This week, our nutrition coach talks about mindful eating and what it actually means. She is a Level 1 PN certified nutrition coach.
We hear about it often and people often ask about the importance of eating mindfully and, in general, how being more mindful helps the daily tasks we do. It is often used in combination with being present to the situations that you are in. But, no one really tells us why it is important and what it is trying to help with. Instead, mindfulness has become the new buzz word in health and wellness circles. It the word that people us to tell you the things you ‘should’ or ‘should not’ be doing. You should be aware of your hunger. You shouldn’t be eating these foods. What this ‘should’ and ‘should not’ of eating under the guise of mindfulness does is make it seem as though it is nothing new. However, it is important to separate its importance rather than being told what to do.
Re-teaching hunger and satiety cues
Mindfulness posts speak and advise to eat when hungry and stop eating when you don’t feel hungry or when you are satisfied. What this is trying to remind people is to really pay attention to what their bodies are telling them about how much they are eating. To eat slowly and notice the differences in how things around you to can stop you from noticing your satiety. Watching TV, working while eating, or whatever applies to you specifically will change how much people do or do not notice if they are still hungry. For example, some people feel like they over eat in social settings while others tend to eat less because of the talking at the table and notice their satiety cues more. We are often taught as children by adults to not waste the food that is put on your plate, which teaches us to eat passed that satiety cue.
Similarly, waiting to eat until you are hungry is just as important. Imagine using a 0 to 10 scale, 0 being you just ate and are satiated and 10 being you could eat anything in your path. Ideally, you are eating at the point of at 7 to 9 . What this does is also teaches you that hunger is not the be all, end all. Hunger should not be a time to worry that something is wrong and is an emergency state, which is a common theme in magazines. The ‘I never feel hungry and it’s great’ eye catching titles teach people that it is abnormal to be hungry, which is false. If you wait until a 10 on the hunger scale, you will probably start to be irritated and find it hard to concentrate but that is not normal hunger. Normal hunger where you have time to drink water to tie you over while you prepare and make yourself a meal is the hunger cues we are talking about.
Food choice
Mindfulness when it comes to food choices should not be taking out everything you enjoy because someone deems it unhealthy and doesn’t follow the person’s own nutrition plan. There are many ways to eat and many reasons to change what you eat, but it needs to keep you happy and the food you enjoy. That is why mindful eating should be about being conscious of how much you are eating of certain things rather than putting them into categories of should and should not. It is important to be nutritious but not so restrictive that you can’t enjoy it.
An example I always give is the idea of people going vegetarian or vegan because it is a common thing people are doing over the past year. Clients often ask me how I eat but I give them a breakdown of how my nutrition plan has changed over the years and my journey because I find that gives them the better picture and how I ended up plant-based. This plant-based wording also allows me wiggle room for when I want something that doesn't fall under the vegan umbrella or if I am visiting someone that doesn't know I would prefer not to eat animal products. I always encourage people to eat more plant based products because of health outcomes but if vegetarianism or vegan-ism is not practical for them and only causes stress, it's not a practical suggestion.
Mindful food choices also include paying attention to how your body reacts to food you eat or if certain amounts of food you eat causes discomfort. Some people can’t have large amounts of nightshade vegetables like peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, etc because they cause digestive discomfort. One wouldn’t know this until they started to really pay attention to their body’s reaction to food or, if needed, food journaling about it to keep track of foods or meals causing discomfort to find a connection.
Eating Frequency
The importance is finding what works for you while understanding your satiety and hunger. Some people do very well and are happy with grazing, or eating very small amounts throughout the day, while others stick with intermittent fasting. If you currently eat three meals a day but find you are not getting the results or feeling the way you want, eating frequency is something you could consider changing. Again, paying attention to how those changes affect your mood, hunger, and satiety is important.
This also helps when you are learning about your own experiences of over-indulging and under-indulging. Your body will tell you if have eaten too much or too little. This is where learning your hunger and satiety cues become important for after moments of over or under-indulgence. Trust your body to tell you and adapt to when that happens.
The key to mindfulness is that is should help you become aware and better figure out what works best for you. That does not only apply to nutrition; you can apply mindfulness techniques to your workouts, stress management, news consumption, everything.