Mindful Eating – How to Practice It?

What is mindful eating?

The accelerating pace of life means that we rarely do one activity at a time. While walking, we listen to podcasts, on public transport we browse social media, and while eating, we watch TV or stare at other screens. Not always performing two activities at the same time is synonymous with optimising duties or development. Our brains are constantly looking for stimuli and dopamine, which they find, for example, in browsing social media. For this reason, many activities (including eating) become almost automatic. Unfortunately, this approach to eating increases the risk of ignoring the feeling of satiety, overeating, as well as significant weight gain. Mindful eating can help you change this.

The term mindful eating simply means attentive, conscious eating. It is based on the concept of mindfulness, a form of meditation originating from Buddhist culture that helps to identify and name emotions and physical sensations. Mindfulness allows you to achieve a state of full, unwavering attention and focus. In the case of mindful eating, it is the focus on the food you eat, cravings, hunger and satiety signals, as well as other physical sensations related to food, digestion, and how you feel after eating.

Mindful eating aims to reset existing eating habits, challenge habits and fight automatic eating. Mindfulness practice can help you improve your relationship with food and combat emotional eating, and as a result, support a diet that allows you to lose weight or achieve other health and nutrition goals.

6 steps to mindful eating

Mindful eating is about eating calmly and giving your full attention to this activity. Researchers studying this topic have identified key steps to take to be able to successfully practice mindful eating and get the most out of it. They are as follows:

1. Appreciate the food and respect the time of eating a meal

During the meal, focus only on food. Remove any distractions that divert your attention, and it will be easier for you to fully “experience” the meal attentively. Eat without scrolling, watching a series or listening to music.

In any mindfulness practice, respect for the moment is important, and mindful eating pays special attention to food. Instead of focusing on the show, you can think about who made the dish or where the ingredients came from during the meal.

2. Engage all your senses in the process of eating

To make eating a truly mindful experience, engage all your senses and consciously focus on them. Consider:

• What does the meal look like and how does the appearance of the food make you feel?

• What does it smell like and is it a pleasant smell? How does the smell affect your perception of the meal?

• Does it make any sound? Maybe it crunches, causes cutlery to clatter when cutting or on the contrary – eating it does not generate any sounds?

• What is the texture of the food and does it suit you?

• What does the dish taste like and what physical reactions does it cause in you?

To more fully immerse yourself in the experience of consuming a meal, divide the sensations into 3 stages:

• before eating,

• during eating,

• after eating.

Think about how you feel at all stages of interaction with the meal. It is extremely important to reflect after the meal and answer the following questions: “How do I feel after eating a given dish/product?”, “Does my body send me signals that it was a good choice (lightness, no negative symptoms from the digestive system, energy charge) or not necessarily (bloating, overeating, problems with concentration, lethargy)?”.

This experience is about consciously noticing the physical and mental effects of food on the body. This is only possible through full activation of all the senses.

3. Choose moderate portions

Mindful eating doesn’t dictate the ideal plate content and portion size, but it does encourage you to stop eating when you feel physically full. Do not put too much food on your plate. Opt for a smaller portion with the option of an extra serving if you decide your body needs it. This will make it easier for you to focus on the dish you are eating and the elements that make up the dish, as well as consciously decide when you will be full.

The excuse for overeating should not be that:

• “The portion is already on the plate and it is inappropriate not to eat it”,

• “There is no point in trying today – I will start the diet tomorrow” – this way of thinking reinforces the myth that there must be very rigid prohibitions on a weight loss diet,

• “It will go to waste if I don’t eat it” – treat this as a lesson for the future. If you get full before finishing the dish, plan your portions better next time.

Note: the mindful eating technique focuses on the conscious consumption of food, rather than specific types of food. There is no “good” and “bad” food to practice mindful eating.

4. Eat slowly, take small bites, and chew thoroughly

An obvious element of the mindful eating method is also a change in the pace of eating. Set aside more time for meals, and only then will you be truly effective in your mindfulness practice. Take a lunch break at work, instead of eating in front of the monitor, get out of bed 15 minutes earlier and have a calm breakfast. Do not eat in a hurry and preferably eat in a sitting position.

Not only the time spent eating is important, but also the relatively slow performance of this activity – small bites and chewing thoroughly. Food eaten in small bites will allow you to feel the full palette of flavours and really “feel into” the meal. This way of eating is also recommended for a purely physiological reason – it allows for the correct and efficient conduct of the digestion process, which begins in the mouth. Chewing thoroughly allows you to activate the right enzymes and potentially feel better after a meal.

5. Distinguish between the state of physical hunger and emotional one

One of the primary goals of mindful eating is to deal with emotional eating. The main theme is therefore the ability to distinguish between physical and mental hunger.

Physical hunger is a natural need to consume food, caused by the body’s energy needs. It can manifest itself as a feeling of sucking or “rumbling” in the stomach, or general weakness. Emotional hunger, on the other hand, is the desire to eat in the absence of physical hunger. Reasons for emotional hunger can include, for example, cravings, stress, a feeling of boredom, a general habit of overeating emotions (positive or negative) and other stimuli. Mindful eating is one of the best ways to learn to recognise emotional hunger.

6. Refrain from judging and waiting for results

Mindfulness is about focusing on experiencing the present moment, without thinking about the future or the past. It is advisable to get rid of feelings of guilt, anxiety or shame related to food and persistent thoughts revolving around diet, body shape and the impact of food on potential effects. Mindful eating treats food as a means to achieve overall health, but rejects in-depth analyses of food.

Mindful eating is a fairly flexible approach that provides “health”, which – according to the WHO definition – is understood as a state of physical, mental and social well-being. However, this method should be adapted to individual needs. Not every meal eaten using the mindfulness technique has to take place in complete silence, peace and solitude. Sometimes it will be more important for mental and social well-being to celebrate a meal together with friends or acquaintances. It is important to focus on the present moment, not distractions.

Tip: Remember that you don’t have to practice mindful eating every time, during every meal (especially at the beginning of changing habits and introducing the mindfulness practice). Just one mindful meal a day is a success. Mindfulness is a habit that can be built in small steps.

A mindful eating exercise using raisins

Joseph B. Nelson, in his publication “Mindful Eating: The Art of Presence While You Eat”, suggests doing a mindfulness exercise (which can be an introduction to mindful eating) using a raisin. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Take a raisin and place it in front of you.
2. Imagine that you are an alien who has just been sent to this planet and you have no idea where you are. You have never experienced anything on Earth. You have no experiences, so you don’t have any prejudices, fears or expectations – everything is new to you. Take several deep breaths and relax.
3. Look at the raisin and pick it up.
4. Feel how much a raisin weighs.
5. Take a close look at the surface of the raisin – get to know its hollows, shiny elements, shade; really take a first look at this unknown object.
6. Smell the raisin and think about how you react to its smell.
7. Turn the raisin in your fingers and listen to the sound it makes. Notice that it is sticky.
8. Think about how this object makes you feel.
9. Place the raisin between your lips and hold it in this position for a few seconds. How does your body react?
10. Take the raisin in your mouth, but don’t chew it yet. Do you already notice its taste? Do you salivate? What do you feel like doing?
11. Chew the raisin. How do you feel about it?
12. Slowly start chewing the raisin, think about how your feelings change.
13. Chew the raisin until it breaks down into an almost liquid form before swallowing it.
14. After swallowing, close your eyes and experience the entire process thoroughly.

Source: Translation and own compilation based on Kabat-Zinn J., “Full Catastrophe Living”, New York, N.Y, Dell Publishing, 1991.

The experience with a raisin can be a great example of practicing mindful eating. It focuses on many aspects of the experience of eating a product, activates all the senses and stimulates thinking, but does not suggest what your feelings should be towards the raisin.

In practice, mindful eating exercises do not have to be so detailed every time. All you need is increased reflection and general attentiveness to the meal you eat.

Mindful eating and weight loss – research

A “diet” alone, understood as merely an eating plan (regardless of what diet it is), can only help you lose weight in the short term. If it is not based on changing habits, it is ineffective in the long run and this is confirmed by many studies.

Mindful eating is a kind of response to ineffective eating plans. This system does not focus at all on calories, macronutrient ratios or micronutrients. The immediate goal of practicing mindful eating is not weight loss – but it is very likely that this will be a “side effect” of well-implemented mindfulness focused on nutrition.

Classic diets focus on setting rules – prohibitions and orders (what to eat, when to eat, how much to eat, what not to eat). Although many people who follow diets are aware that they require changes in habits, measuring effectiveness in this case is primarily about the effects: if there is weight loss – the system works, if not – it does not.

Mindfulness focuses on the process, not the effect. The entire practice of mindful eating is based on what you feel and think in the present moment. That’s all that matters. You focus only on experiencing food and determining the moment of satiety, without thinking “Isn't it too many calories already?” or “Will I continue to be in deficit?”. The only thing that matters is the experience of eating a meal.

Although mindful eating does not completely limit or define the products and meals consumed, it often turns out that mindfulness practitioners themselves instinctively reach for foods with greater health potential, and choose portions more tailored to their needs.

One study on mindful eating was conducted with 34 obese women living in Brazil. For 12 weeks, they were taught mindful eating techniques, and as a result, each of them lost about 2 kg during this time. Above all, however, they observed an increased feeling of self-acceptance, self-awareness and self-compassion. These are very positive changes that can have long-term effects and help repair the upset relationship with food.

Another study compared the effectiveness of classic “weight loss diets” with intuitive eating or mindful eating techniques for weight loss. A statistical analysis of 10 studies on this topic was conducted. It was shown that mindful eating and intuitive eating can be as effective for weight loss as classic “weight loss diets”.

Research also shows that practicing mindful eating can reduce the frequency of binge-eating-disorder (BED).

Why does mindful eating work? First of all, the patterns of thinking about food are changed. Negative feelings associated with it, which lead, for example, to binge eating or emotional eating, can be replaced by neutral or positive feelings: increased self-awareness and improved self-control.

Most studies agree that mindful eating supports weight loss primarily by changing eating habits and reducing stress.

References:

_{[1] Olson K. L., Emery C. F., Mindfulness and weight loss: a systematic review, Psychosom Med,  2015, 77:59–67.
[2] Kabat-Zinn J., Full Catastrophe Living, New York, N.Y, Dell Publishing, 1991.
[3]Fuentes Artiles R., Staub K., Aldakak L., Eppenberger P., Rühli F., Bender N., Mindful eating and common diet programs lower body weight similarly: Systematic review and meta-analysis, Obes Rev, 2019 Nov, 20(11):1619-1627, doi: 10.1111/obr.12918, Epub 2019 Aug 1, PMID: 31368631.
[4] Salvo V., Sanudo A., Kristeller J., Schveitzer M. C., Martins P. , Favarato M. L., Demarzo M. Mindful eating for overweight and obese women in Brazil: An exploratory mixed-methods pilot study, Nutr Health, 2022 Dec;28(4):591-601, doi: 10.1177/02601060211052794,  Epub 2021 Dec 16., PMID: 34913753.}