Today’s fast-paced life means almost everything has to be done on the go, in a rush, metaphorically flying from one place to another. Between work and home, there is hardly ever enough time for anything. Most of our meals are on the go. When we eat at home, we are either streaming TV or scrolling through our phone as we scarf down dinner in about 5 minutes or so – in a mindless state.
Albeit, there isn’t a unanimously agreed upon protocol for mindful eating yet, based on data gathered from intervention studies, researchers believe it is the way to live a healthier life – they argue autopilot eating puts us at a higher risk of weight gain, and destroys our connection with food as a source of nourishment.
For those who love food, and would like to enjoy a healthy relationship with it, this article talks about mindful eating in simple terms. Learn about what it is, how to recognize unhealthy eating patterns, and what can help you practice mindful eating.
What is mindful eating?
The philosophy of mindfulness is not new. The idea of intentional focus on thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and actions is centuries old. However recently the Zen Buddhist philosophy of self-conscious living has contributed significantly to highlighting the value of mindful eating. At its core, mindful eating reflects your overall approach to life. It could be your desire to live life more consciously, the trickle effect of which leads to mindful eating. But, it could also be that you start eating mindfully and the butterfly effect extends this awareness to other aspects of your life.
Professor Fung believes the more you pay attention to why you eat what you eat, how much you eat, and how you eat, the more chances you have of developing a healthy and positive relationship with food.
This means, that instead of focusing on measurable specifics like ‘food rules’ and calories, you start paying attention to your experience with food. Your attention shifts from goals like weight loss to exploring how to connect with food and draw nourishment to improve your physical and psychological health.
Mindful eating trains you to listen to your body and understand what it needs at what time. You become better at differentiating when the body is hungry and when it is the emotional cues triggered by stress and anxiety asking for ‘comfort feeding’. When there are no distractions surrounding you, you can utilize all senses to engage with the experience of eating. Eating mindfully asks you to slow down – helping you focus on savoring the flavors and textures as you chew, and stop when your body signals fullness.
The process thus encourages you to draw on your experience with food, think about it and question it, and find ways to regulate your habitual patterns, dropping what disserves your physical and mental well-being. Studies tell people, who strive to eat with mindfulness, make healthier food choices, eat less, and lose weight even when it is not the goal. Why? Because they become aware of their physical cues, give their body what it needs when it needs it, and cut out the ‘poisonous’ excess.
A round-up of unhealthy eating habits
A plethora of behavior patterns are categorized as unhealthy eating habits. Commonly observed poor eating habits include excessive food intake, a restrictive diet regime, unwholesome food choices, skipping meals, desktop and on-the-go eating, emotional eating, external eating, etc. While some of these harmful habits result from lifestyle choices and are easier to drop, most are also a reflection of an individual’s psychological health and require hard effort to correct. Here we discuss the more encompassing ones:
Emotional eating
Arguably a learned behavior during childhood, it is usually observed in response to negative emotions, and much less often in response to positive ones. While it affects youngsters more it is not confined to a specific age bracket.
Emotional eating encompasses both overeaters and undereaters – those who experience an increased appetite and those who lose it when facing negative emotions. Interestingly, some emotional eaters even depict both reactions to stressful situations and feelings. However, either way, emotional eating is a ‘coping attempt’ – people overeat or undereat when they are anxious, depressed, sad, lonely, or bored.
Overeaters perceive palatable food consumption as a source of pleasure and comfort that diverts their attention from uncomfortable emotions. Undereaters, on the other hand, are so focused on the root causes of their stressful situation that eating loses its significance – they may be nauseated at the idea of cooking or chewing food, or they may feel their ‘stomach is in a knot’.
A 2003 study showed positive emotions lead to emotional eating more so among people who suffer from loss of appetite during stressful times – when faced with positive emotions, undereaters allow themselves to indulge in food.
External eating
External eating is triggered by environmental factors such as the sight or smell of food. The variety of palatable foods available nowadays, and the excessive marketing of food products are some of the biggest cues for external eaters.
An example of this is visual hunger, where if you are scrolling through social media and find food content on your FYP, you are more likely to grab a snack to enjoy as you watch it – irrespective of whether or not you experience physical hunger.
Eating under peer pressure
Eating under peer pressure is a serious concern for many people who find it difficult to shun the norms that rule their social environment at work and in their personal lives. It is human nature to want to fit in, and it is easier to go along than feel awkward by saying ‘no’ to something they don’t want to do. Their food choices and meal times are affected by peer pressure as opposed to their physical cues.
Risks of unhealthy eating habits: Obesity & eating disorders
Unhealthy eating habits can result in a variety of physical and psychological problems if not resolved early on. Obesity and eating disorders are among the most ‘risky’ consequences.
Obesity
While unhealthy eating habits are not the only contributors to obesity, they are some of the biggest pitfalls on the way. Poor food choices and a pattern of consuming more food than the body needs can be detrimental if not corrected in time.
Obesity puts people at a higher risk of serious illness because of an increase in fat mass and the number of fat cells – cardiovascular, neurological, metabolic, musculoskeletal diseases and disorders, etc. Curbing bad eating habits that ultimately lead to a health hazard like obesity is a critical choice for an individual who recognizes its potential in how they relate to food.
Eating disorders
One of the most serious potential results of emotional eating, an eating disorder, is characterized by abnormal ‘food behavior’. Again, as with obesity, several other factors contribute to the development of eating disorders, however, the role of unhealthy eating habits cannot be underplayed – which is why it is critical to recognize when emotional eating begins to look more like an eating disorder.
Emotional overeaters and undereaters are both at risk of eating disorders. Eating or not eating as a coping technique appears to lessen the discomfort of deep-rooted, often unrecognized or unvocalized emotions. But, it shifts the attention from the root cause and only precipitates the problem. Between the two extremes defined by Bulimia and Anorexia Nervosa, there are now many unique and accepted variations of eating disorders. All eating disorders carry a set of potential health problems that include weakness and fatigue, reduced sexual drive, cardiac arrest, osteoporosis, etc.
The cure is mindful eating!
Well, yes… it is the cure to unhealthy eating habits – a way to nip the evil in the bud. Before hazards like obesity and eating disorders, which can lead to a variety of other physical and mental diseases, become a real threat mindful eating asks you to pause and course correct.
Mindfulness is one of the most effective tools human beings possess. We can break unhealthy eating patterns with committed and consistent effort if we focus on what, why, when, and how we eat.
Mindful eating forces you to pay attention to your body’s cues. You eat when your blood sugar falls and the body signals it is time to refuel, and stop eating when the body says it feels satiated. You learn to identify emotional triggers that lead you to eat even when the body is not hungry. You take the time to chew slowly and savor the food without distractions like TV and phone. When your senses are engaged you become better aware of your experience with food. You acquaint yourself with how your body reacts to different foods and understand what types of food sit right with your body.
In essence, mindful eating requires you to honor food as a source of nourishment for your body’s hunger, and not use it as a source of emotional comfort. It helps you put food where it belongs, and separate it from your emotions that may need to be dealt with otherwise. The reason mindful eating plays a positive role not just for people struggling to break bad eating habits but those recovering from eating disorders.
How to practice mindful eating
It may be easier to train yourself not to eat on your desk, or ensure you don’t miss your breakfast, but it requires self-discipline and patience until you stop ‘eating your feelings’. Here are a few tips to help you adopt the right mental attitude as you begin to practice mindful eating:
Be curious and open, and drop the judgment – If you have developed a preference for energy-dense foods, start replacing them with wholesome alternatives as you become aware – slowly and steadily. Don’t hesitate to try foods that you don’t think you’d fancy but you know they offer better nutritional value. Paying attention to how your taste buds and gut respond to new foods in your diet can be a pleasant surprise – your mind did not want it, but your body liked it because that’s what it needed.
Don’t set any goals other than eating mindfully – Since mindful eating is about how you perceive and connect with food, the process does not set any measurable specifics. There are no expectations of you to eat a certain way or a fixed amount, and you can be at ease with yourself as you focus on your body’s cues, the experience with food, and related emotions, and comprehend it all.
Separate emotions from your eating – Emotional triggers to eat are difficult to recognize. You need to pause and ask yourself if your tummy is growling or if you’re looking for emotional comfort in food. Do this each time you catch yourself going for a nibble. In time, you’ll learn to decipher the emotions you experience when you are not hungry but reach out for food. When you become aware of the emotion that sends you running for food in the first place, you can stop yourself from eating your feelings and work on resolving the root cause.
Don’t be hasty, be patient and trust the process – Self-discipline and consistency are the keys to practicing mindful eating – it’s about slowing down, pausing, thinking, questioning, paying attention to the cues from your mind and body, and recognizing which cues signal body’s need for food and which don’t.
Concluding words…
Mindful eating is an attitude that must be learned through changing behaviors with focused and committed determination. While slow, it produces steadier outcomes, unlike dieting regimes that work only in the short term and are not accompanied by a long-term change in how a person eats and connects with food. Introducing mindfulness to your eating behavior can be one of the best things you could ever gift yourself. Think about it!
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