Does mindful eating help in improving your overall health? Does it have any advantage over binge eating? Research studies are ongoing on this topic as the role of mind in impacting physical health is becoming prominent day by day.
Mindfulness is an ancient practice in which one’s thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations are directed at the present moment. It is becoming more aware of, rather than reacting to, one’s situation and choices.
Mindfulness is neither focusing to improve concentration nor it is meditative process. Instead it is a feeling of awareness. Being “aware of the present moment “ is mindfulness.
Mindful eating focuses on your eating experiences, body-related sensations, and thoughts and feelings about food, with heightened awareness and without judgment. In short it is listening to your food, its taste, aesthetic appeal, in the process of eating or chewing it.
Health benefits of mindful eating
- Improved gut health
Mindful eating helps to reduce bloating and gas as you enjoy food here and take enough time to chew it. Chewing helps to mix food with saliva and other gastric juices facilitating proper digestion. Therefore, the amount of undigested food in your gut will be reduced and fermentation process will be reduced. So bloating do not happen. Most of do hasty eating without proper chewing and digestion is delayed.
It also helps to reduce constipation, diarrhoea, reflux and IBS like symptoms.
- Proper absorption of nutrients
Good digestion helps absorption of nutrients in the intestine and proper absorption of food aid in improving health of organs and body in general.
- Helps weight loss
Research studies have shown that mindful eating helps you eat less and feel more full.
- Increased appreciation of food
Only if you love your food taking time it is appreciated well.
Once you start loving food it makes your meal or dinner or snacking an enjoyable experience in your thoughts .
- Stress reduction and hormonal well- being :
When you slow down while eating and enjoy it as if in mindful eating ,you are naturally reducing your cortisol (stress hormone). This may help your body to protect itself from bad effects of stress like hormonal and autoimmune diseases, migraine, fertility issues and sexual dysfunctions.
Some studies suggest that mindful eating helps to maintain a balanced hormonal rhythm.
How to eat mindfully?
· Take a few deep breaths and think how hungry you are.
· As you cook food, notice its texture, smells and the sounds generated by the food prepared.
· Put only the needed amount of food on your plate to satisfy your hunger.
· Taste your food chewing it slowly and know the real taste, how it feels in your mouth, and how much you are enjoying it.
· Try to note your hunger cues along the way.
· Are you really still hungry after eating a quarter or half of your meal? Enjoy the meal but do not eat in such a way that your stomach is full.
· Stop eating when you feel enough for quenching hunger, no matter how much food is left. Keep away the plate away from you.
· Eating too much till the stomach is full is against mindfulness.it may affect digestion badly. For proper digestion to happen leave some empty space in your stomach .
Reference
1.https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5556586/
2.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36045097/
3. https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/medium-shot-smiley-vegetarian-woman_13153038.htm#fromView=search&page=1&position=43&uuid=72b8f52f-f1c0-4676-aff8-fe841daad71a&query=woman+eating+healthy+food
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