Mindful Eating

How often do you just eat? By which I mean sit, by yourself with food and simply eat it - no TV no phone, no book. Just focusing on the food and your eating of it?

I hazard a guess this is not something most people do often. Social eating - meals around the table with loved ones - is of course very important to our well-being and relationships (there are numerous studies looking at the effects on families and couples of eating together), but when by yourself, whether that is rarely or often, how likely are you to feel the need to engage in another activity at the same time - either to fill your brain (or the silence) or because you are "too busy" to stop and simply eat.

I recently noticed, with a few changes in family life, that the times I was eating by myself, I was getting myself food and eating on the sofa either watching something on TV, talking on the phone or reading a book (and reading a book whilst trying to use a knife and fork - or even just a fork - is quite a feat). I also realised that even if I had cooked something really very tasty, I hardly noticed what I was eating and I ended up still feeling the need for something extra afterwards. I decided to try a bit of mindful eating - I have done 5 lunchtimes over the previous 2 weeks - and I have noticed a lot of good and positive things. - I ate slower, I tasted my food more, I holistically experienced my food - I was aware not only of taste, but also smell, texture, mouth feel, how it felt going into my stomach, whether my body was 'happy' with what I was giving it. I noticed feelings of joy, contentment, rest with some foods and actually lack of those things with other foods (one most disappointing thing was mindful eating of a bag of monster munches, only to find that when I really chewed and tasted and experienced them, they weren't as nice as I'd always thought!) and as I came towards the end of each meal I noticed a sense of satiety (that is a sensory knowledge of having eaten enough - of completeness).

Aside

It turns out that mindful eating in the literature is a bit more than my mindful practice and includes also mindful food choice and preparation - which I generally do anyway. .. so when I am saying mindful eating here it is just the actual eating part I have changed for myself in the last couple of weeks.

Like most mindful practices mindful eating has a wealth of benefits over eating without care and attention. Firstly for many there may be the conscious choice of better quality and more nutritious foods. However even if the food you eat doesn't change the benefits are still many and varied.

When you eat mindfully you will likely:

• chew more

• slow down

• eat less

• breathe more and more deeply

• be more aware of the senses that are being triggered

all of these have physiological effects on our body - here are just a few of them.

When we notice with our eyes and nose (and sometimes ears, and fingers) what we are about to put into our mouth, our brain is triggered to send messages to our gut priming it for what is coming - we release more of the enzymes and digestive juices that we will need, and less of the ones we won't. This is further enhanced once the food gets into our mouth as we fully taste it.

When we chew more we produce more saliva which contains several important enzymes, which in turn aids carbohydrate and some fat digestion, leading us to eat less in total and gain better access to the micronutrients from those foods we are digesting.

When we breathe more deeply and consistently as we eat, we tell our body that we are relaxed and have time to digest our food - more blood flow is then directed away from the limbs and brain where it is needed for our 'fight flight response' and into our gut wall to both feed the intestinal muscles and to absorb the broken down nutrients to take around the body as needed - literally allowing the food we eat to nourish us more.

I encourage you to give it a go - even just once a week - and see what benefits you can notice.