Key takeaways:
Mindful eating is more than just eating slowly. It includes being aware of your senses and having a non-judgmental attitude toward food.
When you neutralize your thoughts around food, you may start to notice less anxiety around your food choices. This can allow food to be a source of joy rather than stress.
Mindful eating helps you get in tune with your hunger and fullness cues. This can help support personal health goals, and help you feel more comfortable in your body.
The term “mindful eating” is used a lot of these days. But most people don’t know exactly what it means. Not to mention who should try it or how it works.
Like other mindfulness practices, mindful eating might feel abstract. And it may seem impossible to do with your busy schedule. But if you struggle at all with your relationship with food — or your body — mindful eating might unlock some helpful changes for you. And it’s not as hard as it seems to put it into practice. Here’s a starter guide for you.
What is mindful eating?
Mindful eating combines awareness, with the act of eating your food. With mindfulness, the goal is to tune into your thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. And to do so in the present moment without judgment. So when you combine mindfulness with eating, you’re consciously paying attention to things like:
The foods your body is craving
The smell and appearance of the food, before you even taste it
The taste and texture of your meal
Your pace of eating
Your thoughts and feelings as you eat
Mindful eating often gets reduced down to “eat your food slowly.” But mindful eating is about more than just the way you eat. It’s the broader picture of your experience with food. And there’s a lot more you can do to practice mindful eating than eat slowly.
There are many different ways to define mindful eating. Most definitions come down to a few key points:
Eat without judgment: Labeling foods as “good” and “bad” often causes more harm than good. Mindful eating encourages you to neutralize your language around food.
Eat without distractions: Give your meal your full attention, so you can truly enjoy your food. And feel your fullness.
Eat with balance: Eat in alignment with what your body needs. This means choosing foods that provide a mix of joy, satisfaction, and energy to go about your day.
Appetite awareness: Another key factor in mindful eating is paying close attention to your hunger and fullness cues. This helps you find what eating patterns work best for your body.
How is mindful eating different from intuitive eating?
Mindful and intuitive eating are often thought of as the same thing — but they’re not the same.
Intuitive eating is a term coined by the dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. Its principles focus on a weight-neutral, body-positive movement. Intuitive eating encourages a non-diet approach to food choices. Mindful eating shares these same principles around a neutral attitude toward food. But mindful eating also focuses on body awareness and the act of eating. For example, paying attention to how eating impacts hunger signals.
What are the benefits of mindful eating?
Mindful eating is simple, but it can take some practice. To stay motivated, it can help to know the benefits. Mindful eating can:
Reduce boredom and stress-induced eating
Help you feel more relaxed around food
Encourage a balanced, non-restrictive diet
Help you choose foods that are better for your physical and mental health
Improve overall meal satisfaction
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Weight loss is not a specific goal of mindful eating. But it can help you find a comfortable weight for your body. And it can ensure you’re properly nourished at that weight.
Does mindful eating help with weight loss?
Mindful eating is not intended to be a weight-loss strategy. But when you’re mindful of your experience with food, mindful eating may help you find a weight that feels best for your body.
Mindfulness can support the reduction of stress hormones like cortisol, which can affect weight. More stress can cause an increase in stress eating, which can lead to weight gain over time. It may also result in your body holding on to abdominal fat.
Several studies have looked into the connection between weight and mindful eating. One study looked specifically at people with a BMI over 30. Researchers found that mindfulness helped people in the study lose weight and maintain that weight loss for at least 2 months.
Another study also looked specifically at adults with a BMI over 30, but had different findings. Researchers split the participants into two groups. One group practiced mindful eating and the other did not. After 12 months, there was no significant difference in weight loss between the groups. But the mindfulness group did see other benefits. For example, they had improved blood sugar and ate fewer sweets.
On the flip side, mindful eating may also help with healthy weight gain for someone who is restricting. Mindful eating can help with many different types of disordered eating patterns that contribute to weight loss and weight gain. These include:
Overeating or binging
Undereating or restrictive eating
Skipping meals
Boredom eating
Emotional eating
For example, maybe you often skip meals because you’re busy at work. This can lead to a pattern of undereating during the day, and overeating at night. Mindful eating can help you be more aware of your hunger cues — and keep your body well fueled through the day.
Or maybe you beat yourself up after eating a food you label as “bad.” This can lead to a negative spiral of thinking. Many people in this situation end up thinking, “Well, I might as well give up on my healthy habits because I already failed!” Mindful eating helps remove that judgment of your food — and yourself. This way, you can enjoy that food without added stress or negative thoughts.
What are some mindful eating exercises?
Mindful eating sounds great in theory. But how exactly do you practice it? Here are a few easy activities you can try to get started.
Hunger-fullness scale
For a few days this week, practice checking in on your hunger every 1 to 2 hours. To do this:
Rate your hunger or fullness on a scale of 1 to 10. With this scale, 1 means you’re ravenously hungry and 10 represents a feeling of maximum fullness.
Aim for eating at early signs of hunger — around a number 4 on the hunger-fullness scale — rather than waiting until you feel more hungry (“more hungry” would be a 2 or 3 on the scale).
And when you eat, aim to eat until you feel comfortably full (around a 7) versus overly stuffed.
After a few days of practicing, reflecting on hunger and fullness will come more naturally.
The five senses meditation
The five senses meditation is an activity where you engage all five of your senses (sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing) when eating a fruit. You can practice mindfulness with any food, but this activity works particularly well with a food that you have neutral feelings about. A clementine works well because it’s sweet, tart, and aromatic. While you eat your food of choice, say or write down what each sense is experiencing.
Slowing down
The next time you find yourself eating quickly, try slowing down. This can be a simple and effective way to improve mindfulness during your next meal. People tend to eat fast when food is not the first priority. Maybe they’re driving, stressed, or thinking about their next work meeting. But you may find that when you chew your food slowly, you feel more satisfied and balanced after a meal.
The bottom line
Mindful eating isn’t one size fits all. You can pick and choose from different parts of the practice. Maybe you want to neutralize your language around food. Or maybe you simply want to slow down at meals. Reflect on the key points of mindful eating above, and start with one that resonates with you. Or maybe try giving each practice a try. You might find that these small changes to your eating habits can make a world of a difference.
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References
Asadollahi, T., et al. (2015). Effectiveness of mindfulness training and dietary regime on weight loss in obese people. Journal of Medicine and Life.
Cherpak, C. E. (2019). Mindful eating: A review of how the stress-digestion-mindfulness triad may modulate and improve gastrointestinal and digestive function. Integrative Medicine: A Clinician’s Journal.
Daubenmier, J., et al. (2011). Mindfulness intervention for stress eating to reduce cortisol and abdominal fat among overweight and obese women: An exploratory randomized controlled study. Journal of Obesity.
Gillihan, S. J. (2016). Five senses meditation with a clementine.
Mason, A. E., et al. (2015). Effects of a mindfulness-based intervention on mindful eating, sweets consumption, and fasting glucose levels in obese adults: Data from the SHINE randomized controlled trial. Journal of Behavioral Medicine.
Nelson, J. B. (2017). Mindful eating: The art of presence while you eat. Diabetes Spectrum.
