Part of eating mindfully is taking time to notice the taste and texture of your food as you chew.
As popular as diets are, they aren’t always sustainable or holistically healthy, including emotionally. They often come with a long list of rules and, by some measures, can encourage self-punishing habits. If you’ve had this experience, here’s some welcome news: There’s a real movement toward non-diet approaches.
“People are sick of deprivation, especially because extreme diets never work in the long term. I think mindful eating and taking a more gentle approach to healthy eating are more attractive to millennials and younger people who have seen their mothers’ relationship to food scarred by diet culture,” says Frances Largeman-Roth, RDN, a nutrition expert and author of The Smoothie Plan. “It’s time for something different.”
Mindful eating is one method that may provide an alternative to fad diets that are unsustainable, unhealthy, or simply not enjoyable. While the point may be slowing down and savoring your food, the overarching message is that it’s possible to love what you eat and prioritize nutrition to feel good — and live a more fulfilling life not subject to guilt, judgment, or restriction associated with food choices.
Here’s what you need to know about mindful eating, the health benefits you may garner from this approach, and how to get started if you’re a beginner.
Definition of Mindful Eating
It’s easy to rush through snacks and meals without stopping to take a pause and really think about what you’re eating. Mindful eating puts you in touch with your food and your level of hunger. “Mindful eating is a concept and a practice that’s centered around being present while making choices around the food that we eat,” says Largeman-Roth.
In part, you focus on what you’re eating and how it tastes but also your body sensations while doing it, similar to meditation. “Mindful eating is checking in with your body and throughout the meal,” says Jennifer Barnoud, RD, at the University of Texas in Austin. While mindful eating is often tied to eating with no distractions, she says that it’s still possible to be present and pay attention to your food even if you’re leisurely checking email or watching TV — a point that makes it feel more doable for more people.
Potential Benefits of Mindful Eating
Even if you don’t go all-in with mindful eating, adopting some of the principles of slowing down and tuning into your body can improve your health and the way you feel in your body. Here’s why:
Better Digestion When you slow down, you chew your food properly, which will make it easier to digest your food, says Largeman-Roth.
More Nutritious Meals “When you check in with your body and your enjoyment of the meal, you get really great positive feedback,” says Barnoud. Eat more nutrient-packed meals and you’ll feel more energized. Quickly eat fast food and you may notice you feel sluggish and bloated. This awareness serves as reinforcement to make healthier choices next time, too. “When we eat more nutritionally dense foods and meet our nutrient needs, we feel it,” she says.
Greater Satisfaction Rushing to finish your plate means you might not even recall the flavors and textures of your food — factors that can bring you more satisfaction, Largeman-Roth says.
A Healthier Food Relationship Mindful eating isn’t all about chewing slowly or checking in with your hunger and stopping when you’re full. It goes deeper than that. “By doing things like plating our food, feeling gratitude toward the farmers who have grown it, or the people who have cooked it, we will hopefully forge a healthier relationship with food,” says Largeman-Roth.
Improved Cardiometabolic Health Mindful or intuitive eating has been shown to improve blood sugar levels in pregnant women, lipids and blood pressure in adults who are overweight, and inflammatory markers in postmenopausal women versus people who didn’t take this eating approach, according to a review of 10 studies.
That said, the results in these studies were mixed, so more research is needed. But if you’re increasing your intake of more nutritious foods while taking a mindful eating approach, these physiological perks make sense.
Can Mindful Eating Help With Weight Loss?
Not necessarily. This approach is often billed as the “hunger-fullness” diet, with the idea being that eating only when hungry and stopping when full will prevent overeating and therefore help you lose weight. But Largeman-Roth has had clients who have gained and those who have lost weight. Also, research results vary on whether mindful eating approaches can help you shed pounds.
One study found that being a more mindful eater or having mindful awareness while eating did not make someone on a weight loss program more successful. Researchers speculate that mindfulness may not have been powerful enough to change one’s behaviors — though they note that a limitation of their study was that they did not provide mindfulness training. Being taught how may make a difference.
On the contrary, a meta-analysis of 10 studies concluded that mindful or intuitive eating led to a significant weight loss compared with control groups — and did so in a similar way to other diets. The catch? That weight loss was less than a pound, and there was no change in body mass index, which doctors use to define overweight and obesity, or in waist circumference. Longer-term studies are needed.
A more positive review and meta-analysis of 18 studies involving mindfulness-based therapies found that the average weight loss was about seven pounds over four months. Traditional diet and exercise programs spurred more weight loss compared with mindfulness, though those who used mindfulness continued to slightly lose weight after the study, while those using the traditional methods gained a small amount. The authors say the results suggest that mindfulness may be better for promoting long-term weight loss compared with traditional diet plans.
Mindful Eating and Eating Disorders
In some instances, mindful eating can be a tool in eating disorder recovery, specifically when it comes to binge eating disorders. “Our culture talks about food in a way that introduces the dichotomy of good and bad foods. Having those judgments may lead to food guilt, restriction, and overconsumption,” says Barnoud, who is also a certified eating disorder registered dietitian. One meta-analysis found that those who began to eat more mindfully experienced fewer symptoms of binge eating disorder compared with control groups, though their weight did not significantly change. Binge eating disorder is associated with weight gain and potentially obesity. Mindful eating may change the brain in certain ways to improve emotional regulation and reduce impulsiveness to decrease the risk of binge eating, researchers point out.
In addition, mindful eating is nonjudgmental and therefore can help remove the morality around eating this or that food. With less restriction — either physical or psychological (thinking you shouldn’t be eating something) — you can regain any lost body trust that helps you improve your relationship with food, Barnoud explains.
Are There Any Downsides to Mindful Eating?
Not really. But one thing to keep in mind: Mindful eating often requires time and the availability to sit with your meal and pay attention — sometimes you’re not in a place in your life where that’s doable. If you have young kids, that might not be feasible, says Largeman-Roth. You might feel pressure to do this practice perfectly, though that’s certainly not the goal.
Mindful Eating: How to Get Started
Try a few mindful eating practices, and you may find it can be a tool for feeling more connected to your food and your body.
BASICS
Barnoud suggests following the acronym BASICS, which will remind you of what to do when eating mindfully:
Breathe and Belly Check Let yourself settle into the meal. Sit down at the table and take five deep breaths.
Assess Take a beat to look at your food and note things like colors, shapes, and smells.
Slow Down Rather than eating quickly, move slowly (put your fork down between bites) to experience the textures and tastes of the meal.
Investigate Are you hungry? Full? Check-in with yourself throughout the meal. If you’re still hungry, keep eating; if you aren’t, give yourself permission to not finish everything left on your plate.
Chew Thoroughly This will help you taste the food better and slow you down.
Savor Let your snack or meal bring you joy. Take time to relish the tastes and experiences of the meal (are you enjoying it in the company of loved ones or quietly dining alone?) and think about how your food choices are also honoring your body and giving it what it needs at the moment.
Summary: Should You Try Mindful Eating?
If you find yourself rushing through meals, ignoring body cues like hunger and fullness, overeating, or simply not enjoying your food, the practice of mindful eating may offer you benefits. While some people do lose weight following this approach, it is not supposed to be a diet, so consider your goals before starting. – Jessica Migala
