What is Mindful Eating

In a fast-paced culture that we thrive in, sometimes food becomes a mere necessity. Fast food chains grow like mushrooms on the sidewalk which show that the demand for quick hunger fixes is the increasing trend. For instance a typical weekday morning pictures men and women in work clothes walking in a pace akin to marathoners with a cup of coffee in one hand, and a bagel on the other all devoured in about fifteen minutes just before reaching the office building.

Eating has become a habit rather than an actual activity. Oftentimes, people multitask while taking meals. They browse their emails; check on their social media accounts and text, all the while directing a sandwich to their mouth. This is mindless or unconscious eating. Our bodies go to autopilot when we eat mindlessly, swiftly finishing our meals just when we felt like we could use another bite. We become frustrated and feel like we need another meal to ease our frustration. This often leads to dissatisfaction and binge eating.

Mindful eating: fully experiencing eating

Mindful eating is a practice of not merely eating the food on your plate but experiencing it, savouring its flavour bite after bite. It’s about appreciating the texture of your food and how it feels in your mouth. In fact fully mindful eating encompasses all the senses – can you appreciate hearing the crunch of a bite of apple, and the scent of lemon in a cup of tea?

Mindful eating is not another fad diet. In fact, it is anti-diet. It encourages you to sit down and eat your food. This practice enables you to know what you’re eating and take time to slowly take in every bite.

In a book written by Dr. Jan Chozen Bays entitled Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food, she pointed out that there are seven appetites you need to satisfy, which are the hunger of the eye, nose, mouth, stomach, cellular, mind and heart. Mindful eating satisfies all these dimensions of hunger and feeds not only the mouth, but all the senses. She further explains that in mindful eating, each meal ‘becomes a communion’.

What’s in it for you?

While one of the benefits of mindful eating may be weight loss, it is more regarded as ‘healthy eating’. It enhances focus and over-all physical, emotional and spiritual health. In mindful eating, having meals become a recreational activity where eating becomes a different and satisfying experience every time.

It is not uncommon that eating has been associated with relieving stress. Thus, most of the time people eat to be comforted, not really because they are hungry. This habit dishonors eating. Mindful eating brings your body back to recognizing specific signals as to when and what to eat. It gives the body the particular cues whether to stop or to continue eating.

If you are a binge eater, this is particularly helpful for you. Instead of taking bite after bite and being unsatisfied by it in the end, the practice of mindful eating slows you down and takes the habit of unconscious eating out of you such as when you watch a movie with a bagful of popcorn.

Almost all of us can improve the mindfullness of our eating. To focus on the food, and ingesting it with grattitude and joy, rather than “wolfing” it down. Not only does it improve your over-all eating experience, but also your health and enjoyment of life.

Michael Winters is a Psychologist in Houston focusing on marriage counseling and therapy. Michael received his PhD from the University of Memphis and has been practicing since 1991.