Switching to Mindful Eating

Mindful eating is basically a slower and more thoughtful way of eating. Wherein ‘awareness’ of your body’s needs and reactions to food intake plays the most important role. A small growing body of evidence suggests that eating mindfully can actually help in bringing about weight loss by reducing food intake.

What is Mindfulness?

“The ability to fully enjoy/absorb the moment or the present with an open, non-judgmental approach is known as mindfulness[1]

[1] https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2012/01/mindfulness-matters.”

Mindfulness is an ancient practice and means being physically, mentally and emotionally aware of things happening within you and around you[2].

Most of us today, go through life without really being present in the moment. At any given time, we are thinking of multiple things and doing things mechanically in the present with the thought of ‘what to do next’.

Though it’s an inherent ‘behavior’, one can adopt mindfulness by practicing mindfulness exercises and meditation techniques.

[2] https://www.move.va.gov/docs/NewHandouts/BehavioralHealth/B11_MindfulEating.pdf

Mindfulness to Mindful Eating

The essence of mindfulness is being aware of yourself and your surroundings. Mindful eating also requires you to be aware. However, here the awareness is in terms of food.

Eating mindfully involves 3 aspects-

1) Stimulation of the senses while eating food

2) Understanding the cues to Hunger and satiety

3) Controlling the environmental cues that influence food decisions

MINDFUL EATING IS A

A solution for binge-eating- [3].

A solution for emotional eating- [4].

A solution for External eating-

Quite frequently eating is initiated not in response to hunger but to external cues such as the sight, smell, and taste of food. Although, mindful eating involves stimulation of the senses while eating food, that comes only after one differentiates actual hunger from the hunger response after seeing, smelling or tasting food.

Mindfulness-based interventions helped in reducing external eating to a certain extent in combination with cognitive behavioural therapies[5].

A solution for Obesity-

The use of mindfulness-based therapies for improving body weight was found to have positive changes in terms of weight loss. Nine out of 10 studies reviewed have reported an average weight loss of 4.5 kgs[6].

However, these studies used mindful eating strategies in combination with mindfulness-based stress reduction and mindfulness-based cognitive therapies to name a few. Therefore, we can’t really make affirmations about the efficacy of mindful eating alone for weight loss[7].

But, we can say that the practice of Mindfulness, in general, may help in bringing about weight loss.

[3] https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/mindful-eating-may-help-with-weight-loss [4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4046117/ [5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4046117/ [6] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4046117/ [7] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4046117/

How to practise Mindful eating?

Understand cues to Hunger- Before opening the door to the refrigerator, reaching out to the box of snacks kept at the table or plunging towards that melting chocolate cake ask yourself the question- ‘Am I actually hungry?’. Most often than not the answer would be no. If no, then avoid eating in such situations

Understand cues to Satiety- Keeping the serving dishes in the kitchen will help control portions, as it would give time for a few seconds to the person to think if they’re actually still hungry. Otherwise, just pause before taking another serving and ask if you’re still hungry or you’re keeping on eating for some other reason.

Start with a small plate- Studies have shown that eating on a small plate actually helps in reducing the amount of food eaten at a time. For instance- 1 spoonful (4 ounces) of pasta on a 10-inch plate would seem like a plate-full and one would think about taking more but the same spoonful would look less on a 12-inch plate, making the person eat more.

Savor each bite of food- Appreciate the food you’re eating. Try to pay attention to the smell of the food, the texture and the different flavors of the food you’re eating.

Take small bites and chew well- Taking small bites makes it easier to taste the food as opposed to taking big bites. Chewing the food well will release more flavor from food and will allow you to enjoy the food better.

Avoid eating while doing other work or in front of the television-

Doing other things while eating may divert your attention from food and might lead to overeating, leading to ignorance of satiety signals

Cherish the food you’re eating- Express your gratitude silently for the meal that you’re eating or about to eat. Think and appreciate about what it took to produce that meal, right from the sun's rays helping it grow to the cook that cooked it.