If you are eating while reading this article, stop. First, read the article. Then proceed to eat focusing on nothing other than your eating and your hunger. This would be called "mindful eating."
Mindful eating has roots in Buddhist teachings and may hold one of the keys to dealing with the obesity epidemic. But mindful eating is not a diet, and it is not about giving up food. It is about limiting distractions while eating and experiencing food more completely rather than expeditiously wolfing it down between patients, for example. Several studies have shown that caloric intake increases when people are distracted while eating (for example, reading, driving, and socializing).
The opposite of mindful eating is, of course, "mindless eating." Investigators at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom evaluated the impact of different forms of distraction on eating behavior (Appetite 2013;62:119-26). A total of 81 participants were randomly allocated to one of four settings: driving, television viewing, social interaction, or being alone. The driving component was completed in a driving simulator, the television component was completed while they watched an episode of "Friends," and the social component was completed talking to one of the investigators about various topics.
In these settings, the participants received a British potato snack food called Hula Hoops and were asked to "taste test" them to justify food consumption. Measures of the desire to eat, such as hunger, fullness, and motivation to eat, were assessed before and after the intervention.
The investigators observed that individuals watching television consumed more food mass than did those in the social or driving conditions. For individuals eating alone, food consumption was associated with a reduced desire to eat. Watching television was associated with a decreased desire to eat, whereas social eating resulted in increases in the desire to eat. Interestingly, food intake was unrelated to baseline levels of hunger, fullness, or motivations to eat.
The authors suggest that distraction can focus attention away from both hunger and the process of eating. Distraction may trigger the onset of eating – but perhaps more importantly, it also may distract from the consequences of this eating, such as decreased hunger and increased fullness.
For our patients struggling with obesity, we can encourage them to focus on these consequences by limiting distractions while eating.
Dr. Ebbert is professor of medicine and a primary care clinician at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He reported having no relevant financial conflicts. The opinions expressed are those of the author.