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Mindful eating

Nutrition

Mindful eating

December 1, 2022

Do you ever think about what you are eating at table or are you the kind who just gets food down your throat amidst a million things going on?

I am a big advocate of listening to your body when you give it food but this is almost impossible if you are not mindful. Many times our bodies communicate whether they like certain foods or not but unfortunately we pay little or no attention.

Mindful eating is a phenomenon that has been coined in the recent past. It grew out of research that was carried out since 1980 on the effects of mindfulness practice on a range of health issues, including stress-related illness, depression, anxiety, chronic pain, and heart disease. It has since been considered a complementary alternative medicine (CAM) approach to the treatment of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and eating disorders thereby gaining popularity over the years.

What is mindful eating?

Mindful eating refers to maintaining an in-the-moment awareness of the food and drink you put into your body. It places awareness on the menu, whenever and wherever we eat as well as making us watchful about what we eat, with the aim of transforming our relationship with food by focusing on the how and why of eating. Eating mindfully means that you are using all of your physical and emotional senses to experience and enjoy the food choices you make. This could be at the point of eating the food or even purchasing and preparing it.

Mindful eating encourages a more holistic point of view as it involves observing how the food makes you feel and the signals your body sends about taste, satisfaction, and fullness. It requires you to simply acknowledge and accept rather than judge the feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations you observe. It can extend to the process of buying, preparing, and serving your food as well as consuming it as mentioned prior. Mindfulness targets becoming more aware of, rather than reacting to, one’s situation and choices. This helps to increase gratitude for food, which can improve the overall eating experience since it encourages one to make choices that will be satisfying and nourishing to the body.

How does it work?

Mindful eating focuses on your eating experiences, body-related sensations, and thoughts and feelings about food, with heightened awareness and without judgment. Attention is paid to the foods being chosen, internal and external physical cues towards food, and your responses to those cues with the goal of promoting a more enjoyable meal experience and understanding of the eating environment.

many of us, our busy daily lives often make mealtimes rushed affairs. Raise your hand if you have found yourself eating in the car commuting to work, at the desk in front of a computer screen, or parked on the couch watching TV. (My hand is up too). Our day-to-day has often left us to resort to rushed meal times. We eat mindlessly, shoveling food down regardless of whether we’re still hungry or not. We like the feeling of keeping our mouths busy regardless of what the food will benefit us. Many times we are feeding everything but hunger.

Funny story; one time I sat for a test paper and it did not go as expected. I got out of the test room so mad at myself (I am so hard on myself for these things by the way), and all my brain was telling me was food. Matter of fact, I went to the restaurant across the road and had the food. Was I hungry? Of course not. I was feeding my emotions and I cannot tell you what the chicken that I ate tasted like. This is what mindless eating can look like.  All I did that day was satisfy my emotional needs. This could be you or someone you know. Do you eat to relieve stress, or cope with unpleasant emotions such as sadness, anxiety, loneliness, or boredom? If your answer is I don’t know, you may want to do a self-check.  Mindful eating is the opposite of this kind of unhealthy “mindless” eating. Ultimately, this means we have a better chance of understanding what foods nourish us and what foods help us stay healthy while also encouraging a deeper appreciation of every meal, every mouthful, and every ingredient.

6 BASICS OF MINDFUL EATING - Shapa Blog

Benefits of mindful eating

  1. Improves digestion

Many of us do not take time to chew food efficiently. Did you know that your mouth contains enzymes that help you to start digesting food while you’re chewing? In mindful eating, we are encouraged to eat more slowly and chew our foods thoroughly as this results in earlier and more effective digestion of food. A lot of mindful eating practices include chewing foods well, which also helps with the digestive processes.

  1. Develop healthier habits and attitudes toward food and ourselves

Remember my story about feeding everything else but hunger? Over time, it’s easy to develop an unhealthy relationship with food. This can be unlearned through mindful eating. Better eating habits and attitudes can be developed which will not only serve your nutrition needs but even other needs like emotional and mental health.

  1. Promotes enjoyment of and appreciation for food

When is the last time you truly enjoyed your food? We are told that food eaten in smaller quantities is more enjoyable as opposed to larger quantities. (Do you agree?)

Try it today and take your time. Be mindful to feel all the different textures and spices. Let your taste buds listen to the different foods and tell me if you will feel the difference.  I bet it will be a memorable meal. Mindful eating practices will get you to have more gratitude for the food on your table to the extent of appreciating where it comes from and the hands that prepare it. You may also develop a sense of thankfulness for all the ways that it’s benefiting our bodies, so you have a more positive appreciation for food. Try introducing it to your family and busk in the results.

  1. Supports weight management

Did you know that we have a natural switch between hunger and fullness? We call these cues. Naturally, we are supposed to eat when the body signales that it is hungry and likewise when we are satisfied the body will communicate as well. Many times when we override these cues, the body goes into ‘hibernation’ and the signals become so weak that they are almost none existent. In mindful eating, we try to reawaken these cues to avoid over or under-eating. Listening to your body’s internal cues is key in developing better weight management techniques such that instead of measuring your hunger by external measures, such as the amount of food on your plate or calories you’re consuming, you’re relying on what your body is telling you.

In conclusion

When we talk about mindfulness in eating, it is an invitation for us to remove those distractions and sit uninterrupted with our food and those we are eating with. I hope the next meal you will have, you will take your time, eat more slowly, and savor the flavors, the aromas, and the textures. Keep this at the back of your mind at all times.

Please share your experience with us.

See you next Wednesday

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Nutrition

Repair your relationship with food

September 30, 2021

As a creative, inspiration can be drawn from anywhere at any time. The inspiration for today’s piece comes from an Instagram story of a digital creator I follow; Nyonyozi Prim, who has been on a journey of the keto diet, and in this particular story she happens to talk about her relationship with food. At that moment realized that many of us do not even think about it or even know there is a relationship at all yet it is a very big determinant of the quality of life one lives.

Relationship!!! What are you talking about?

Are you one of those people wondering how relationship comes to be talked about in reference to food? I am here to break it down for you.

The English dictionary refers to the word ‘relationship’ as the way in which two or more people or things are connected. Among these things can be food. I want to acknowledge that as nutritionists we have not done enough to highlight the purpose of food aside from survival. Unlike animals that eat food solely for survival, humans eat food for a number of reasons including joy, pleasure, culture, tradition, socialization, as well as survival.

The food we put in our body matters, but how we think and feel about it even matters more because it impacts our overall well-being as much. A good relationship with food involves having an unconditional permission to eat the foods that make us feel good physically and mentally. This relationship that I talk about has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of your diet or the types of food you eat, but rather how and why you choose the foods you eat.

A poor relationship to food can be problematic as one can develop harmful habits and suffer from poor self-esteem. In extreme cases, one can develop eating disorders such as orthorexia, anorexia, bulimia, binge-eating, etc. When this happens too much focus is placed on one’s weight, body shape, and/or food consumption, which may result in undue mental and physical stress. Unfortunately, it can even be life-threatening.

Understand your relationship with food

The first place to understanding our relationship with food is being able to identify the signs and symptoms when things are seemingly getting out of hand. All of these signs don’t have to be experienced at the same time but they are an indication that one’s relationship with food may be going sour. here are some that I can point out;

  • Eating makes you feel guilty and gives you constant anxiety.
  • You avoid or restrict foods that are “bad” for you.
  • You have developed a long list of dos and don’ts surrounding your eating.
  • You rely on calorie counters or apps to tell you when you’re done eating for the day.
  • You ignore your body’s natural hunger cues in fear of not doing your body ‘right’.
  • You feel immense stress and anxiety when eating in social settings due to fear of what others may think of your food choices.
  • You find yourself restricting and/or binging food.

A good relationship just like any other relationship doesn’t come in one click. While breaking the cycle is not easy, it takes patience, self-discovery, and proper guidance to cultivate a healthy relationship with food. Working with an experienced dietician/nutritionist or health coach can be helpful in repairing this relationship. I will share a few places where one can start but it will be more helpful if one journeyed with a health coach for lasting results.

How to cultivate a good relationship with food

 Eat when hungry and stop eating when full

Every person is born with natural hunger and satiety cues. This is easily seen in children who can easily tell when they are hungry and when they are full, however as people grow, they begin to lose this ability for a number of reasons. In modern times, the diet culture has taught people to rely on an arbitrary number of calories to tell them when they’re done eating for the day instead of eating until they’re satisfied. Re-learning or practicing to listen to your natural hunger cues, proper and guided meal planning will be a good and better way to regulate your appetite and manage your food intake thereby cultivating a healthy relationship with food.

Eat mindfully

Mindful eating has become very popular when it comes to fixing people’s relationships with food. This involves eating at the moment and being fully present for the eating experience. As you eat, do away with all distractions, such as your phone, the TV, a book, etc, and take time to make gentle observations, such as the taste and texture of the food, how your hunger and fullness cues change, and your enjoyment of the food.

Learning to slow down and savor the food as you eat can help one learn which foods they genuinely enjoy and also become more in tune with your body’s natural hunger and fullness regulation. This also helps to identify the reasons for your food choices for example; Are you eating because you’re starving or eating anything in sight? Do you want to eat the food because you think it’ll make you feel better emotionally or physically or do you want to eat the latest food trend?

As you eat, you will be able to answer questions like these;

  • How do I emotionally feel while I eat this? Does it bring me joy, guilt, anger?
  • Has this food solved a problem like I may have thought it would?
  • Was I actually hungry? If not, why did I decide to eat (e.g., emotional eating, cravings, boredom)?

Over time, these observations can help you identify the reasons for your food choices which is a way to begin the repair of this relationship.

Mind your plate

We need to get to a place where you can have your food and not have to justify your choices to yourself or anyone else. To have the freedom to live to your food choices. Many of us are constantly giving an explanation for our food choices to ourselves or others; for example, “I’m eating a cake because I had a bad day” or “I have to have a salad for dinner because I didn’t have time to exercise.” However, in this, you allow yourself to eat food that you feel is best for you at that very moment rather than an excuse for something.

Give yourself unconditional permission for your food choices

Like we saw earlier, one of the signs and symptoms of a bad relationship with food is when you create rules around when you can and can’t eat. Many times when this happens, you’re just setting yourself up for hunger, feelings of deprivation, and fear of food. However, giving yourself unconditional permission allows one to eat what they want to eat mindfully.

Do not restrict the foods you eat

The truth of the matter is that certain foods are more nutritious than others and contribute to improved health. Still, eating a single food isn’t going to miraculously affect your health in any way either; but ascribing a food as “bad” gives it unnecessary power. When you label a food as “bad,” you automatically put it on a pedestal. Usually, people call foods “bad” when they taste good and aren’t very nutritious (e.g., high in sugar, fat, salt). Yet, as soon as you tell yourself you can’t have something, the more the body will crave and want it which develops a mini rebellion in one’s body. This is the reason why many diets get so frustrating because it is so restrictive.

When you allow all foods into your diet, you’re in a better position to control your intake, as you know these foods are always available. Instead of branding a food bad, understand its role in your diet and regulate the portions/intake. However, restricting foods and believing they’re a rarity, you’re much more likely to overdo it and subsequently enter an endless cycle of guilt.

In conclusion

Relationship with food is personal, unique, and requires regular work to keep it healthy. Although it may seem impossible to fix your bad relationship with food, it’s possible to get regain control of food. To be in a state in which food no longer controls you but fuels your overall wellbeing.

Remember that food isn’t inherently good or bad, the labels we put on it that give it that power. A healthy, good relationship with food means welcoming all foods with no restrictions, seeing the value in food beyond calories, and remembering that your value as a human doesn’t need to be dictated by the food you eat.

Taking the first step to fix a bad relationship with food may look scary and difficult but well worth it in the long run.

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