5 ways to savor your food more, according to a mindfulness researcher

This story was originally published on Sept. 9, 2023, and has been updated.

You ever eat so fast that you get hiccups from just like inhaling the meal? Or bite your cheek or tongue because you mistook it for food?

Yeah, I've done it.

To slow down the pace, you'll need to practice mindful eating. That means using your senses to actually enjoy the food, taking the time to express gratitude for your meal, and making "choices that are satisfying and nourishing to the body," says Lilian Cheung, lecturer and director of Mindfulness Research and Practice in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Not only is mindful eating good for digestion, it "allows us to become much more aware of [the food] we have, how we get it and what it takes to be able to have that," she says.

How to eat more mindfully

Remove all distractions while you eat — including your cell phone. They can interfere with your ability to enjoy your food and notice when you are full. "Allocate time to eat and only eat," says Cheung. "Make sure your cell phone is face down and you're not going to be responding to any messages that come through."

See if you can stretch your mealtime to 20 minutes. Very often we find ourselves eating while doing something else, says Cheung, and that can make us eat faster than we normally would. When you sit down to eat, spend about 20 minutes doing so. "It takes about that time for your body to get the signal to the brain that you are full," she adds.

Buy time by noticing (and appreciating) all the little details about your food. You might wonder how to spend 20 whole minutes eating a sandwich. Cheung says one way to slow down is to engage your senses and think through all the details about your meal. "Ask yourself: what's on my plate? How hungry am I today? Is it too salty?" she says. Notice the smell, the texture and whatever other senses that arise as you eat.

You might also think about the effort it took to get the food on the table. If you're eating potato chips, for example, you might "thank the universe for the right climate to have that potato, the manpower engaged in making it available, the transportation to get the chips to the supermarket," she says.

Actually chew. If you're inhaling your food you're probably not chewing it. And chewing is an important part of digestion, says Cheung. It helps "break up the foods so it's easier for absorption." Look at each bite before popping it into your mouth, acknowledge what you're eating and "chew, chew, chew," she adds.

Use mealtime as a moment for reflection. Cheung shares an invocation she learned from the late Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hanh called "The Five Contemplations," outlined in his book Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life. She says that reciting these lines before meals have helped her practice mindful eating.

Reciting "The Five Contemplations" for mindful eating by the late Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hanh before a meal can help you eat more slowly and deliberately, says Lilian Cheung, a lecturer and the director of Mindfulness Research and Practice in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

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Kaz Fantone

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NPR

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