MINDFUL EATING: CULTIVATING A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOD
Food is an important part of our life. Food provides nourishment and enhances our wellbeing. Building a healthy relationship with food is a must in order to ensure we enjoy the food we eat and live a healthy life. Practicing mindfulness with eating pattern helps us become more aware, appreciative and helps us create a deeper connection with food. It helps us become more aware about our body’s clues for hungry and satiety as well as the sensory experience of eating. Mindful eating is not only about our way of eating but it starts from the purchase of the food and lasts till we experience the positive nourishment after finishing the meals.
Following are a few tips to develop a healthy and balanced relationship with food via mindful eating:
1. Create a shopping list with mindfulness: Before you plan your trip to the supermarket, create your shopping list. Encouraging all family members to contribute to this list will help in creating awareness about nutritious food among children. Ensure to avoid / reduce the number of processed and packaged food items. Add in more of wholesome / unprocessed foods in order to keep the entire household healthy.
2. Involvement of all family members in the cooking / preparation of meals: Sharing kitchen responsibilities among the family members not only reduce stress but also helps create positive bonding in the family. Encouraging children to help with washing / cleaning / arranging groceries also inculcates values of independence as well as appreciativeness in them, thus building their personality as well as creating a positive relation with food.
3. Recognizing hunger and satiety clues and mindfully controlling portions: Listening to our body and eating only when you start feeling hungry and not because it’s time for your meal as well as stopping to eat because your body feels satiated and not overeating because the plate is not yet empty are the ways in which you can cautiously take decisions to control the portion size of your meals.
4. Engaging all senses while eating: Ensure to look, smell, feel, hear and then taste your food. All our 5 senses need to be involved while we eat our food. This will ensure that we are fully present not just physically but also mentally and emotionally while eating our meals.
5. Practice gratitude and appreciation: Acknowledge the efforts and resources that have been used in preparing the meals you consume. Reflect on the journey of the food from farm to plate and express your gratitude for the nourishment it provides.
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6. Eliminate distractions: Minimize distractions while eating. Keep screens away while having a meal. Eat in a calm, quite space in order to engage fully with your meal.
Practicing these mindful eating habits, will help foster a healthy relationship with food, enhance your appreciation for the nourishment it provides and promote overall wellbeing. Mindful eating evolves over time and each meal is an opportunity for growth and self-awareness.
-Smeetal Furtado Smeetal Pereira , Senior Nutritionist and Dietitian – Qua Nutrition Clinics
???? Meet Smeetal: Smeetal is a Microbiology graduate with a Post Graduate Diploma in Quality Assurance in Food and Pharmaceutical Industries, and a Master’s in Foods, Nutrition, and Dietetics.
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