Mindful Eating: The Art of Presence of Mind While You Eat

Last updated on September 9th, 2022

Do you know how we often eat while working on our laptops and tablets, binge-watching, or scrolling through our phones? We barely even taste the food, let alone feel satisfied after eating. It’s like we’re just mindlessly shovelling fuel into our bodies. But what if I told you there’s a way to actually enjoy your meals and feel nourished, both physically and mentally? The process is called mindful eating.

Mindful eating is nothing but being present and aware while you take your food/meals. Really savoring each bite, appreciating the flavors and textures. It’s about listening to your body’s hunger cues instead of just eating because the food is there or because you’re bored. When you eat mindfully, mealtime becomes a sacred ritual of nourishment for your body and soul. It’s like meditation but with delicious food! Intrigued? Let us tell you more about how to bring mindfulness to your plate. Read the blog below.

Defining Mindful Eating

In simple terms, mindful eating is eating with your mind. It is practising an open-minded awareness of how the food we choose to eat affects our body, feelings, mind, and everything around us. This concept is more about how to eat than about what to eat and what not to eat. Mindful eating shapes your brain into controlling most of your toxic food habits, such as over-eating, binge-eating, emotional eating, etc.

Also, it involves using all your senses in choosing to eat food that is, both, satisfying and nourishing at the same time. You, after a certain period, start acknowledging your responses to food without any judgments at all.

Broadly, mindful eating encompasses:

• Being aware and attentive to the sensory experiences of eating, such as the sight, smell, taste, and texture of food.
• Recognizing internal cues of hunger and satiety by tuning into physiological hunger and fullness signals rather than external cues like time of day or emotional states.
• Developing awareness of food-related thoughts and emotions, observing them impartially without judgment.
• Bringing intentionality to the act of eating by making conscious food choices aligned with physical cravings and nutritional needs.
• Eating slowly and without distraction or multitasking, which allows better processing of satiety signals.
• Cultivating gratitude and appreciation for the food being consumed.

Author Manuscript’s neuroscientific research shows mindful eating can modulate the brain’s reward pathways, gut-brain signalling, and emotional regulation circuits. Clinically, it has been associated with improved eating behaviors, weight management, digestion, and body image issues.

Read More:- Can you Reverse Type 2 Diabetes?

What are the benefits of mindful eating?

Mindful eating has multifold benefits. Along with controlling bad food habits, mindful eating also helps lose weight and balances body mass index (BMI). It helps cope with eating disorders such as bulimia and helps reduce anxious thoughts about your body. Let’s break down the advantages and benefits of mindful eating:

Enhanced Food Enjoyment

Instead of mindlessly shovelling or gulping food while zoning out in front of your laptop/mobile, mindful eating means you actually get to taste and savor every bite. The flavors, the textures – you experience it all! Eating becomes this whole sensory experience rather than just mundane fuel.

Improved Appetite Awareness

Have you ever found yourself snacking even though you weren’t really hungry? Or did you keep eating way past the point of feeling full? Mindful eating helps you get re-tuned into your body’s natural hunger and fullness signals. No more eating just because it’s lunchtime or your mom ingrained that “clean plate club” mentality into you.

Weight Management

This is probably the one you’ve heard about – mindful eating can be a game-changer for weight loss or just maintaining a healthy weight. By really tuning into your hunger/fullness cues and getting rid of mindless munching, you’re way less likely to overeat. According to the meta-analysis and systematic review of more than 10 studies published on the NIH website, systematic mindful eating helped significantly in losing weight. You’ll feel satisfied with less food and make choices from a non-judgmental place.

Better Digestion

When you’re not stressed, rushed, or distracted while eating, your body can actually focus on breaking that food down properly. No more food bloating or digestive discomfort because you were eating on the go or while anxious about an upcoming work deadline.

Portion Control

By really tuning into your satiety cues, mindful eating makes it way easier to naturally recognize when you’ve had enough instead of overdoing it. You’ll start leaving food on your plate for once!

Emotional Regulation

For a lot of people, eating is completely tied to their emotions – happiness, boredom, sadness, you name it. Mindful eating helps break that cycle. When you look at food without judgment and just honor your actual hunger, you can make choices from a better headspace.

Positive Body Image

Instead of picking apart your body or feeling guilty about what you eat, mindful eating encourages you to appreciate your body. And what it needs to feel nourished. You cultivate way more self-compassion.

Increased Self-Awareness

Ultimately, being a mindful eater helps you get mad insights into your habits, thoughts, and unconscious patterns around food. You’ll start navigating eating and your wellness from a place of deeper wisdom and self-care rather than old programming.

So, in a nutshell, mindful eating helps you get way more tuned into your mind and body’s true needs so you can actually nourish yourself fully – both physically and mentally. It’s a total game-changer! Being mindful can help you better handle your emotions. Sometimes, people restrict or overeat to cope with negative feelings.

Read More:- Controlling blood sugar spikes

How to practice mindful eating?

Following are the tips to practice mindful eating:

Remove Distractions

One of the biggest things with mindful eating is to remove any distractions that’ll have you zoning out. That means no scrolling through Instagram, watching TV, or having work documents spread out in front of you. Just you, your food, and being present AF.

Take Small Bites

Instead of shovelling food in like you’re entering a hot dog eating contest, take small bites and chew thoroughly. Really pay attention to all the flavors and textures hitting your taste buds. It’s like a delicious meditation.

Use All Your Senses

Mindful eating involves engaging all five senses. Look at how appetizing the food looks. Smell those delicious aromas. Listen to the sound of yourself chewing. Feel the different textures in your mouth. Taste every freakin’ flavor.

Check In With Hunger/Fullness  

Before diving in, rate your actual hunger on a scale of 1-10. While eating, keep checking in and noticing how your hunger levels are changing. Stop when you reach comfortable fullness, not overstuffed Santa levels.

Eat Slowly 

There’s no need to rush through your meals like you’re late for a meeting. By eating slowly, you’ll pick up on those subtle hunger/fullness cues and get so much more enjoyment out of your food.

Ditch Judgments

Whether it’s feeling guilty about what you’re eating or beating yourself up about your body, ditch those negative judgments. Mindful eating is about looking at food neutrally and nourishing yourself with kindness.

Appreciate Your Food

Take a moment before chowing down to appreciate the journey your food took to reach you, as well as all the people who made it possible. Feel gratefulness for being nourished.

Start Small

You don’t have to completely overhaul your eating all at once. Even just implementing one or two mindful eating practices during a meal or snack can help build the habit over time.

The main thing is to start getting way more present and tuned into the whole eating experience. Who knew being mindful could not only help your wellbeing but also allow you to appreciate food so much more? Give it a try! Mindful eating basically creates awareness of the experience of food. With time, you learn to acknowledge this, and naturally, start to lose your bad habits and move towards healthier eating habits.

Conclusion

Mindful eating is a powerful tool/technique that allows you to truly enjoy your food while reconnecting with your body’s inner wisdom with its nutritive benefits. By bringing presence and awareness to your meals, you’ll cultivate a healthier relationship with eating and nourishment. Though it takes some adjustment, implementing mindful eating rituals can transform mealtimes from mindless fuel stops into sacred experiences of self-care. So embrace the journey of mindfulness, one delicious bite at a time. Your mind, body, and soul will thank you for it.

Read More:– Indian Vegeterian Diet to Control Diabetes

Additional Reads and Sources:

• https://www.mindful.org/what-is-mindful-eating/
• https://www.mindful.org/6-ways-practice-mindful-eating/
• https://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-susan-albers/mindful-eating_b_1265865.html

Last Updated on September 9, 2022 by Dr. Damanjit Duggal