Real World Nutrition Podcast Episode 8: Mindful and Mindless Eating

Moving from Mindless to Mindful Eating

Have you heard these terms: mindless eating and mindful eating? Even if you knew of these terms, you might not know the meanings or the absolute difference.

Starting with the basics and what these terms mean:

Mindless is an adjective with several definitions, but in this case, it refers to a repetitive task that is often mechanical, automatic, routine, or robotic. It takes little consciousness to do it. For example, think about that drive home from work without even thinking about it. It is so routine that if you mean to stop for an errand on the way home, you miss the turn-off entirely since the mind is automatically taking you home.

Mindful, another adjective is the opposite of mindless. Mindful is where one is aware, almost hyper-aware, conscious of, alive, sensible, and alert. So, for example, when concentrating on the directions to a new place, you have to turn down the radio to see better.

How does this apply to eating?

Mindless eating happens a lot more often than people realize. For example, eating fries in the car without registering, eating them until they are gone, eating the snack chips while watching television or popcorn at a movie, and eating it all because it is there.

Mindfully mindful eating uses all five senses without distractions, not talking, reading, or listening to music or television. But, of course, it takes time and patience to do it "right." Seriously, it takes five minutes to eat a single raisin.

More About Mindless Eating

Many things contribute to mindless eating, but the most common reasons are distracted eating and not knowing the amount of food consumed.

Mindless eating isn’t always a conscious “binge.:

Some examples include:

Eating in the car,
Eating while watching television or a movie or sporting event,
Eating while socializing,
Eating directly from the package – such as grabbing the bag of chips or the ice cream container and eating directly from there. It is easy to lose track.
Eating when hungry results in eating fast; before you know it, you have eaten more than is comfortable.
Eating just because food is there, such as eating food from your kids' plate, because there are cookies on the counter, or you are at a social event and want to do something.

Consequences of Mindless Eating

Unsurprisingly, one of the significant consequences of mindless eating is overeating. Eating while distracted or without consciousness portions can easily lead to overeating. And eating when overly hungry can cause overeating because it takes time for the brain to get the message of "enough already.”

And what happens if overeating happens often? Potential weight gains due to excess calories coming in. If there is an imbalance of calories consumed versus calories expended through physical activity, weight gain is likely. Rarely is it that someone sits and eats a whole bag of carrots or grape tomatoes, but it can happen.

Another thing that can happen is a spiral or cycle of emotional eating. After an occurrence of overeating and not feeling great about doing so can result in another bout of emotional overeating because of the negative feelings associated with overeating in the first place.

While it is easy to say, please don't do that anymore; it isn't always so simple. Recognizing it is happening and making behavior and environmental modifications can help.

For example, if eating the whole container of ice cream is just too easy, 1) buy smaller containers of ice cream, single-serve items, or 2) don't buy it but choose to go out for ice cream or shake. If there are specific "trigger" foods for overeating (mine used to be Oreos), get them out of the house. You know what works best for you.

More About Mindful Eating

While some people use mindful and intuitive eating interchangeably, they are different.

Mindful eating has you slow down and be fully in tune with all tastes and textures of the food. It can use all five senses: sight, smell, taste, touch, and sound. It is about awareness and intention.

Taste and smell are closely related. When it comes to food, taste drives food choices above all else.

Before taking a bite, there are other things to consider, such as the environment and things going on nearby.

While I love a good get-together with friends or having a fantastic dining experience with my husband, practicing mindful eating would remove all these distractions, and we would be alone with our thoughts, mainly about the food in front of us.

The texture and sight of the food will be considered first. The texture (feel) of food and its looks will affect our choices and determine whether we will even consider a bite. If our salmon was gray or our broccoli was yellow, it may change whether we would consider eating it. Think about that.

Does food have a sound? Indeed, there is a sound in the cooking process, but does the food have sound?

A common food used in a mindful eating “exercise.”

In mindful eating, eating is the only "activity" happening. It takes time, and putting the fork down between bites is essential. And while eating, all components of the food are apparent, the five tastes are more evident, and there is often a deeper appreciation for the food, no matter what. Of course, you don't have to chew something 50 times, but it is not scarfing food.

Consequences of Mindful Eating

What is the benefit of eating mindfully? Never mind that eating five bites takes 20 minutes but eating more mindfully will often lead to eating less. Taking the time and savoring foods is beneficial because many people will realize that they are just fine with less food. And it can also lead to making healthier choices. For example, people have told me that after eating more mindfully, they don't enjoy fast food but want quality food. And there is nothing wrong with swapping low-quality food for higher-quality food.

But again, it takes more time and can lead to an appearance of being anti-social, which isn't always bad. I don't think most mindful people do this with all meals. But it is a great exercise to increase awareness.

If you want to try it to get an idea of what it includes, watch this video, Mindful Eating: The Raisin Exercise.

And if you are not a fan of raisins, I now do this exercise with a peanut M&M.

Mindless and Mindful: Balance

I don't imagine mindless eating will completely disappear with increased awareness and that adopting eating mindfully in all instances is not practical for most people. However, knowledge of these two concepts' often helps reduce mindless eating episodes and increase mindfulness.

Next time you find yourself eating mindlessly, you can stop, acknowledge it, and hopefully slow down or put the food away.

After trying mindful eating, you may find you can appreciate food more and end up eating less.

What do you think? Did you know about these two concepts and their differences before reading this? Or were these new ideas?