With obesity rates at 42.4% in 2017-2018 up from 30.5% in 1999-2000, Americans have an imbalanced relationship with food. We eat a lot of food without considering the consequences.  Mindful eating and intuitive eating are two methods of becoming more aware of our relationship to food. Read on to learn more about each method.

Seven Practices of Mindful Eating

A great reference on mindful eating is SAVOR: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life by Thich Nhat Hanh and Dr. Lilian Cheung   The main ideas of the discipline are:

• Honor the food. Acknowledge where the food was grown and who prepared the meal. Eat without distractions to help deepen the eating experience.
• Engage all senses. Notice the sounds, colors, smells, tastes, and textures of the food and how you feel when eating. Pause periodically to engage these senses.
• Serve in modest portions. This can help avoid overeating and food waste. Use a dinner plate no larger than 9 inches across and fill it only once.
• Savor small bites, and chew thoroughly. These practices can help slow down the meal and fully experience the food’s flavors.
• Eat slowly to avoid overeating. If you eat slowly, you are more likely to recognize when you are feeling satisfied, or when you are about 80% full, and can stop eating.
• Don’t skip meals. Going too long without eating increases the risk of strong hunger, which may lead to the quickest and easiest food choice, not always a healthful one. Setting meals at around the same time each day, as well as planning for enough time to enjoy a meal or snack reduces these risks.
• Eat a plant-based diet, for your health and for the planet. Consider the long-term effects of eating certain foods. Processed meat and saturated fat are associated with an increased risk of colon cancer and heart disease. Production of animal-based foods like meat and dairy takes a heavier toll on our environment than plant-based foods.

According to T.H. Chan “Intervention studies have shown that mindfulness approaches can be an effective tool in the treatment of unfavorable behaviors such as emotional eating and binge eating that can lead to weight gain and obesity, although weight loss as an outcome measure is not always seen.”

Intuitive Eating

According to Healthline, intuitive eating is based on physical hunger rather than prescriptions from diet books and experts. Eating should satisfy physical hunger without causing guilt.  The term intuitive eating was coined in 1995 as the title of a book by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch.

In their book on intuitive eating, Tribole and Resch layout 10 basic principles of the philosophy.

• Reject the diet mentality
• Honor your hunger—feed your body when you are hungry
• Make peace with food
• Challenge the food police
• Respect your fullness
• Discover the satisfaction factor
• Honor your feelings without using food
• Respect your body
• Exercise — feel the difference
• Honor your health — The food you eat should taste good and make you feel good.

Healthline reports “Thus far, studies have linked intuitive eating to healthier psychological attitudes, lower body mass index (BMI), and weight maintenance — though not weight loss.”

In both methods of dealing with food, the emphasis is to correct mistaken, often negative relationships to food. Both mindful eating and intuitive eating lead to better overall mental and psychological health.  These methods lead to healthier lifestyles where food is more enjoyable, where we notice how various choices around food and exercise make us feel.  By rightly ordering our lives around food, and using it for nourishment, we can begin to stop using food as comfort or as a method of control.  Ultimately, getting to the root of how we use food inappropriately is the first step in a better relationship with food and our bodies.

About the author

Kimberly Distilli

Kimberly Distilli, R.N. and founder of Wellness Balance, has spent almost three decades in the medical field. Kimberly devoted her life to taking care of others but it wasn’t until she became seriously ill with breast cancer that she discovered the impact of alternative, non-invasive therapies such as cold laser therapy, alkaline water, cellular cleansing and neurotoxin release.