Everything You Need to Know About Eating Hygiene and Why it’s So Important

You’ve probably heard the words “mindful eating” or “intuitive eating” thrown around in the wellness industry to talk about the importance of the way in which we eat. They’ve become generic buzzwords that are used interchangeably to basically sum up eating healthy, when in reality the two are quite different.

Mindful eating is eating intentionally, actually choosing to eat your food and to be aware of it while you do so without labeling good, bad, or judging yourself for what you eat.

Intuitive Eating (explained by Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD) is “a broader philosophy, which includes physical activity for the sake of feeling good, rejecting the dieting mentality, using nutrition information without judgment, and respecting your body, regardless of how you feel about its shape.”

You can see the two are similar, but have their differences in terms of the approach to eating. One difference that I talk a lot about with my clients lives within intuitive eating and is called eating hygiene. Eating is more than what you eat, but think about the why, when, how, with who and where. The experience of eating is meant to be one that you enjoy, not one that is rushed, or spent stressed out. If you reflect on yesterday, of the meals that you ate, how many do you actually remember the taste, texture, or feeling evoked from the food you ate? We rarely pay attention to what we’re eating because we’re so distracted by work, TV, emails, our next meeting…