Presentation intended for middle school students on mindful eating.

1. Mindful Eating
Kacee Stagg, Dietetic Intern

2. Hello!
My name is Kacee Stagg
I am a Dietetic Intern at Calpoly and want to spread
the word about mindful eating to younger audiences.
2

3. Mindful Eating
Exercise
3

4. Topics
● What is Mindful Eating?
● Why Practice Mindful Eating?
● Mindless Eating
● Principles of Mindful Eating
4

5. What is Mindful
Eating?
Mindfulness: a form of meditation that
helps you recognize and cope with your
emotions and physical sensations
It has helped treat many conditions,
including eating disorders, depression,
and anxiety
Mindful Eating uses mindfulness to
reach a state of full attention to your
experiences with food.
5

6. 6
Someone who eats mindfully
acknowledge that there is no
right or wrong way to eat --
everyone has their own unique
experience with food.

7. What is Mindful Eating?
Learning to TRUST your body.
× Eating with awareness: Paying attention to the present
moment when choosing, preparing, and eating your food
× Being present for each sensation of the experience of
eating
× Becoming aware of physical hunger and fullness cues to
guide your decisions to begin and end eating
7

8. Why Practice
Mindful Eating?
× Focus on enjoying food and the eating
experience
× Learn to recognize a comfortable level of fullness
× Respond to food cravings in healthful ways
8

9. Three Themes of
Mindful Eating
Thoughts
Wheredid the
ingredientscome
from? Howwas it
prepared?
Whatare thecolors,
smells,textures?
Emotions
What kind of
emotions does this
food evoke?
Happiness? Guilt?
Satisfaction?
Physical Sensations
Are you actually hungry
right now? How hungry
are you?
9

10. Mindless Eating
10

11. Mindless Eating
Eating without considering what you are doing
× Eating when you are already full.
× Eating just because there is still food on your plate
× Eating when you’re bored.
11

12. 12
● Binge eating
○ Eating large amounts of food in a short amount
of time
● Emotional eating
○ Eating in response to certain emotions
● Eating in response to environmental cues, such as
sight or smell of food
Mindless Eating
Leads to...

13. 13
Activity:
Charades

14. 14
Can you think of any other situations when you might eat without
really paying attention to your food?
Mindless Eating
● Hanging out with friends
● Food is on the table
● Avoiding homework

15. Principles of
Intuitive
Eating
15

16. 16
Mindful Eating is NOT a diet.
● It does not guarantee weight loss or weight gain
● It may help you reach your body’s set-point
○ The weight where your body functions most
optimally
There are foods more nourishing than others, but this does
not mean certain foods aren’t “allowed”
● When you view food as food, your body is able to
decide what it wants and needs -- not you, or a diet,
or a meal plan.

17. Reject the Diet
Mentality
- Diets are set up for failure
- Research shows that the act of dieting increases
risk of gaining weight
17

18. 18

19. 19
Cope with Your
Emotions Without
Using Food
What are some examples?

20. Honor Your Hunger
× Hunger is a normal biological process
× Your body needs to know that it consistently will
have access to food
If you don’t eat when you’re hungry = cravings
and binges
20

21. - Allow all foods into your diet and allow
yourself to eat whatever you want.
- Restriction-->deprivation--> overeating
→ guilt
Make Peace with
Food
21

22. Any questions?
22

23. References
× Fletcher, M. (2016, January 26). What is Mindful Eating? Retrieved from
https://www.mindful.org/what-is-mindful-eating/
× 8 Steps to Mindful Eating. (2016, January). Retrieved from
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/8-steps-to-mindful-eating
× Pierson S, Goto K, Giampaoli J, Wylie A. Impact of a pilot mindful eating
intervention on food-related behaviors among elementary school children
and parents. CAND Annual Conference and Expo, April, 2017; McClellan,
CA.
23