The Power of Mindful Eating: How to Cultivate a Healthy Relationship with Food

The Essence of Mindful Eating

Everyone’s eating habits are different, and there is no ‘correct’ way to approach food. But we can all take steps to cultivate a healthier relationship with what we eat. This includes harnessing the power of mindful eating.

Mindful eating is learning to pay attention to our food to improve our eating habits, this means approaching food with a positive outlook, slowing down, and savouring every bite with all of our senses.

Mindful eating does not replace treatment for clinical conditions such as eating disorders or combatting obesity.

Find out more about our weight management service.

Woman making dinner and smelling the sauce

Benefits of Mindful Eating for Adults

Promote a Healthier Relationship with Food

A healthier relationship with food doesn’t just mean eating healthier meals, it also means maintaining positive eating habits. Like anything that we enjoy, too much food can become excessive and dangerous, especially when we start relying on it for more than to keep our bodies going. Mindful eating teaches us to enjoy food with limits, appreciate what we have, and avoid emotional eating.

Improved Digestion

Although the only thing we feel we have to do when eating food is to chew it, our body has to do a lot more. Better digestion doesn’t just mean we pass food waste more easily; it also means that our body is making the most of the nutrients - and the way we mentally approach our food can have an impact. By taking the time to appreciate each bite, you’re more likely to take smaller mouthfuls that you spend more time chewing on. This means the rest of your digestive system doesn’t have to do as much work to process your food.

There are other ways mindful eating can improve digestion too. Fatty foods such as chips and burgers are hard to process, leading to bloating and sometimes nausea. Mindful eating teaches us to make healthier food choices and choose foods better for our digestive system.

Assist with Weight Management

Making healthier food choices is easier said than done. It’s much easier to grab a microwave meal than to browse all the fresh vegetables to concoct a healthy dish from scratch. But making healthy food choices is more than that. Mindful eating means we’re more aware of what we’re putting into our bodies. Food is fuel, each bite should have a positive impact on your body – both physically and mentally.

One thing to make clear is that mindful eating isn’t just about losing weight – although that could be a benefit of a healthier outlook on food.

Also read: Common Weight Loss Myths Debunked

Tips for Practicing Mindful Eating

Start with small steps: Focus on your food without distractions

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Have you ever had a meal and thought it went far too quickly or made yourself a drink that you don’t remember drinking?

Food is precious. Every bite is unique, and each bite wasted isn’t going to come around again. If you are on your phone, or watching TV whilst you eat, your brain is too distracted to process the taste of your food the way it should. This doesn’t mean you need to only focus on your food and shut everything and everyone out, it means not going into a trance of endlessly scrolling, because before you know it, your plate will be empty.

If you want to get better at focusing on food without distractions, the first step is to keep your phone away from the table.

Pay attention to hunger and fullness cues

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It’s important to eat when your body tells you to. This doesn’t mean waiting until you’re starving, it means waiting until your body requires food to maintain the energy you need. If you leave a meal until you’re starving, you’re more likely to crave less nutritious foods and snacks that contain more calories, which will throw your eating schedule off-course, so you might not need to eat at a time you usually would.

There’s also a difference between feeling full and feeling stuffed. It’s a bit trickier to tell when you’re feeling full. It can take your body up to 30 minutes to recognise fullness, so within those 30 minutes, you may have eaten more, so in another 30 minutes, you’ll begin to feel stuffed. Instead of asking yourself if you’re full, ask yourself if you’re not hungry anymore.

Once you understand hunger and fullness, you’ll appreciate the food you eat, without wolfing it down or pushing it away from feeling stuffed.

Slow down your meals: Savour each bite

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If you’ve come home from a busy day’s work, you probably want nothing more than to inhale your dinner. However, in the long run, you won’t be getting all of the benefits if you do. Mindful eating encourages us to make each bite count before the dish is empty.

Use all your senses to enjoy your food

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Food isn’t only about taste. It can light up all of our senses at once! Focus on each one to truly be able to let mindful eating come into play when you sit down for your next meal.

Taste: The obvious one. Does the food spark something in your brain? Do your taste buds tingle?

Smell: The smell of food is just as important as taste. Does the smell draw you in? What specific ingredients can you make out?

Sight: Food is art. How it looks is often what first draws people in. You shouldn’t necessarily judge a book by its cover, but at the same time, first impressions are important!

Touch: There are a lot of nerve endings in the mouth, which is why texture is so important when we eat food. Food can be soft, delicate, tough, crumbly, wet, dry, and so much more.

Sound: Have you ever felt a burst of joy after hearing the crunch of freshly baked bread? Sound is a big factor when it comes to food. Which foods bring you the most joy from their sound alone?

Practice gratitude before meals

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Those of us who have three meals a day often take it for granted. Food isn’t just food. It’s a process, a job, some have travelled the world to end up on your plate. Before choosing your food, be mindful of the following:

Where has it come from?
How was it made?
How will it impact your body on the inside?
How will it impact the environment?
How will you feel afterwards?

Considering the above, you’re more likely to appreciate what you eat.

Common Challenges and How to Overcome Them

Dealing with emotional eating

Food doesn’t just satisfy us physically, it’s also a medicine for the mind. We all have foods that we turn to when we need cheering up. But relying too much on food to de-stress is when we run into problems.

It’s important to remember that cravings are different to hunger. You’ll get food cravings if your body desires a specific type of food, which is usually unhealthy. Certain snacks, especially ones high in salt, are designed to be morish, getting you stuck in an unhealthy cycle.

Once you’ve mastered the other factors of mindful eating, such as being more aware of hunger and fullness, you’ll likely reduce snack cravings.

Managing portion sizes

Some people naturally eyeball their food and know what will satisfy their stomach. For others, it takes some trial and error. Once you’ve learnt to pay attention to hunger and fullness, you’ll begin to build an understanding of what portions your body needs.

To help you remember portion sizes, note how much of everything you typically eat at a time. It’s also handy to look at the label on food packaging to see the recommended serving sizes.

Lady making a healthy meal and adding greens

Stay consistent with mindful eating practices

Mindful eating is not something that you can pick up perfectly overnight. But you can get into the habit over time if you stick to it. It takes time. Start small, change your habits one by one, and appreciate your meals more and more. Being too strict on yourself will only mean you give up sooner. Start by simply appreciating the taste of every bite of food you have, savouring it and chewing it properly.

How Rowlands Pharmacy can help with mindful eating

Food can be a sensitive subject. If you need private, professional, and personal support, your local Rowlands Pharmacy offers weight management consultations where you can ask any questions you may have about taking the right steps to a healthier attitude towards food.

If you’re concerned that your mindset towards food is affecting your weight, you may be eligible for our weight loss treatment. Subject to eligibility and consultation with our healthcare professionals.

Book a weight management consultation