Mindful eating is a technique that helps you gain control over your eating habits.
It has been shown to cause weight loss, reduce binge eating and help you feel better.
This article explains what mindful eating is, how it works and what you need to do to get started.
What is Mindful Eating?
Mindful eating is based on mindfulness, a Buddhist concept.
Mindfulness is a form of meditation that helps you recognize and cope with your emotions and physical sensations (1, 2, 3, 4).
It has helped treat many conditions, including eating disorders, depression, anxiety and various food-related behaviors (5, 6, 7).
Mindful eating is about using mindfulness to reach a state of full attention to your experiences, cravings and physical cues when eating (8).
Fundamentally, mindful eating involves:
- Eating slowly and without distraction.
- Listening to physical hunger cues and eating only until you're full.
- Distinguishing between actual hunger and non-hunger triggers for eating.
- Engaging your senses by noticing colors, smells, sounds, textures and tastes.
- Learning to cope with guilt and anxiety about food.
- Eating to maintain overall health and well-being.
- Noticing the effects food has on your feelings and figure.
- Appreciating your food.
These things allow you to replace automatic thoughts and reactions with more conscious, healthier responses (9).
Bottom Line: Mindful eating relies on mindfulness, a form of meditation. Mindful eating is about developing awareness of your experiences, physical cues and feelings about food.
Why Should You Try Mindful Eating?
In our fast-paced society, we face an abundance of food choices every day.
On top of that, distractions have shifted our attention away from the actual act of eating and onto televisions, computers and smartphones.
Eating has become a mindless act, often done quickly. This can be problematic, since it actually takes the brain up to 20 minutes to realize you're full.
If you eat too fast, the fullness signal may not arrive until you've already eaten too much. This is very common in binge eating.
By eating mindfully, you restore your attention and slow down, making eating an intentional act instead of an automatic one.
Also, by increasing your recognition of physical hunger and fullness cues, you'll be able to distinguish between emotional and actual, physical hunger (10).
Furthermore, you'll increase your awareness of triggers that make you want to eat, even though you're not necessarily hungry.
By knowing your triggers, you can create a space between them and the response. That gives you the time and freedom to actually choose your response.
Bottom Line: Mindful eating helps you distinguish between emotional and physical hunger. It also increases your awareness of food-related triggers and gives you the freedom to choose your response to them.
Mindful Eating and Weight Loss
It is a well-known fact that most weight loss programs don't work in the long term.
Around 85 percent of obese individuals who lose weight return to or exceed their initial weight within a few years (11).
Binge eating, emotional eating, external eating and eating in response to food cravings have been linked to weight gain and weight regain after successful weight loss (12, 13, 14, 15).
Chronic exposure to stress may also play a large role in overeating and the development of obesity (16, 17).
The vast majority of studies agree that mindful eating helps you lose weight by changing eating behaviors and reducing stress (18).
A 6-week group seminar on mindful eating among obese individuals resulted in an average weight loss of 9 lbs (4 kg) during the seminar and the 12-week follow-up period (10).
Another 6-month seminar resulted in an average weight loss of 26 lbs (12 kg), without any regained weight in the following 3-month period (19).
By changing the way you think about food, the negative feelings that may be associated with eating are replaced with awareness, improved self-control and positive emotions (17, 20, 21, 22, 23).
When unwanted eating behaviors are addressed, the chances of long-term weight loss success are increased.
Bottom Line: Mindful eating may be very helpful with weight loss, changing eating behaviors and reducing the stress associated with eating.
Mindful Eating and Binge Eating
Binge eating involves eating a large amount of food in a short amount of time, mindlessly and without control (24).
It has been linked to eating disorders and weight gain and one study showed that almost 70 percent of binge eaters are obese (25, 26, 27).
Interestingly, mindful eating has been shown to drastically reduce the severity and frequency of binge eating (17, 20, 28, 29).
One study found that after a 6-week group intervention in obese women, binge eating episodes decreased from 4 to 1.5 times per week. The severity of each episode also decreased (30).
Bottom Line: Mindful eating can be helpful in preventing binge eating. It can both reduce the frequency of binges, as well as the severity of each binge eating episode.
Mindful Eating and Unhealthy Eating Behaviors
In addition to being an effective treatment for binge eating, mindful eating methods have also been shown to reduce (20):
- Emotional eating: Eating in response to certain emotions (31).
- External eating: Eating in response to environmental food-related cues, such as the sight or smell of food (32).
Unhealthy eating behaviors like these are the most commonly reported problems among obese individuals.
Mindful eating gives you the skills you need to deal with these impulses. It puts you in charge of your responses, instead of you acting on them without thought.
Bottom Line: Mindful eating may effectively treat common, unhealthy eating behaviors like emotional and external eating.
How To Practice Mindful Eating
To practice mindfulness, you'll need a series of exercises and meditations (33).
Many people find it helpful to attend a seminar, online course or workshop on mindfulness or mindful eating.
However, there are many simple ways to get started, some of which can have powerful benefits on their own:
- Eat more slowly and don't rush your meals.
- Chew thoroughly.
- Eliminate distractions by turning off the TV and putting down your phone.
- Eat in silence.
- Focus on how the food makes you feel.
- Stop eating when you're full.
- Ask yourself why you're eating. Are you actually hungry? Is it healthy?
To begin with, it is a good idea to pick one meal per day, to focus on these points.
Once you've got the hang of this, mindfulness will become more natural. Then you can focus on implementing these habits into more meals.
Bottom Line: Mindful eating takes practice. Try to eat more slowly, chew thoroughly, remove distractions and stop eating when you're full.
Where to Find More Information
- Amazon: Many good books on mindful eating are available on Amazon.
- Web resources: This website lists 50 mindful eating web resources.
- Videos: This is a short video introduction to mindful eating.
- Meditating: Here is a short meditation to help manage food cravings.
- Workshops: Mindful eating seminars are located around the world and online.
Take Home Message
Mindful eating is a powerful tool to regain control of your eating.
If you have failed with conventional “diets" in the past, then this is definitely something you should try.
This article was reposted from our media associate Authority Nutrition.
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Here are three new films to watch this Earth Week that will transport you from pole to pole and introduce you to the scientists and activists working to save our shared home.
1. The Year Earth Changed
Where to Watch: Apple TV+
When to Watch: From April 16
The coronavirus pandemic has brought home the stakes of humanity's impact on the environment. But the lockdowns also proved how quickly nature can recover when humans give it the space. Birds sang in empty cities, whales surfaced in Glacier Bay and capybara roamed the South American suburbs.
The Year Earth Changed captures this unique year with footage from more than 30 lockdowned cities between May 2020 to January 2021. Narrated by renowned wildlife broadcaster David Attenborough, the film explores what positive lessons we can take from the experience of a quieter, less trafficked world.
"What the film shows is that the natural world can bounce back remarkably quickly when we take a step back and reduce our impact as we did during lockdown," executive producer Alice Keens-Soper of BBC Studios Natural History Unit told EcoWatch. "If we are willing to make even small changes to our habits, the natural world can flourish. We need to learn how to co-exist with nature and understand that we are not separate from it- for example if we closed some of our beaches at for a few weeks during the turtle breeding we see that it can make a huge difference to their success. There are many ways that we can adapt our behavior to allow the natural world to thrive as it did in lockdown."
2. After Antarctica
Where to Watch: San Francisco International Film Festival
When to Watch: 12 a.m. PST April 9 to 11:59 p.m. April 18
In 1989, Will Steger led an international team of six scientists and explorers to be the first humans to cross Antarctica by dogsled. Steger and his team weren't just in it for the adventure. They also wanted to draw attention to the ways in which the climate crisis was already transforming the icy continent and to rally support for the renewal of the Antarctic Treaty, which would keep the continent safe from extractive industries.
In After Antarctica, award-winning filmmaker Tasha Van Zandt follows Steger 30 years later as he travels the Arctic this time, reflecting on his original journey and once again bringing awareness to changes in a polar landscape. The film intersperses this contemporary journey with footage from the original expedition, some of which has never been seen before.
"Will's life journey as an explorer and climate activist has led him not only to see more of the polar world than anyone else alive today, but to being an eyewitness to the changes occurring across both poles," Van Zandt told EcoWatch. "But now, these changes are happening in all of our own backyards and we have all become eyewitnesses. Through my journey with Will, I have learned that although we cannot always control change, we can change our response. I feel strongly that this is a message that resonates when we look at the current state of the world, as we each have power and control over how we choose to respond to hardships, and we all have the power to unite with others through collective action around a common goal."
After Antarctica is available to stream once you purchase a ticket to the San Francisco International Film Festival. If you miss it this weekend, it will screen again at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival from May 13 to May 23.
Tasha Van Zandt
3. The Race to Save the World
Where to Watch: Virtual Cinema
When to Watch: From Earth Day, April 22
While many films about the climate crisis seek to raise awareness about the extent of the problem, The Race to Save the World focuses on the people who are trying to stop it. The film tells the story of climate activists ranging from 15-year-old Aji to 72-year-old Miriam who are working to create a sustainable future. It follows them from the streets to the courtroom to their homes, and explores the impact of their advocacy on their personal lives and relationships.
Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker Joe Gantz told EcoWatch that he wanted to make a film about climate change, but did not want to depress viewers with overwhelming statistics. Instead, he chose to inspire them by sharing the stories of people trying to make a difference.
"Unless millions of people take to the streets and make their voices heard for a livable future, the politicians are not going to get on board to help make the changes needed for a sustainable future," Gantz told Ecowatch. "I think that The Race To Save The World will energize and inspire people to take action so that future generations, as well as the plants, animals and ecosystems, can survive and thrive on this planet."
Check back with EcoWatch on the morning of Earth Day for a special preview of this inspiring film!