Your eating habits—what you constantly eat and drink—are the most important factors affecting your health. Health is defined as a state of complete physical, mental, spiritual, and social well-being.
Knowing food items and how they affect your health when making food choices is a big step towards protecting and improving your health.
The Nutrients
Foods contain groups called "nutrients":
- Proteins
- Fats
- Carbohydrates
- Minerals
- Vitamins
- Water
After getting to know nutrients, the second step is knowing how much and when to consume them. Eating correctly means creating a sufficient and balanced combination of healthy foods tailored to you.
Transforming these changes into habits is the most important part, because often we fail to change our habits even when we know they are wrong. Whether your diet affects your health positively or negatively depends on how long you apply it. Eating well for just one meal or one day won't bring benefits, just as the opposite won't cause immediate harm.
How do we reach this mindfulness?
The answer starts with knowing ourselves. You need to analyze the factors affecting your diet, your health status, your needs, environmental factors, and your psychology well.
If you work in a company or are a student, or if you work shifts, you may not have the opportunity to find the food you want at any moment. Besides, if you are a vegetarian, a ketogenic diet will not suit you, just as aiming to consume only vegetables will not suit you in the long run if the cuisine you are used to is meat-heavy.
Our health status is a very important determinant for our food choices. Metabolic diseases such as diabetes, blood pressure, kidney function problems require special nutrition. Our social and economic status also affects our food choices.
You have all the rational information about yourself, you know what to eat, but your psychology comes into play when selecting and consuming food. Mindful nutrition requires you to question whether you are meeting your emotional and physical needs while choosing and consuming food. Often, what we eat without thinking or realizing is not correct in terms of amount and variety.
What is the benefit of mindful nutrition?
The habit of mindful nutrition describes knowing and applying what to eat, how much, when, and why. Mindful eating should continue until the food on your plate is finished.
If you eat knowing what you are eating and how much you need, you reduce the risk of overeating. If you know every food according to its nutrients and the benefit-harm characteristics it provides us, you will know how your diet will affect your health in the long run.
3 Functions of Nutrients in the Body
- Energy: Proteins, carbohydrates, and fats are the body's energy sources. We need energy not only for our activities but also for our organs to work, for the absorption of food, and for growing during the growth age. Taking enough energy is important for the continuity of body functions.
- Structure: Proteins and minerals like calcium are the building blocks of the body. Our muscles, bones, and teeth are formed from these.
- Regulation: They take part in the synthesis of hormones and enzymes, in the balance of body fluid, and in many metabolic events.
5 Questions for Mindful Eating
"What is my intention?" should be the first question every time before starting to eat.
1. Intention
Does this food serve my intention? If we are athletes, does it help our performance? If we want to lose weight, does it help us lose fat? If we are children, does it help us grow? Remembering our intention before eating should be our first step in mindful eating.
2. What?
Do you know the food on your plate? What is its nutritional content? Is your plate carbohydrate-heavy or protein/fat? Is it natural, processed, or packaged? What does the label say?
3. How Much?
Remember that "amount" is what makes nutrition sufficient and balanced. Eating more than you need, even of a very healthy food, will be harmful. Remember that the dose makes the poison. Your goal should be to consume a balanced amount from all food groups.
4. When?
Eating at the right time is crucial to use the effects of food on structure/regulation and to spend the energy we get. "Right time" changes based on how you live your day. It is correct to take higher energy when energy needs are high, and lower energy when the body slows down.
5. Why?
Am I really hungry? Or am I eating to complete my daily nutritional needs, or because of emotions like accompanying someone, forgetting something, or sharing my joy?
Why do we do this?
The contribution of correct nutrition to total health is huge. When we know foods correctly, place them correctly in our lives, and are aware of what we eat, our emotions, and our needs at the moment of eating, we will have started a healthy diet that is special to us.
Then there is one more important step: to continue and turn it into a habit.