Mindful Eating Demystified Future

Can you recall what you ate in the last few hours? What ingredients were present in your last meal or do you remember the sensations of eating it? You would even be pardoned for forgetting what food you had for dinner last night. As per research released by The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), on an average Indians spend an hour and 27 minutes of their day gulping down their food in comparison to countries such as France who spend 2 hours and 13 minutes on their meals per day.

The worst part is that even during the limited time that we dedicate to eating our meals, more than 50% of the time we are doing something else such as watching television, gaming, working, reading or simply fiddling on our electronic devices. And this epidemic of lack of awareness about the food that we eat may be responsible for some major health issues or poor nourishment. Therefore, how we eat is as important if not more important than what we eat.

Before we get our hands on the concept of Mindful Eating, it would be helpful to become familiar with the meaning of mindfulness.

The term mindfulness was coined by Zen Philosopher, Jon Kabat-Zinn as “paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally”. Simply put, it is the ability to be fully present and engaged with whatever we are doing at the present moment and it has a plethora of benefits such as decreased stress, and increased levels of focus and general wellbeing.

Mindful eating is applying the tenets of mindfulness or ability to be in the present moment to eating. It is an invitation to always be aware of what’s on our plate, whenever and wherever we eat. It makes us more watchful about what we are eating and helps in transforming our relationship with food by encouraging us to focus on both the how & why of eating.

Bringing mindfulness to the table means a kinder, gentler approach to eating. The focus isn’t necessarily on changing the food we eat (though it can be); it’s on changing our perspective around food. The result is we have a better understanding of what and how much food nourishes us and what doesn’t. We also develop a deeper gratitude for each meal, each mouthful, and each ingredient.