitive eating isn't just some idea made up by dietitians to sell a book. It's actually been well-researched. And some research even points out that it takes time to become an intuitive eater and that the practice doesn't work overnight.
How are mindful eating and intuitive eating similar?
You may be able to tell by now that mindful eating and intuitive eating have some similarities.
Let's look at these similarities closer:
Both require mindfulness. Whether you're practicing mindful eating or intuitive eating, you'll need to learn how to be more aware and more present while eating (and even between meals). This mindfulness will help you make nourishing food choices, not skip important meals, and stop eating when satisfied.
Either can be used to help with disordered eating. The mindfulness techniques you'll learn on the road to becoming either a mindful eater or an intuitive eater can lead to less binge eating, less emotional eating, and less disordered eating.
Intuitive eating and mindful eating are sustainable. You won't need to sign-up for an app or expensive meal program to improve your physical and mental health through mindful eating or intuitive eating. These are long-term, sustainable approaches to eating. And once you've learned all the basics, the practice will become second nature and you'll no longer have to think (or overthink) so much about what you eat.
You will start to reconnect with your body with either technique. Both mindful eating and intuitive eating will help you reconnect with your body and your internal cues. You'll learn to acknowledge your hunger cues and eat when truly hungry. You'll also learn to notice when you're comfortably full, satisfied, and ready to stop eating.
Both take a holistic approach to your nutrition and overall health. Mindful eating and intuitive eating are internal experiences. These eating techniques are holistic in that they account for your entire body. This includes your mental health, physical health, and emotional health.
How are mindful eating and intuitive eating different?
Even though mindful eating and intuitive eating appear to be quite similar, there are important differences worth pointing out.
These differences include:
Mindful eating focuses more on overall awareness and presence. A key part of mindful eating is mindfulness, which is often achieved through meditation. To be mindful, you must put yourself in a state of total presence of mind, something that isn't necessary for intuitive eating.
Intuitive eating focuses more on resolving disordered eating habits and/or years of chronic dieting. If you ever read through intuitive eating studies or the book's website you'll quickly notice the overarching theme of improving one's relationship with food. The very first intuitive eating principle is about rejecting the diet mentality and diet culture in general. There is a heavy emphasis on this throughout intuitive eating.
Mindful eating techniques and tools are not meant to be a comprehensive approach. While intuitive eating talks about everything from hunger cues to physical activity to self-care, mindful eating techniques are more or less about being present while you eat. Even though you can be mindful when it comes to things like physical activity, mindful eating is really only about, well, eating.
Intuitive eating principles are broader. If you're looking for a full lifestyle change then intuitive eating may be a good option. The ten principles of intuitive eating will walk you through not only food but also joyful movement, mental health, and general self-care.
The bottom line
Mindful eating and intuitive eating are two approaches to having a healthier relationship with food. And while the two share some similarities, they are not the same.
Mindful eating may help you learn to be more present during meals, leading to better enjoyment from food as well as an improved ability to stop eating when full.
Intuitive eating can help you unlearn years of unhealthy food rules and poor habits around food and physical activity to heal not only your relationship with food but also your relationship with yourself.
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