HEALTH

Mindful Eating V/S Mind Full Eating

Malvika Gupta is an Aspiring Nutritionist and currently in the second phase of her Master’s in Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics. Also, a founder of ‘mindfuleating.co’, which is aimed at spreading awareness on yoga, health, wellness and nutrition. She is also a Yoga and Meditation enthusiast and has been practicing teaching people through online sessions. She is also a part-time volunteer at the Art of Living organization and organizes and coordinate for the ‘Youth Empowerment Seminars’ and the ‘Online Breath and Meditation Workshops’, which are known to help people with stress management, life skills and general self-help practices through yoga, pranayama and meditation. She has also worked as a counselor with Teach for Change organization & currently doing her research on Mindful Eating and personally, strongly believes in this practice along with the consumption of wholesome foods, following certain lifestyle practices and sees it as a direction towards healthy living.

What is Mindful Eating? Framson et al. 2009 described “Mindful eating” as a non-judgmental awareness of physical and emotional sensations associated with eating”. It involves eating with total attention, awareness, and enjoying the food wholeheartedly while being in the present moment. In today’s era, it’s become really natural for people to get distracted while consuming their meals. It is often seen that we are caught up into doing some or the other activity while we eat our meals. As the generations have evolved, we have become very close to our gadgets and smart devices, and have undoubtedly started using it in a “not so smart” manner. We sit and eat in front of the Television, Binge watch shows, scroll through social media, talk over the phone or chattering with people, checking messages, all of it while eating! In simple words, mindful eating is described as the act of eating slowly; not being involved in any other activity while eating, such as reading a book, watching television, scrolling or conversing over the phone, doing an assignment or eating only when hungry and stopping when one is full. It also includes responding to food with a non-judgmental attitude; opting for foods that are nourishing, nutritious and enjoyable by activating all the senses while enjoying the meal; like being aware of the act of unmindful eating (e.g., eating out of boredom).

What is “Mind Full” Eating? Being ‘Mind Full’, as the name suggests involves a state where the mind is full of thoughts, hankering on to experiences from the past, latching on to pleasant or unpleasant memories and losing onto the precious - ‘present moment’. It is described as the opposite of ‘Mindfulness’ where the individual may be living either in the past or in the future, instead of the present. “Mind Full” Eating or “Mindless” Eating is usually observed when one does not bother to pay any attention to their external or internal body cues.Our bodies are constantly communicating to us by sending signals from our brain to the gut and vice versa. Choosing to consciously listen to these signals and responding to the body according to its needs can really do wonders! Eating Mindlessly has been linked tolesser nutrient absorption, decreased assimilation of food, inability to regulate the food intake and an increase in the weight of the individuals leading to high chances of obesity.

Factors that Influence Mind Full Eating: Emotions: This involves eating in response to certain emotions; for eg: eating when feeling low or sad. It is often seen that a person may consume foods either in excess or restrain themselves in response to certain emotions like depression, anxiety, mood disorders, etc. Eating foods in large quantities in response to certain emotions like boredom, stress, anger, sadness, fear, trying to suppress or soothe the negative emotions has been termed as “Emotional Eating’.

Gadgets: A lot of us are really used to eating along with our gadgets. Like talking on the phone, watching a movie, scrolling through social media, etc. Research has shown that there is a higher energy or fat

intake due to snacking in front of the TV.

Social Gathering: The behavioural attributes of eating companions can also affect food intake and the nature of mindful eating. Both family and friends tend to affect people’s eating behaviour. Some of us tend be more comfortable around people who may be known and eat without shying away whereas; a few may find eating to be task when surrounded by strangers or unknown people.There are also different studies which reportthat meals eaten with family and spouse are larger and eaten faster, whereas meals eaten with friends are of longer duration.

Food advertisements: It has been proved that the food advertisements have an effect on our food consumption habits. It has been observed that, foods that are heavily advertised are the ones that involve the maximum consumption and those which are under-advertised are consumed less.

Food pricing: It has been explained that the pricing of the food may also play a role in determining our food consumption. If we find something that may be a little less expensive, we tend to overdo it by buying in excess which may ultimately lead to over consumption. It is also very interesting to note that food pricing may not only affectthe quantity of food but also the types of foods that are being consumed. What are the Benefits of Mindful Eating? 1. Helps in Weight loss and Lowering the BMI 2. Helps in Weight Maintenance – This may be extremely beneficial for those who may be finding it hard to follow a diet plan in the long run.

Lowers the possibilities of Binge Eating Helps in regulating emotions Decreased Food Cravings Reduces the levels of Stress Enables you to enjoy the food, wholeheartedly

How to practise Mindful Eating? 1. Firstly, sit down either cross legged i.e sukhasana or on the dining table.

Sukhasana or pleasant pose is also known to aid in digestion and absorption of the food and has been our age old Indian traditional pose. 2. Take a moment to be grateful for the food on your plate. You can also chant a small prayer to express your gratefulness. 3. Keep your gadgets away. Either put them on silent or switch it off. 4. Chew every bite of your meal. Take time to enjoy and savour every bit of your food. Chewing your food well would make the process of digestion much easier. So chew well! 5. Stop eating when full! Listen and respect the signals that the body is sending you. It is trying to communicate to you every moment.

When feeling too stressed, take some deep breaths and a few minutes relax yourself before you start eating. This would help in lowering the stress levels and ease up the digestion. Three quick tips to get over those Sugar Cravings: It is often seen that one may feel the urge or the craving to consume something sweet. This is especially very common when one may be feeling too stressed or may just be into a habit of consuming something sweet post their meals.

HEALTH |

Here are 3 quick tips for you to overcome those sweet cravings! 1. Stay Well Hydrated: Dehydration can be seen as a very common cause for those Cravings of sugar. So make sure you take in sufficient amount of fluids during the day. 2. Eat more Proteins and Fibre Rich Foods to keep yourself fuller:

Consuming meals with sufficient amount of protein and fibre rich foods helps curb those sugar cravings. This occurs due to the increasing levels of dopamine i.e the brain’s reward hormone!

3. Replace your white sugar with Jaggery, Dates, Brown sugar, Figs, Dates, Coconut sugar, Dark Chocolate, etc. Consumption of white sugar has been known to decrease the levels of immunity. A research study done by Loma Linda University where different forms of sugar were provided to the participants, found that the effectiveness of the immune cells i.e white blood cells had reduced up to 50% lasting upto 5 hours, after just 1-2 hours of consuming sugar.

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