A Beginners Guide to Mindful Eating

What’s the best diet? What should you eat? What are the “good” foods you should be eating more of? What are the “bad” foods you should be avoiding? How much should you be eating?

So many questions surrounding food make it almost impossible to finally make a decision about what to actually do to change our diet when we’re trying to make better food choices.

While relevant and important, the above questions may be overlooking arguably the most important variable of good nutrition. How you eat is just as important as what you eat and paying attention to how you eat could be the missing link to achieving your health and weight-loss goals.

Change the “How” before the “What”

When it comes to eating for fat loss and improving overall health, everyone wants to know “what” and “how much” to eat. These are important questions, no doubt, as certain foods will fuel your goals better than others. What’s more, portion control is a key player in regulating energy balance, and we all know that we have to eat less to lose more.

But, let’s be honest, calorie counting can be annoying and time-consuming, and measuring and weighing foods can be even worse. In the short term, these can be very useful tools to give you a better idea of exactly what you’re putting in your body, but these are unsustainable actions, which means they won’t last.

Very infrequently, however, do we talk about “how” we eat. Do you eat quickly like you have two brothers hawking over your plate? Do you eat while watching TV or checking your e-mail? Do you count the number of times you chew before you swallow? Do you think about where your food originated?

Believe it or not, recent research indicates that how we eat can aid, or impede, your progress toward your fat loss and overall health goals. Some of the latest findings in nutrition and behavior change science suggest that “mindful eating” and “eating attentively” may be among the most valuable tools in winning the battle of the bulge.

What is Mindful Eating

As the name suggests, mindful eating has roots in mindfulness, a practice based on Zen Buddhism, that has become popular as a way of self-calming. Like mindfulness, was defined by Jon Kabat-Zinn as “paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally,” mindful eating encourages us to gain awareness of our eating experiences.¹

In turn, mindful eating involves paying attention to our food, on purpose, moment by moment, without judgment, and it’s an approach to food that focuses on individuals’ sensual awareness of the food and their experience of the food.

Eating mindfully is about eating intentionally. It’s about bringing full and deep awareness to each plate or bite of food. It begins with the first thought about food and lasts until the final bite is swallowed. It involves not only how you experience food but also considering what it took to bring the food to you.

Mindful eating involves savoring each bite, and after each bite, checking in with your body to see how you’re feeling. At its very core, mindful eating raises awareness and attention. Mindful eating helps individuals cultivate awareness of both internal and external triggers to eating, interrupt automatic eating, and eat in response to natural physiological cues of hunger and satiety. Through practice, eating mindfully can interrupt habitual eating behaviors and provide greater regulation of food choice.

Unlike diets and most nutritional guidance, which focus on the “rules” of eating, mindful eating has little to do with carbs, fats, or protein, what to eat, how much to eat, and what not to eat. Rather than restriction and being restricted by rules, mindful eating encourages you to appreciate food and promotes eating attentively in a nonjudgmental, self-accepting way. And while “diets” have “short-term” (which typically equals long-term failure) written all over them, mindful eating is about behavior change.

Even though the purpose of mindful eating is not weight loss, the emerging body of research suggests that it is highly likely that those who adopt this nutritional practice will likely reap benefits like weight loss and improved health.^1,2

Mindful Eating in Action

Here are some helpful tips to increase your attentiveness while eating and put mindful eating practices to use right away:

• Remove Distractions. Distractions can cause you to eat more. Turn off the TV, shut down the computer, and set your phone in another room. As a matter of fact, sit at the table and take the time to enjoy your meal.
• Use Smaller Plates. Appearance can be deceiving. A smaller plate that’s full is much more satisfying than a large plate that is half empty because it gives the impression that there is a more abundant amount of food.
• Take Your Time. Cara Stewart, Registered Dietitian and member of the Penn Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery team, says that it takes approximately 20 minutes for your brain and stomach to register fullness. I don’t know about you, but I can put a lot of food down in 20 minutes. Taking your time allows you to better gauge your level of fullness and satiety.
• Chew Your Food. And if you’d like a nice round number, chew each bite 40 times. Why 40? On one hand, chewing 40 times also suppresses appetite and increases feelings of fullness.⁴ As a bonus, chewing your food 40 times increases GLP-1 response, which stimulates first-phase insulin response. And that’s important because first-phase insulin response seems to be important for glucose regulation.⁵
• “Hara Hachi Bu.” This ancient Confucian adage literally means “Eat until you are 8 parts (out of 10) full” or “belly 80% full.” Practice this wise teaching when you eat by stopping your meal when you are almost full — not stuffed.
• Chew Thoroughly. I’ve seen people literally swallow pieces of meat whole like they’re afraid someone’s going to take the food right out of their mouth. Take your time with each bite and try to recognize different tastes and textures. A good guide is to chew each bite 20 times. The added benefit of this is that digestion starts in the mouth, so you can also avoid some GI distress by chewing more thoroughly.
• Take Smaller Bites. Cut your food into smaller pieces, which will help increase the duration of the meal. You could even use baby utensils to help decrease the size of each bite. This will also help you feel like you’ve eaten more.
• Put Your Fork Down. Remember, your fork is not a shovel. You can set it down between bites, which will help you focus on the taste, look, smell, and feel of your meal and help you to slow down your pace.
• Have a Conversation. Yep, I mean actually talk to someone while you’re eating. You’re already sitting at the table; you might as well ask your partner and children how their days were. This will slow down your eating, as well as enhance the memory of the meal.
• Eat with Your Non-Dominant Hand. Michael Jordan once said that one of the reasons he is the greatest basketball player of all time is because everything that he did with his right hand he also did with his left — from dribbling a basketball to brushing his teeth. Not only will doing this enhance your dexterity, but the awkwardness of this task will also force you to slow down your eating and take smaller bites.
• Set a Timer. Start with 15 minutes per meal as a basic goal. Work up to 20 or even 30 minutes.
• Break Out the Journal. The food journal, that is. While I don’t think it’s necessary to measure, weigh, and/or record everything you eat indefinitely, food journaling can be a useful tool to raise awareness of what (and how much) you’re putting into your mouth.
• On a Scale of 1 to 5. Notice your hunger and fullness both before and after a meal. Use a perceived rating scale to subjectively assign value to how you’re feeling. For example, before a meal, 5 would mean you’re so hungry you could eat your (or someone else’s) arm off while 1 would mean that you’re not hungry at all. Along these lines, become aware of how hunger changes over the course of a meal by tuning into the sensations that occur as the meal progresses.
• Know When to Say When. Notice when the flavor and enjoyment of the taste of the food you’re eating begins to wane. That’s a good cue that it’s time to stop eating. Be careful, however, with mixed meals. While we can be pleasantly satisfied with one type of food or taste (e.g., savory), we may have the drive to eat another type of food (e.g., sweet) and continue eating/overeating. This a physiological phenomenon called “sensory specific satiety,” and it’s one reason why it’s so easy to overeat at parties, buffets, restaurants, etc., where there are multiple dishes, tastes, textures, etc.
• Experiment with Meditation. Mindful eating is essentially a form of meditation, and meditation promotes awareness — the very quality on which mindful eating is based. It stands to reason that practicing meditation promotes mindful eating. While there are many ways to practice meditation, identify a time during the day and location for practicing 10–20 minutes of sitting meditation (e.g., preferably in the morning in a quiet space in a chair or on the floor on a cushion) to focus on the breath. When your attention wanders, bring it back to the breath. Gradually increase the time spent in meditation practice.
• Practice Mini-Meditations. Focus on your breath and become aware of bodily sensations of hunger and satiety before and during meals and snacks.

MindLESS Eating

Of course, on the other end of the mindful eating spectrum is mindless eating, which goes by many names such as “recreational eating” and “hedonic compensation,” to name a couple. In other words, there are many factors that drive us to eat besides real hunger and metabolic need.

And a major facet of mindful eating is cultivating awareness of both internal and external triggers to eating, which contribute to automatic, inattentive, and/or habitual responses and unnecessary food consumption. Some of these “triggers” include:

• Stress and anxiety
• Emotions (e.g., sadness, happiness)
• Boredom
• Your environment (e.g., if food is there, you’re going to eat it)
• People you surround yourself with
• Social gatherings
• Reward/celebration
• Lack of sleep

This is just a handful of examples of eating triggers, which can be thoughts, feelings, or environmental cues, other than true hunger that can prompt the desire to eat — and subsequently, mindless eating.

The first step to disrupting the cycle is creating awareness and identifying the situation. And when you do, try to ask yourself, “Am I truly hungry or do I want to eat for another reason?”

In addition, create a list of coping strategies to use when you notice a trigger to engage in emotional eating. Here are some examples:

• Read a book
• Call a friend
• Write a thank-you note
• Take a walk
• Practice yoga
• Do a bodyweight workout
• Organize your closet
• Play with your kids
• Engage in a hobby

Change the HOW before the WHAT

As controversial as it sounds, how you eat is just as important – if not more important – than what you eat. Just like any form of meditation, mindful eating is a practice, and it’s a commitment to behavior change. At its core, mindful eating is about being present and intentional. And while the main benefit or purpose of mindful eating is not weight loss, it is likely that those who adopt mindful eating as a regular practice will find themselves achieving — and maintaining — a healthy weight and reaping overall health benefits to boot.

References:

1. Nelson JB. Mindful Eating: The Art of Presence While You Eat. Diabetes Spectr Publ Am Diabetes Assoc. 2017 Aug;30(3):171–4.
2. Miller CK. Mindful Eating With Diabetes. Diabetes Spectr Publ Am Diabetes Assoc. 2017 May;30(2):89–94.
3. Robinson E, Aveyard P, Daley A, Jolly K, Lewis A, Lycett D, et al. Eating attentively: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effect of food intake memory and awareness on eating. Am J Clin Nutr. 2013 Apr 1;97(4):728–42.
4. Cassady BA, Hollis JH, Fulford AD, Considine RV, Mattes RD. Mastication of almonds: effects of lipid bioaccessibility, appetite, and hormone response. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Mar;89(3):794–800.
5. Miquel-Kergoat S, Azais-Braesco V, Burton-Freeman B, Hetherington MM. Effects of chewing on appetite, food intake and gut hormones: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Physiol Behav. 2015 Nov 1;151:88–96.