Intuitive/Mindful Eating, Body Positivity | Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior (SNEB)

Intuitive/Mindful Eating, Body Positivity

Posted by: on Monday April 30, 2018 people eating

Article originally appears in the April 26, 2018 issue of the SNEB eCommunicator.

I remember the first time I told my parents that I wouldn’t be joining them for dinner because I wasn’t hungry. Their reply? But it’s TIME for dinner. My approach to eating has served me well over the years – eating when hungry and eating s-l-o-w-l-y – I am usually the last person at a table to finish eating. In this article I look at Intuitive/mindful eating and body positivity and provide some resources.

Abbreviated definitions – click on links later in this article for more detail

**Intuitive eating – avoid guilt, honor hunger, eating is pleasure

**Mindful eating – use satiety cues and all the senses to guide eating

**Body positivity – body acceptance, living comfortably in your body

**Health at any Size (HAES®) – principles include but are not limited to eating based on pleasure and honors internal cues of hunger, satiety and appetite

https://www.sizediversityandhealth.org/content.asp?id=152

(I have grouped all of these together because the element they have in common is a non-diet approach.)What is the difference between mindful and intuitive eating?

Intuitive eating includes mindful eating but is broader including physical activity, rejecting dieting and body positivity.

http://www.intuitiveeating.org/the-difference-between-intuitive-eating-and-mindful-eating/

Mindful eating/intuitive eating evidence base

**Literature review found evidence for the effectiveness of mindful eating for binge eating, emotional eating and eating in response to external cues but not weight management but may prevent weight gain.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28718396

**Listing/summary of 2004 – 2016 Intuitive eating studies

http://www.intuitiveeating.org/resources/studies/

Mindful eating – overview/research

http://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/030413p42.shtml

Resources

**Mindful eating

Center for Mindful Eating – principles of mindful eating

https://www.thecenterformindfuleating.org/Principles-Mindful-Eating/

**Intuitive eating

http://www.todaysdietitian.com/enewsletter/enews_0116_01.shtml

**Interview w/the original intuitive eating pros

http://www.intuitiveeating.org/category/intuitive-eating/

**Online intuitive eating community

http://intuitiveeatingcommunity.org/

**Ditching the diet for intuitive eating

https://blogs.webmd.com/food-and-nutrition/2014/05/ditching-the-diet-for-intuitive-eating.html

Podcasts

**Food Psych Podcast w/Christy Harrison, registered dietitian

**Nutrition Matters w/Paige Smathers, registered dietitian nutritionist

**BodyLove Project w/Jessi Haggerty, registered dietitian

**Love, Food w/Julie Duffy Dillon, registered dietitian

**Your Great Journey: The Mindfulness-Based Eating Solution – Dr. Lynn Rossy

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/your-great-journey/id1187732864?mt=2

**The Mindful Dietitian, Fiona Sutherland, dietitian

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mindful-dietitian/id1214760051?mt=2

Infographics

Make every bite a meditation (mindful eating) – American Heart Association

https://healthyforgood.heart.org/-/media/aha/h4gm/pdf-files/mindfuleating.pdf

Recommended mobile apps

**Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Food and Nutrition magazine archive of nutritionist reviews

https://foodandnutrition.org/tag/apps/

**Top 20 mindfulness apps (includes mindful eating)

https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/mindfulness-apps/