Canada’s New Food Guide – Be Mindful

Canada’s Food Guide also comes with some recommendations to make healthy eating easier.

Be Mindful of Your Eating Habits

Being mindful of your eating habits means being aware of:

• how you eat
• why you eat
• what you eat
• when you eat
• where you eat
• how much you eat

Being mindful can help you:

• make healthier choices more often
• make positive changes to routine eating behaviours
• be more conscious of the food you eat and your eating habits
• create a sense of awareness around your every day eating decisions
• reconnect to the eating experience by creating an awareness of your:
• feelings
• thoughts
• emotions
• behaviours

How to be mindful of your eating habits

Work these ideas into your life to help you be mindful of your eating habits.

• Create a healthy eating environment
• Your eating environment changes depending on where you live, learn, work and play. Focus your attention on eating and your eating environment.
• Regardless of where you are, try to make changes to your surroundings so that the healthy choice is the easy choice.
• Use your senses

Being mindful of the foods you are eating can encourage you to pay attention to the smells, textures, flavours and the taste of your food. Know your likes and dislikes using those senses. This can help connect you to your eating experience and be more conscious of the food you are eating.

Consider your eating habits

Think about the last meal or snack that you had.

Can you describe:

• how you ate?
• did you eat slowly?
• were you distracted?
• did you eat with others?
• why you ate?
• were you hungry?
• was it offered to you?
• what you ate?
• what food and drink did you have?
• when you ate?
• what time was it?
• how long had it been since the last time you ate?
• where you ate?
• were you in a space meant for eating?
• how much you ate?
• how much food and drink did you have?

Being able to recall and describe answers to these questions means you were likely being mindful of your eating habits and may control what you eat and how you eat.

https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/healthy-eating-recommendations/be-mindful-of-your-eating-habits/