Many of the most common diseases and conditions are caused by an unhealthy lifestyle. Sedentary lifestyle, smoking, drinking alcohol and unbalanced diet are just some of the main causes. When we talk about healthy eating, we must consider not only what affects the quality and preparation of the food we eat. The way we eat is also important and necessary to avoid physical problems and diseases.

feeding patterns.

Eating style is how we relate to food. In other words, both rely on a stimulus that acts as a trigger to eat, regardless of our body’s internal cues, such as hunger or satiety.

The first eating pattern is the restrictive one, which is often associated with strict diets and taboos. The second eating style is the emotional style, that is, the way you deal with your feelings through food. Finally, we deal with external food when the need to eat is caused by external factors: smell, color, or simply because the dish is in front of us.

You can certainly recognize one (or all) of these eating patterns, but you rarely stop to believe you’re eating just because you have a plate in front of you or because this particular smell has awakened your desire to eat. The goal of the mindfoodness app is to make you aware of these types of behaviors so you can follow them.

What is mindful eating?

Mindful eating is an adaptation of Mindfoodness. The similarity with the term vigilance is not accidental, in fact it can be said that mindful eating is the application of mindfulness to food. If mindfulness is about self-awareness and the need to pay full attention to each moment, then mindful eating is about the need to pay attention to what we eat and how we eat.

Emotions have a lot to do with the way we eat, as we’ve explained in previous posts, just as we do with food cravings. Stress and anxiety not only make us eat more calorie foods, but also make us eat faster, without chewing properly and without paying attention to food.

The emotional component of eating is important, so if we are aware of it and try to avoid some of the harmful behaviors that it drives us, we can avoid many digestive and nutritional problems. This is what makes mindful eating a great tool for improving our eating habits.

In short, mindful eating or mindful eating is a change in the way we interact with food, from a more emotional point of view. It’s not a diet, it doesn’t ban or encourage any particular food, it doesn’t try to make us lose weight or function from a nutritional standpoint, it just tries to get us to eat well mentally and emotionally.

Mindful eating: the benefits.

We all live our lives at a very fast pace these days. Everything happens quickly and under the pressure of a watch constantly latent in the air. We also put all that stress on the table by making us eat quickly without thinking about what we’re putting in our mouths and without asking ourselves if our body really needs every bite we take. We’re just doing it to finish it as soon as possible and move on to the next thing.

Conscious eating (or mindful food) aims to do just the opposite: to develop greater self-awareness and self-control in relation to food, and to pay attention to the signals our bodies send to us, which we often don’t realize or ignore, in order to make them. The act of eating something is more rational and not mechanical. The benefits of mindful eating are many and we can notice them in a very short time. Here are some of the main benefits of mindful food.

1. Helps prevent obesity. This way of eating makes us pay more attention to the hunger signals our bodies send to us. If we eat with every spoonful in mind, we can determine when we are full and avoid overeating. Likewise, we can avoid emotional hunger, or the desire to eat, when we are stressed or excited. All this means that we eat exactly what we need and avoid excessive consumption that can lead to obesity.
2. improves digestion; Eating calmly, chewing food properly, and a long time between bites can help prevent indigestion and digestive problems. Many people who complain of digestive issues can find solutions to their problems by eating in a more relaxed and mindful way.
3. Avoid freaks. If you stop to analyze what you eat throughout the day, you will realize that many of the meals you eat are not related to your actual need to eat, but are merely temptations that have nothing to do with hunger. Mindful eating will help you discover these needs and stick to what your body requires and needs.
4. Quantity improvement. We are taught from an early age that it is rude to leave food on the plate, so most of us tend to finish whatever is in front of us, no matter how long we are fed. The result is that at many meals we eat far more than the body really needs. Mindful eating will help us detect these amounts, allowing us to realize how much we really need and avoid making the same mistake over and over again.

In short, mindful eating will help us avoid all bad eating behaviors that ultimately harm our health. If we start with a balanced diet and add to it the right diet, we get the perfect mix.

How to use Mindfoodness?

In order to apply mindful eating in our daily life, it is necessary to pay attention to our diet in a holistic way, that is, taking into account behavioral, emotional and cognitive factors. Only through self-awareness will we be able to discover the stimuli that make us eat, the signals our bodies send to us, and achieve self-control.

There are a number of activities and exercises that can help us achieve mindful eating, but we must remember that it takes will and time. Therefore, we must implement a series of instructions to facilitate this.

1. You must learn to separate real hunger from emotional hunger.
2. Savor and savor every bite as you learn to recognize the signals of satiety your body is sending you.
3. It is important to eat without distractions, i.e. turn off the TV and mobile phone away from you and constantly focus on what you eat.
4. Another good way is to write down everything you eat in your journal.
5. It is important to chew every bite well and eat in a more relaxed and calm manner.

Eating mindfulness is not something that can be achieved in just a few days. But with time and will, this goal can be achieved and can make you eat healthier, avoiding digestive problems and other diseases.