How mindful is your eating?

How mindfulness during our meals can affect our eating behaviors and which mindful eating techniques can help us.
How mindful is your eating? | offadiet.com

How mindful are your meals? Have you ever thought about this element of your nutrition? It is one of these nutrition goals that most people neglect or do not even think about. But the truth is that it is equally important to the quality or the nutritional value of our meals. So, let’s learn more about it!


What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the state of being conscious, aware and focused at the present moment, fully acknowledging experiences, feelings and thoughts. To put it simply, actually being there, body and mind, when you’re doing something. And this is significantly important when eating.



Are you a mindful eater?

Did you eat mindfully the last time you ate? Were you there?

Think about your last meal. Bring the details back to memory and try to answer the questions below.

  • How long ago did you last eat?
  • Can you specify the exact amount of food you ate?
  • Was it warm, hot or cold?
  • Can you describe the texture, flavor and taste in detail?
  • If it was something you had eaten again before, how was it compared to previous times?
  • Did you eat slowly or fast?
  • Did you finish your meal because you were full or because you ate everything in sight?
  • Could you describe the cutlery, plates, glasses you may have used?
  • What were you thinking while eating?
  • Were you doing anything else at the same time?


How mindful is your eating? | offadiet.com


If you could answer all of the questions above, well done to you! But even if you could only answer some of them, chances are that you were able to realize most of the important details of your meal.

Unfortunately, many people today miss out on the details and the actual experience of at least one, most or all of their everyday meals and only realize it when they are asked to recall the details. Many people have gotten used to eating mindlessly throughout the day Why? The exact reasons may vary but the usual suspect is something that most of us, the people of the 21st century, are constantly trying to excel at.



What is the main reason of mindless eating?

Multitasking, one of the biggest achievements of the modern world! Our ability to do multiple things simultaneously keeps getting better and better. And eating is one of these activities that don’t need thinking so it can be easily squeezed among one or more tasks. Eating a quick breakfast while getting ready for work, snacking while scrolling down the phone screen, gulping down lunch while checking emails in front of the laptop, eating dinner while planning next day’s chores, snacking mindlessly while watching TV and the list goes on. I’m sure you recognize yourself in one of the above situations, even if it’s not a habit but an once-in-a-while action.



How mindful is your eating? | offadiet.com

The effects of mindless eating

Eating mindlessly can have numerous negative effects on the quality of our nutrition, our digestive process, our relationship with food and our behavior towards food and eating. Let’s have a look at all the things that could happen if you continue being in the habit of mindless eating:

  1. You can easily lose control of the amount you eat. Eating without realizing it can lead to excessive food consumption.
  2. You will start making poor food choices. High-quality nutritious meals need preparation and usually have to be eaten while sitting at a table. On the contrary, low-quality fast-food choices can be consumed at your desk, while walking, practically anywhere while doing other things at the same time.
  3. You will begin missing your body’s hunger and fullness signals. Being absorbed in other activities and not really paying attention to your meal, you won’t realize what your body is telling you about your satiety levels.
  4. You can disrupt your body’s normal digestive process. Eating uncontrollably, too fast, whenever you find the time, too little or too much, eating while standing or walking, are all habits that your body does not really like. The normal digestive process depends on a number of neurotransmitters and hormones, like leptin, ghrelin and insulin, which regulate feeding, appetite and energy homeostasis. Bad eating habits can disturb those mechanisms and compromise your normal digestion.
  5. You may have increased reactivity to food cues. Studies have revealed that the less mindful we are during our meals, the more easily we react to food stimuli. In other words, we tend to grab food easier when it appears in front of us. Something that can easily be explained if we consider the inability of mindless eaters to absorb all the satisfactory aspects of eating, like taste, flavor, texture and aroma.
  6. You can become prone to binge eating and compulsive overeating. As a result of the above, you may lose control of how often and how much you eat and begin bingeing or grazing uncontrollably. In fact, mindless eating is one of the common characteristics that experts have pinpointed among people who suffer from Binge Eating Disorder. And mindfulness-based interventions have already been used in clinical trials for the treatment of these patients. There is also growing interest from experts in applying the same mindfulness-based approaches to managing other weight-related disorders and also obesity.


Mindful eating in the Mediterranean Diet

Eating is one of these sacred aspects of our daily lives that modern living has led us to neglect. Even though it is the action that covers one of our most basic needs. And many more, equally important, like the need to savour food and the need for socialization. Eating at a table with people whose company we enjoy is a habit that lies at the base of the Mediterranean Pyramid, which covers the basic principles of the Mediterranean Diet and Lifestyle.

Mindfulness is necessarily a part of this. We can’t really enjoy food and the company of others if we are not fully present. A mindful eater enjoys not just the food but also every other element that makes each meal a unique eating experience. This single fact makes a person attuned to their physical, social and emotional needs regarding food. Therefore, it becomes much easier to stay away from overeating pitfalls and, in turn, to control one’s weight.


How to practice mindful eating

There are many small things that you can change in your daily routine that can pave the way towards mindful eating and a more mindful way of living in general. Start slow and be kind to yourself. Remember that habit becomes second nature and that old habits die hard. So, don’t strive for perfection but rather for change and improvement.


How mindful is your eating? | offadiet.com


  • Choose the one meal that is easier for you to give it the attention it deserves and commit to start making changes to it.
  • Focus on this meal completely even if it’s only for 10 minutes at first.
  • Stay away from screens (phone, tablet, laptop, TV) and reading materials (books, magazines, newspapers).
  • Commit to stop eating while standing or walking.
  • Eat slowly, putting your fork or spoon down between bites if you can.
  • Pay attention to details like texture, colors and smells. Remember that you don’t just eat to feed your body. You need to feed your senses, too.
  • Acknowledge how your body responds to your food. How your taste buds react, the signals that they send to your brain and make you decide whether you like it or not. Notice the fullness signals that will remind you to stop eating. Don’t be judgmental, just observe.
  • When you eat at home and you prepare your meal on your own, treat yourself as a guest. It doesn’t matter if your meal is a simple sandwich. Use nice plates, sit at a clean table, empty your mind and enjoy every bite.
  • Begin practicing mindfulness in every area of your life, not just your eating. Give your undivided attention to the people you love when they talk to you. Listen to your body when you exercise. Empty your mind when you watch a movie you like. Pay attention to the little wonders of nature when you take a walk in the park. See, hear, smell, taste, feel. Live with all your senses.


I hope I’ve given you some insight on the subject of mindfulness and on how important it is as a concept for healthy eating. I’d really like for you to share your own views and experience on the subject or ask me any questions that you may have. So, please, leave your thoughts at the comments below.



References

https://www.thecenterformindfuleating.org

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40429-017-0134-2

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272735816302859

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0005796716300237

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1551714416300945

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