Mindful Eating: How to Develop a Healthy Relationship with Food

In a world filled with food everywhere we look, from our screens to the stores and even between our busy schedules, it shouldn’t be such a shock to learn that so many of us battle overeating and eating for emotional reasons. We lead busy lives and often eat rushed or multitasked meals instead of mindful ones. We snack in work meetings, we eat in front of the TV, and we grab fast food on the way to wherever we’re going without much thought about what we’re eating, or what it does to our bodies. Over time, these habits can translate into weight gain, digestive problems and feelings of guilt or stress when it comes to food.

Emotional eating further complicates matters. They don’t stop eating in response to signals of hunger, but in response to feelings of stress, anxiety, loneliness or even boredom. As Dr. Kavita Rao, a renowned nutritional and well-being expert, shared “The moment food turns into an emotional band-aid as opposed to a source of nourishment we lose the ability to really listen to our body”.

The good news? Mindful eating offers a solution. In slowing down, paying attention and reclaiming the signals from our body, we can re-create a new healthier, more positive relationship with food. Below is how to begin eating mindfully and avoid over-eating and emotional eating.

Learn To Distinguish Between Real Hunger and Emotional Desires
Being able to identify the difference between stomach hunger and heart hunger is one of the first steps of mindful eating. Physical hunger builds up slowly and can be fulfilled with any food, while emotional hunger comes on suddenly and is usually associated with a craving for sweets or salty snacks. Dr. Rao recommends, “Before you eat, stop and ask yourself: Am I really hungry or am I planning to soothe an emotion with food?” One thing you can do is keep a journal to see if you can figure out what’s prompting these feelings of hunger.

Eat Slowly and Without Distractions
Multitasking makes sense in the modern age even at meals. But eating while watching TV, working, or scrolling through social media can lead to overeating, because you’re not listening to satiety signals. Slow down. It’s really cool to go back to eating slow, taking small bites and chewing well and savour the taste of food. The body’s sensors for fullness, technically called interceptors, take at least 10 to 20 minutes to register fullness in your brain, so giving yourself some time is crucial.

Create a Calm Eating Environment
Your surroundings matter. Constant, quick eating in a messy room or a loud area can turn meals into a stress or blur. Set aside a screen-free, food-only eating area. Concentrate on the sensory experience of eating — the sight, textures and aromas of your food. “As you eat in a more relaxed environment, you’re more likely to tune in to your body and slow down when satiated (vs. stuffed),” says Dr. Rao.

Manage Emotions Without Food
The point of food is to fuel your body, not to pacify you. If you notice the desire to snack when feeling stressed or bored, try other activities like meditation, a brief walk, playing music or writing in a journal. Create What I Like to Call a “Comfort List” of non-edible activities to help counteract the habit of emotional eating over time.

Adopting the Habit of Gratitude With Mealtime
So, a little gratitude for your food can help to make you enjoy eating more and can work as a good mindfulness lesson. Before you take your first mouthful, appreciate the effort and resources that got the food onto your plate. After your meal, pay attention to how it makes you feel both physically and emotionally.

Mindful eating is not about dieting or deprivation. It’s about noticing, and intention, and self-compassion. You can change your relationship with food by slowing down, managing your emotions and setting up an environment for mindfully eating. As Dr. Kavita Rao puts it, ‘When you bring mindfulness to the table, you feed not only the body but also spirit and mind.’