I know the words ‘children’ and ‘mindful eating’ sound like an oxymoron, as they may conjure images of dinnertime chaos with toddlers, or the breakfast rush with teenagers. If you’re wondering how on earth your children (let alone you) can eat mindfully, I assure you, there’s many ways you can model to your kids how to become more present as they eat.
So, what exactly is mindful eating?
Mindful eating is an element of intuitive eating that is about being present and giving full attention to your eating experience. It means developing awareness of your experiences, physical cues, and feelings about food, to allow for a positive and peaceful food relationship. Mindful eating supports greater eating intuition, reduced indulgence and overeating, and increased likelihood of maintaining a healthy weight range (Harvard Medical School).
Some ways that you can promote mindful eating for your family include:
· Encourage appreciation of food. Whether it be giving thanks to God in a spiritual sense, or expressing gratitude to the people who made it, ask everyone to take a minute before eating to become present and contemplate the privilege of the meal itself.
· Remove distractions like phones and iPads, turn off the TV, put away your own work or the kids school homework. Try to keep table clutter to a minimum as the table should be a space for meals only at mealtime. Distractions reduce your child’s ability to be ‘in the moment’ and give food their full attention. Music (at an appropriate background noise level is encouraged as part of a positive emotional atmosphere)
· Asking your children questions that will encourage their awareness of the food like
‘What tastes have you got in your mouth right now?’
‘What do you like the taste of the most in this meal?’
‘How many colours can you count on your plate?’
‘What flavour combination do you like in this meal?’
· Eat slowly, which can be encouraged by conversation, storytelling, jokes, and other positive discussions between family members. Eating slowly will help your child better connect with their hunger/satiety cues and know when they have had enough to eat. Putting down cutlery in between bites and chewing slowly will help slow the eating process.
· Let little ones play with their food. This may be a tough one for parents, but kids need to develop their senses and experience all the different textures that food has to offer. This playfulness is part of being present and giving food their attention. Playing with food can help reduce fussiness as it helps them grow accustomed to unknown food or food they are wary of.
· Encourage the use of internal cues for eating. Being mindful is a part of intuitive eating which is to listen to your body’s needs rather than food rules or external expectations. Let your child eat as much or as little as they want (which may fluctuate day to day as they grow and develop), and refrain from forcing them to finish their plate or eat a certain amount.
· Talk about the food process to help your child be mindful of the origins of the ingredients and how it got to their plate. Discuss topics like farming, baking, gardening, milling, ethical responsibilities and so on. The more educated your child can be on the processes involved in the meal making process, the more mindful their future decisions can be.
Supporting your children to grow with an attitude of presence and attention as they eat will benefit their long-term food relationship. It will support their overall eating intuition and connection to their internal cues. It will encourage an appreciation and gratitude for food and the processes involved in getting onto their plate. It will promote healthier responses to stress and anxiety, as your child will better be able to discern whether they are physiologically or psychologically hungry. Mindful eating will help your child be in better control of their food choices and less influenced by external factors like diets, food rules and advertising.
Finally, keep in mind when supporting your family that there is no such thing as ‘perfect’ mindful eating. It is something to be practised and done without judgement or expectation. Happy (mindful) eating!
Alyssa
Redwood Wellbeing
Source: Harvard Health Publishing, 2016, https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/8-steps-to-mindful-eating