8 Tips for Mindful Eating

It’s not only what you eat, but also how you eat that counts. We all know that giving up our favourite, if unhealthy, foods is hard, and maintaining a healthy weight is a big challenge for many people. One way to control what you eat and how much you eat, is to focus on how you eat. This involves less sacrifice than changing the what, but it is a good first step on your road to permanent change.

Here are 8 good habits to adopt.

1. Only eat at the table

Eating while standing, walking, in the car, on the keyboard, etc. leads to stress, tension, and the need for more "comfort food" to combat the stress.

 2. Only eat plated food

Eating from the pot or pan, or other people's leftovers, etc., creates an illusion that what was eaten in such a manner does not count towards total caloric intake. If you only eat your food from a plate, the limits of your eating are the limits of the plate, verses - the limits being the walls of the house (if you eat from pots or leftovers or whatever is in the house)

 3. Take small bites, no more than half a mouthful

Filling the entire mouth and swallowing quickly to take the next bite means that subtle flavours are lost, food is not chewed properly and becomes harder to digest.

 4. Put the fork down between bites

Loading up the next forkful of food before your mouth is ready for it. See number 3 - the poorly chewed food will slow down the digestive process, which in turn will delay the feeling of satiety. You continue eating, even though you have eaten enough already, gas forms (the familiar bloating), resulting in abdominal pain.

 5. Chew each bite twenty times

Too few chews (4-5) before swallowing ensures that food is swallowed in chunks rather than the fine pulp our stomachs require. Consequently, the stomach is forced do the work of the teeth, which causes swelling and abdominal pain. Larger than necessary quantities are swallowed before satiety signals reach our brain. The added benefit of chewing slowly and repeatedly is the release of additional and more subtle flavours and a more enjoyable eating experience.

 6. Eat with a fork, not a soupspoon

 Using a fork ensures we take in smaller quantities of food. Using a spoon will result in larger bite sizes as discussed above.

 7. Eat mindfully. Focus exclusively on your food, minimize conversation while eating.

Eating distractedly - in front of the TV, while reading messages/a newspaper/on the phone, or holding lively conversations with others while eating distracts us from the eating experience. Our senses are not involved, and we miss out on experiencing the texture, flavour, and smell of the food. mostly we do not remember what we ate and what the experience was like. We eat too quickly and too much.

 8. Avoid shared food bowls and multiple courses

Shared food bowls, common in some cultures, have people dipping in and tasting from the shared bowls or platters, rather than eating one plated dish. The problem is that it is very hard to keep track of how much food has actually been consumed, especially if there are many courses. We eat too much and we are not able to read our body’s satiety signals.