What’s the Difference Between Mindful Eating and Intuitive Eating? (+ tips to practice both)
Mindful eating and Intuitive Eating aren’t the same thing. But, if you ask me, you can’t be a true Intuitive Eater without also being able to eat mindfully, at least much of the time.
In a nutshell, mindful eating is a technique of being fully present with your food, mind, and body, while Intuitive Eating is a framework for connecting with your body wisdom, healing your relationship with food, and practicing health-promoting self-care.
But what does that really mean? How can you get better at one or the other—or both? And why is there so much buzz about these two concepts anyway? Let’s dive in and I’ll show you how both practices can help you feel better about food, your eating, and perhaps even yourself.
What is mindful eating?
I love the definition of mindfulness proposed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, whom many have called the founder of the modern mindfulness movement. He describes mindfulness as “the awareness that arises from paying attention, on purpose, in a particular way to the present moment, without judgment.”
Taken one step further, mindful eating is the practice of being fully present at mealtimes—tuning into your food, mind, body, and eating environment without judgment. The goal is to cultivate a sense of active, open attention on the experience of eating.
Not only can mindful eating help quiet your mind and make the overall experience of eating more enjoyable, but it can also help you tune into your hunger and fullness cues more easily, understand how your emotions may be impacting your food choices, and bring some purposeful intention to your food choices.
What are the benefits of mindful eating?
Lots of research has shown a wide array of benefits associated with mindful eating, including:
Reduced binge eating
Decreased emotional eating
Fewer cravings
Improvements in body dissatisfaction
Increased hunger awareness
Better food choices
Mindful eating can help quiet negative mental chatter around your food choices, may help you feel more gratitude for the food on your plate, and as other research has shown, can aid in digestion.
What does it look like to eat mindfully?
Let’s look at the key principles of a mindful eating practice, and then I’ll offer you some specific ways you can put these concepts into action.
Be in the present moment: As much as possible, aim to be fully present with the experience of eating. Try to let go of what came before or what will follow this meal and bring your attention to the here and now—your body, surroundings, and the food in front of you.
Notice what’s happening: The goal is to observe what’s happening with your food, mind, or body. Practice tuning in and identifying how you feel physically or emotionally before, during, and after you’ve eaten. Consider your hunger and fullness cues, energy levels, moods, the pace of your eating or anything else that may be showing up for you in this moment, with this meal.
Savor your food: Savor and enjoy the sensory qualities of your meal, including the colors, smells, textures, tastes, and temperatures. Notice how these things change from first bite to last. Engage all 5 of your senses as deeply as you can.
Release Judgment: Let go of any negative self-talk, such as “shoulds” or “shouldn’ts” about your food choices or eating behaviors, eating guilt, or anything else that may crop up. Practice simply being aware of your eating behaviors, food, and body with compassion and curiosity.
Please know that not every meal can or will be perfectly mindful—and that’s ok. I typically encourage my clients to carve out a few meals where they intentionally tune out all distractions and play around with the skills above. Some aspects of mindful eating will come more effortlessly than others, and over time the more you practice, the more natural it will become to be more mindful around your eating in general.
A few specific ideas to help you practice eating mindfully
Mindful eating sounds simple enough, but so many of us are used to eating while distracted, on the go, or rushing through meals so we can move on to the next thing. Below are some specific ideas to help you eat more mindfully:
Sit down at a table with utensils while you eat
Turn off or put away the distractions—including, TV, computers, magazines, books, social media, and others
Put your fork down between bites
Try eating with your non-dominant hand (which can help focus your mind on the activity of eating)
Slow down your eating, concentrate on chewing your food thoroughly while engaging your 5 senses
Take a few deep breaths before you begin your meal and bring your attention to the food and your body
What is Intuitive Eating and how does it differ from mindful eating?
Now that you know the ins and outs of mindful eating, let’s turn to Intuitive Eating, which is a much broader, self-care eating framework created by two dietitians, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, over 25 years ago. Intuitive Eating is a weight neutral approach to food and healthful behaviors that rejects dieting and diet culture.
There are 10 principles of Intuitive Eating aimed at helping you heal or maintain a healthy relationship with food. Its main tenets include:
Eating for pleasure and emotional satisfaction
Self-regulating your eating by relying on your hunger and fullness cues and other body wisdom (as opposed to dieting “rules” about what or how much to eat)
Making peace with food and your body
Joyful movement
Gentle nutrition and healthful self-care
What are the benefits of Intuitive Eating and why is it so impactful?
There are close to 200 research studies, with more being conducted all the time, showing the wide-ranging benefits of Intuitive Eating. It’s been associated with improvements in lab markers such as blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood glucose. Intuitive Eaters have also been found to experience improved body image, higher self-esteem, lower rates of depression and disordered eating behaviors, and even greater overall life satisfaction. Plus, they’ve been found to eat a wider variety of nutrient dense foods.
Those are, of course, impressive benefits in and of themselves. But I’d love to share some of the other life-changing results my private and group coaching clients often experience with Intuitive Eating, including things like:
Greater energy
Being able to keep previously forbidden foods in their pantries and freezers—without obsessing over or binging them
No more food and eating guilt
Reduced cravings
Stronger relationships with loved ones (because they’re able to be more fully present when they’re not consumed with dieting and eating struggles)
Being able to food on their plate because they’re better connected to their fullness cues
Building consistent exercise routines or enjoying exercising more
Feeling more confident in their food choices and their bodies
Improved digestion
Better moods
Food takes up less brain space (which means they can pour that energy into things that matter most to them)
Speaking more kindly to themselves
There are many other benefits I could point to, but I can sum it up best by sharing what so many of my clients say to me at some point in our work together: Intuitive Eating turns into intuitive living!
I think it’s because the self-awareness, self-trust, and renewed confidence people gain as they learn to eat intuitively can’t help but seep out into other areas of their lives. Plus, when you learn to feel more at home in your body, you tend to show up differently in the world!
Some tips to help you practice eating intuitively
I’ve shared lots of in-depth information on how to get started with Intuitive Eating previously, including tips and examples, but here are few more suggestions:
Do diet culture detox: It’s hard to feel good about food or your body when you’re bombarded with messages about weight loss, dieting, and unrealistic body ideals. Clear the diet culture out of your social media feed, turn off dieting advertisements, get rid of your dieting apps and books, and excuse yourself from dieting and body bashing conversations. I promise, it helps ease food and body tension!
Start with satisfaction: Instead of thinking about what you “should” eat or what you’re “supposed to” eat, begin asking yourself, “what would I LIKE to eat right now?” By allowing yourself to eat and enjoy what you’re genuinely in the mood for, you’ll likely find that you feel so much more content with your meals and can eventually respect your hunger or fullness cues more easily.
Focus on foods to ADD to your plate: Once you’ve decided what sounds good, one of the easiest ways to incorporate gentle nutrition (the last principle of Intuitive Eating) into your meals is to think about adding nutrient-dense foods to your plate. For example, perhaps you can add colorful fruits and veggies, fiber-rich whole grains, or a bit of protein if you don’t already have some.
Check your self-talk: Notice the way you speak to yourself about your food choices or your body. Are you constantly “should-ing” all over yourself and your eating or saying mean things about your body? Is there a voice in your head shouting dieting rules at you all day long? If so, practice neutralizing those voices and speaking more kindly and compassionately to yourself.
If you’d like help learning how to go further with mindful or intuitive eating (or both!), book a FREE Whole Health strategy session with me here and let’s reimagine your relationship with food and your body together!
Final thoughts on mindful and Intuitive Eating
Both mindful and Intuitive Eating encourage you to tune into your food, mind, and body without judgment. Both take the focus off weight, encourage enjoyable eating, and promote increased awareness of your eating behaviors.
There are many healthful benefits associated with each approach, and they can certainly work together to help you feel better about food and yourself. However, I’ll leave you with this final thought. It’s possible to eat mindfully without being an Intuitive eater, but I do not believe the reverse is true. It’s virtually impossible to eat intuitively without also being able to eat mindfully, at least a good bit of the time.