Just imagine, food becomes the solution, not the problem
Join us for Mindful Eating with Diane Darcy the Dietitian. Explore the practice of Mindful Eating and its application and benefits in food choice.
Mindful Eating applies mindfulness-based interventions to the practice of eating. Mindful Eating (ME) is a way to eat and observe food choice, portions, and flavors with satisfaction. The practice is based on curiosity about food and eating, not judgment about good/bad foods. The positive nature of ME helps you to think of options that can match your eating to your intended goals. ME can improve your health, well-being, and change your relationship with food.
Mindful Eating techniques
ME puts you in the driver seat to steer clear of auto-pilot eating. “ME approaches actively use observation skills of internal and external cues influencing the desire to eat.” (1). These techniques train you to start and stop an eating event; despite emotional, social, and environmental cue to eat. ME approaches are showing long term benefits not demonstrated in standard calorie restricted approaches like fad diets.
So, If you want to change your relationship with food and start your Mindful Eating journey, CPC has classes and individual appointments available with caring and experienced staff. Call to schedule your appointment today.
Support for Mindful eating Interventions
Support for Mindful Eating principles and practices is growing in popular and scientific literature. Here, we will introduce you to a few Mindful Eating topics and scientific studies on long-term benefits in health and weight outcomes.
Weight & Emotion Management. Mindfulness Based Interventions are effective in reducing weight and improving emotional, and binge eating behaviors. A comparison of 18 studies showed that ME groups continued weight loss and eating behavior changes at long-term follow up, while the standard-diet weight loss groups regained wt. (2).
Food Cravings. This 6-month study sponsored by Supporting Health by Integrating Nutrition and Exercise demonstrated that ME reduced cravings and led to weight loss at a one year follow up. (3).
Diabetes. ME interventions are as effective in promoting weight loss and blood sugar control as a Standard diabetes self-management education intervention in a three-month trial. (4).
Smaller Portions. Mindless Eating has been identified as a barrier to monitoring portion size, and leads to unconscious overconsumption of food. A study from Australia showed that ME reduced self-selected portion sizes more than everyday mindfulness practices. (5).
Binge Eating. A review of multiple studies demonstrated effective decrease in binge eating and emotional eating with mindfulness training (6).
Restaurant Eating. A small study with women observed weight loss with ME training while the women continued their usual practice to eat primarily in restaurants. (7)
Literature
- Fung TT, Long MW, Hung P, Cheung LW. (2016) An Expanded Model for Mindful Eating for Health Promotion and Sustainability: Issues and Challenges for Dietetics Practice. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2016 Jul;116(7):1081-1086.
- Carrière K, Khoury B, Günak MM, Knäuper B. (2018) Mindfulness-based interventions for weight loss: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Obesity Reviews, 19: 164–177.
- Mason A, Epel E, Aschbacher K, Lustig R, Acree M Kristeller J, Cohn M, Dallman M, Moran P, Bacchetti P, Laraia B, Hect F, Daubenmier J.. (2016) Appetite., 100:86-93.
- Miller CK, Kristeller JL, Headings A, Nagaraja H, Miser WF. (2012) Comparative effectiveness of a mindful eating intervention to a diabetes self-management intervention among adults with type 2 diabetes: a pilot study. J Acad Nutr Diet., 11:1835-1842.
- Beshara M, Hutchinson AD, Wilson C. (2013) Does mindfulness matter? Everyday mindfulness, mindful eating and self-reported serving size of energy dense foods among a sample of South Australian adults. Appetite 67:25-29.
- Katterman SN, Kleinman BM, Hood MM, Nackers LM, Corsica JA. (2014) Mindfulness meditation as an intervention for binge eating, emotional eating, and weight loss: a systematic review. Eat Behav. 2014 Apr;15(2):197-204.
- Timmerman G, Brown A. (2012) The effect of a mindful restaurant eating intervention on weight management in women. J Nutr Educ Behav. 44(1):22-28.
