What is mindful eating
La mindful eating o "Art of presence while eating" (that is, paying attention to our food, on purpose, moment by moment, without judgment) is an approach to food that focuses on the sensual awareness that each individual should have towards food .
It has little to do with calories, carbohydrates, fat or protein. The purpose of aconscious nutrition it is not to lose weight, although it is very likely that those who adopt this style of nutrition will lose weight.
The intention is to help people ad savor the moment and the food and encourage their full presence for the food experience. Conscious eating is a judgmental acceptance of physical and emotional feelings while eating or in a food environment.
Conscious food constructs include the recognize one's cues of hunger and physical satiety in order to make decisions about what food and how much to eat, to choose nutritious and enjoyable foods, not to participate in other activities while eating and to know the consequences of an unhealthy diet.
Different types of hunger
"When you are hungry, eat". Easier said that done. Before focusing on mindfulness while we eat, we must become aware of what makes us eat.
Often people say they eat because they are hungry, but if they are asked to describe how they know they are hungry, they cannot give an answer. This is because they are there different types of hunger, each of which is linked to sensory experiences that embrace the body as a whole (mind and heart).
Thanks to mindfulness it is possible to untangle and separate the different levels: hunger for the eyes, hunger for touch, ears, mouth, stomach, cellular hunger, hunger for the mind and for the heart.
Practicing mindful eating will be difficult at first. As with all things, the more you try and practice it, the more familiar it becomes and gives us awareness.
La mindful eating in letteratura
The nascent scientific literature onconscious nutrition shows success in raising awareness and promising but less robust results with anthropometric biomarkers of healthy weight regulation.
Conscious eating is an emerging healthy weight regulation approach that has the potential to address the challenges clients and patients face with healthy weight regulation, but more research is needed to confirm which health outcomes will consistently be impacted.
