ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition, Psychology and Brain Health
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1458082
This article is part of the Research TopicNutrition and NeurobehaviorsView all 19 articles
Links between intuitive and mindful eating and mood: Do food intake and exercise mediate this association?
Provisionally accepted
- 1Firat University, Elazig, Türkiye
- 2Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon, Trabzon, Türkiye
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Background: In recent years, intuitive eating (IE) and mindful eating (ME) have emerged as promising approaches for developing a healthier relationship with food. Research also suggests that diet can significantly impact one's mental health. Nevertheless, there is no evidence to suggest that IE or ME can be associated with mental well-being through the influence of dietary patterns or practices. This study investigates the influence of IE and ME on mental well-being by affecting dietary practices. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 990 adults were administered the intuitive eating scale-2 (IES-2), the mindful eating questionnaire (MEQ), and the Food Mood Questionnaire (FMQ). Briefly, FMQ consists of weekly servings of food groups known to influence brain function and chemistry and the Kessler psychological distress scale (K-6). Correlation analyses were performed to determine the relationships among K-6, IES-2, MEQ, and food groups, and path analyses were performed to assess the mediating effects of food groups on the relationship between the K-6 scale, IES-2, and MEQ. Results: A moderate negative association was found between the K-6 scale and IES-2 and MEQ (r = -0.47 and -0.36, respectively). Furthermore, exercise, breakfast, dairy products, fruits, and dark green leafy vegetables (DGLV) were directly related to psychological distress (path coefficient = -0.104, -0.151, -0.181, -0.235, and -0.238, respectively), while IES-2 and MEQ had indirect associations with psychological distress via FMQ components (path coefficient = -0.262 and -0.212). Among the IES-2 sub-dimensions, Unconditional Permission to Eat (UPE) and Reliance on Hunger and Satiety Cues (RHSC) were found to be indirectly associated with psychological distress through mediatory effects of exercise, breakfast, dairy, fruit, and DGLV. Breakfast and DGLV also mediated partially indirect negative effects of recognition (a sub-dimension of MEQ) on the K-6 scale. Conclusion: This study showed that adopting IE and ME habits effectively associated dietary and lifestyle practices and that some dietary practices and exercise were important for the link between IE and ME to mental distress.
Keywords: Intuitive eating, Mindful eating, psychological distress, Dietary patterns, Exercise
Received: 01 Jul 2024; Accepted: 09 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Açık and ASLAN ÇİN. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Murat Açık, Firat University, Elazig, Türkiye
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