Mindful Eating Facts

•  Mindfulness is a practice allowing a person to recognize and cope with emotions and physical concerns.
• The practice of mindful eating involves an awareness of food and drink entering the body in the moment.
• Mindful eating requires acceptance and acknowledgment of thought, feelings, and sensations, rather than rushing through a meal.
•  Benefits of mindful eating include reduced stress, increased pleasure from food, improved digestion, healthier eating habits, and feeling full sooner.
• Mindful eating practices allow a person to challenge and cope with food-related anxiety and guilt, while learning to appreciate food. in a healthy way
• Teaching mindful eating is helpful in addressing various health conditions, such as eating disorders, anxiety, depression, and conditions related to maladaptive eating habits.

Mindful Eating Around the Globe

• The customs and habits of eating vary according to culture.
•  Accessibility of food is different in various countries, or even between urban and rural areas.
• In India, many persons eat with their hands, and they do not use utensils. These individuals have described using utensils as difficult and distracting from the ability to enjoy the food.
• While Americans use utensils to eat, some mindful eating programs encourage eating with hands instead, in order to slow down food intake.
• Some cultures, such as India, value silence during mindful eating. However, other cultures, such as the Dominican Republic, reduce silence when using mindful eating.
• In China, mindful eating involves calming the body prior to eating and considering body sensations, environmental factors, and monitoring thoughts and emotions with each bite.
• Mindful eating practices in China also encourage awareness of various types of hunger — eye, nose, mouth, ear, stomach, emotional, and cellular hungers. This involves an awareness of what is making one feel hungry or crave a particular food.
• Connections between maladaptive eating habits and mental triggers are addressed in Chinese literature as well, such as trust issues fueling overeating.
• Germany has mindful eating meetups, in which participants can cook and eat together, supporting mindful eating practices and meeting new people.

Summary of Early Findings Relevant to the Goals

• The initial hour or research focused on mindful eating facts, in general and in various areas of the globe. Information was found related to mindful eating in the United States, India, Dominican Republic, China, and Germany.
• The following recommendations were developed based on the initial hour of research, in order to answer the remaining research questions.