Intuitive Eating: Connecting Feeling to Food Intuitive eating, a type of mindful eating, is an approach to eating focused on your physical and emotional needs. It emphasizes eating when hungry and stopping when full, as well as other cues. For example, visual cues like food advertisements, emotional cues like stress, scent cues like smelling your favorite food and social cues like a meal out with friends. Intuitive eating is a practice that focuses on self-control through being present and aware of how you feel and how the food tastes. Intuitive eating, a type of mindful eating, is an approach to eating focused on your physical and emotional needs. It emphasizes eating when hungry and stopping when full, as well as other cues. For example, visual cues like food advertisements, emotional cues like stress, scent cues like smelling your favorite food and social cues like a meal out with friends. Intuitive eating is a practice that focuses on self-control through being present and aware of how you feel and how the food tastes. Signs of Physical Hunger Fatigue and lightheadedness Irritability Headache Grumbling stomach Increasing hunger No specific cravings, but still hungry Signs of Emotional Hunger Quiet stomach Sudden hunger (e.g., due to a stress or external response) Cravings Guilt associated with eating Key Strategies for Intuitive Eating 1Acknowledge Your HungerWhether you stick to a routine, like eating at the same time every day, or not, recognizing when you are hungry and acting on that feeling are key aspects of intuitive eating. Listening to your body when it is hungry increases your mindfulness practice. 2Recognize and Respond to FullnessJust as you acknowledge your hunger, you can acknowledge feeling full. ‘Checking in’ while eating or taking a moment every few bites to assess how the food makes you feel, can help you identify a comfortable degree of fullness. Aim to stop eating when comfortably full. 3Be Aware That Negative Feelings HappenAnger, sadness and stress will happen as you navigate life. Acknowledge these emotions as they occur and find coping techniques that help you work through them (e.g., talk to a friend or loved one, go for a walk, meditate, dance and sing). 4Improve Your Relationship With Your BodyPositive self-image can be tricky to achieve, but it is important when connecting feeling to food. Your body carries you through all the worst and best times. It is resilient and so are you. Nurturing a positive relationship with your body is key for intuitive eating. Intuitive eating is not considered a ‘diet’ but a practice since it focuses on the practice of eating more mindfully. It does not restrict any foods or provide strict rules to adhere to. The goal of intuitive eating is not weight loss, although it may benefit your weight management efforts. The goal is to improve your relationship to food and your body, and directly connect your experiences with your sense of fulfilment while eating. It’s a mind-body approach. Additional ResourcesCleveland Clinic - “What Is Intuitive Eating?”Harvard T.H. Chan - “Intuitive Eating”
