How Effective is Mindful Eating.

To live healthily, we take several steps, such as doing exercises, having a healthy diet. Some people used to eat food by watching television, using the phone, or chatting with others. These habits are not suitable for health as it leads to chronic diseases and some people suffer from obesity, diabetes; which is one of the factors of short life span. To avoid all these problems, you have to choose a mindful eating plan.

1. Understand what mindful eating is: 

Many health-conscious people used to eat healthy and organic food, which is excellent, but unfortunately, they are not focusing on eating food. Mindfulness eating is the way of eating food where you focus on the present moment with your body, mind, and soul, and calmly acknowledging and accepting your feelings and sensation. Hence mindful eating anchors you at the moment, so you enjoy and feel your food totally with its texture, taste, scent, and you eat less too. Mindful eating would help you to achieve a longer and healthier life.

2. How to practices mindful eating?

• Cook mindfully: You take your mindful eating approach further by using your food prep and cooking time is another opportunity to engage your senses and build a super strong appreciation of food that you will be eating. When cooking, be attentive to the color, texture, aroma, and even sounds of different foods like the sizzle of onions or garlic in a pan. It brings you the opportunity to play all of your senses. So, engage yourself in mindful cooking then you can also eat your food mindfully.

• Identify ingredients: Try identifying all the components you are using and how they made it into your kitchen, and where they came from and get to you. Cook your food and cut all the outside distractions that mean no television, no radio, and no YouTube video in the background. Just allow you to give full attention to being mindful and fully present at the moment so that you can enjoy your cooking so well.

• Take small bites: When you’re super hungry, or you have no time to eat food properly, you used to take large bites of food, but it can’t make you eat peacefully. So try to take small bites and put down your utensil between bites, so you can feel the taste, texture, and scent of your food peacefully and enjoy it.

Chew food thoroughly

•  Slowing down your eating and chewing your food is essential for mindful eating. It’s often recommended that you chew each mouthful up to 20-40 times, depending on the food. Chewing food well breaks down food into small pieces that are much easier for your body to digest, or often says that your digestion starts from your mouth, not a stomach. Chewing well also helps to extracts nutrients from food.
  • If you struggle with digestive issues, you should eat slowly and chew your food correctly. It could help to get rid of these issues. 
  • Chewing food well is also helps you to feel fuller, and this will make you eat less.
  • Eat slowly because devouring food is strongly linked to overeating. Eating at a slower pace and chewing food well helps to recognize you full and eat less food.
  • Chewing food thoroughly also reduces to intake of sweet snacks such as candy.

• Try to eat alone: Eating alone without distraction by television or phone is a conscious experience or likely to engage in food and give yourself plenty of time to eat food mindfully. Eating with other people has conversation and flows, so you are more likely to slow down when you are eating and put your fork down in between bites. Many people find that they eat more and intended in a group setting and partly tend to stay at the table longer, which can mean overeating. 

3. Benefits of Mindful Eating

You are supposed to eat when you are not hungry, which is one of the main reasons for overeating; hence you become a victim of obesity, stress, diabetes. Quick eating is also creating digestive issues. To avoid all these problems, you have to choose mindful eating.

The benefits of mindful eating are reduced stress, easier digestion, increased enjoyment, reduced calories, weight loss, less binge eating, control of food instead of controlling, and reduced food cravings. Mindful eating protects you from many diseases and encourages you to live longer and healthier.

to know more about cooking healthy meal in a busy schedule, click here…