If you’re shifting away from diets and leaning into mindful eating, you’ll want to get your hands on the best resources. With so many books to explore, it’s challenging to know which to turn to. To help you narrow it down, I’ve created a list of the top mindful eating books on the market.
In addition to the following mindful eating books, don’t forget to check out the best intuitive eating books and the comprehensive guide to intuitive eating to assist you in building a nurturing relationship with food.
Since Amazon is an easy place to purchase books (whether digital or paper), I’ve included links to purchase the books or audiobooks there. But, if you want to go the sustainable secondhand route, Thriftbooks is my favorite place to get gently used books and give an old book new life. (Use the link above to get a free book after your first $30 order!).
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What is mindful eating?
Mindful eating emphasizes giving your full attention to the experience of eating. It’s an eating approach that involves being present and aware of your senses while eating a meal.
Mindful eating encourages you to savor every bite, slow down, and truly acknowledge the flavors, aromas, and textures of the food you eat.
Recognizing the different types of hunger, removing distractions while eating, cultivating a peaceful environment for meals, and developing a sense of gratitude for food are all key principles of mindful eating.
How can mindful eating improve your health?
Mindful eating is associated with multiple benefits related to physical health and emotional well-being. You may experience the following benefits when you adopt a mindful eating approach.
- Improved digestion: Research shows that mindful eating could improve digestion by lowering stress levels, reducing overeating, and chewing food more slowly.
- Increased awareness of hunger and fullness cues: Mindful eating may help you reconnect with your natural hunger signals, which are typically ignored while dieting.
- Better appreciation for food: Tapping into your senses to acknowledge scents, flavors, and textures may encourage a deeper appreciation for what’s on your plate.
- Enhanced pleasure and satisfaction from meals: Removing distractions, slowing down, and savoring every bite could allow you to experience more pleasure from food.
- Improved mind-body connection: Being entirely present during meals may help you understand how food makes you feel physically and emotionally.
- A more balanced approach to eating: By tuning into your body’s needs, you may be more likely to choose foods that make you feel good without restriction.
The 11 best mindful eating books in 2023
These must-read books on mindful eating will help you make empowered decisions that shape your relationship with food.
1. Eating Mindfully: How to End Mindless Eating & Enjoy a Balanced Relationship with Food | Susan Albers, Psy.d
Eating Mindfully, by Susan Albers, implements psychological practices based on mindfulness to help readers navigate cravings, acknowledge hunger cues, and appreciate food.
The author emphasizes that mindful eating isn’t just for those breaking away from harmful dieting but that this approach to eating is for everyone. She provides over 50 tips for eating mindfully so you become more aware of what you eat, how food makes you feel, and how to savor every bite to live a healthier, joy-filled life.
2. Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food | Jan Chozen Bays, MD
Mindful Eating, by Dr. Jan Bays, breaks down the art of mindfulness to explain how it can change your thoughts and habits surrounding food. Through this book, Bays helps readers bring their full attention to food to appreciate flavors, thoughts, smells, and feelings that surface while eating.
Intended for people of all shapes and sizes, this guide will transform how you listen to your body and think about your struggles with eating. You’ll learn to stop eating when you feel full, choose meals your body desires, and have more compassionate feelings about your challenges with food.
3. Mastering Mindful Eating: Transform Your Relationship with Food | Michelle Babb, MS, RD, CD
In Mastering Mindful Eating, author and registered dietitian Michelle Babb explains how to practice mindful eating to improve digestion, reduce binges, and manage emotional overeating. She includes 30 vegetarian recipes to help you engage in all your senses and find pleasure in eating.
Whether you’re recovering from an eating disorder or stuck in the dieting cycle, Mastering Mindful Eating can help you create a positive eating mindset. Babb encourages you to remove distractions during meals, identify food habits, and discover satisfying foods that make you feel good.
4. Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life | Thich Nhat Hanh & Dr. Lilian Cheung
Dr. Lillian Cheung combines Buddhism and nutritional sciences in her book, Savor, to encourage mindfulness in eating, physical activity, and all areas of life. She acknowledges the guilt and shame so many feel from dieting and helps readers create new eating habits that bring them peace of mind.
Savor includes practical tools to help you establish goals, eat well, and establish a mindful living plan. This book does include information on weight loss. However, the practices of mindful eating are beneficial for reasons other than changing your body size.
5. Mindful Eating on the Go | Jan Chozen Bays, MD
Mindful Eating on the Go, by Dr. Jan Chozen Bays, is a carry-along book full of mindful eating practices you can implement while out and about. Bays is exceptional at demonstrating how to make eating a source of joy rather than a cause of stress.
She uses Buddhist mindfulness techniques to guide readers toward reconnecting with food and their body. In her book, you can expect simple exercises that teach mindful eating in a fun and fulfilling way.
6. Eat to Love: A Mindful Guide to Transforming Your Relationship with Food, Body, and Life | Jenna Holenstein, RD
Jenna Hollenstein, the author of Eat to Love, is an intuitive eating counselor and anti-diet dietitian. Eat to Love is not a diet book but a liberating guide to help you free yourself from fear, guilt, and shame associated with eating.
Hollenstein encourages readers to identify their prejudices around eating so they can implement mindfulness and meditation practices to create a nurturing relationship with food. In her book, Hollenstein shuts down diet culture so you can love your body and what you eat.
7. Savor Every Bite: Mindful Ways to Eat, Love Your Body, & Live with Joy | Lynn Rossy, PhD
Savor Every Bite, by Dr. Lynn Rossy, addresses the effects of emotional eating, body dissatisfaction, and diet culture to help readers heal their sabotaged relationship with food. She offers positive coping methods to manage challenging emotions with compassion rather than food.
With her guide, you’ll learn to implement mindfulness skills in everyday life to navigate emotions, enjoy movement, and savor every bite.
8. The Mindful Eating Workbook | Vincci Tsui, RD
Non-diet dietitian and Intuitive Eating counselor Vincci Tsui created The Mindful Eating Workbook to guide you as you engage in mindful eating. There are three parts to this book: Mindful Eating 101, real strategies, and reflective exercises.
This workbook includes strategies for using mindfulness while cooking and eating as well as to help you understand your body’s hunger signals. Exercises like journaling assessments and progress logs are offered to keep you engaged and accountable.
9. Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat | Michelle May, MD
Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat, by Dr. Michelle May was written to help readers stop being fearful of food to create a more vibrant life. May is no stranger to the eat, repent, repeat cycle and speaks from her struggles with dieting.
This book will help connect with your body to rediscover what, when, and how much to eat without following rigid food rules. You’ll learn to enjoy food again without shame, guilt, or binging.
10. Mindful Eating: Develop a Better Relationship with Food through Mindfulness | Nathalie Seaton
Mindful Eating, by Nathalie Seaton, is packed with tips and tricks to help you gain control over your eating habits and improve your life. Inside this book, you’ll learn how to stop mindlessly eating, react when cravings hit, overcome binge eating, and find joy in every bite.
Take note that Seaton does promote mindful eating for weight loss throughout her book. However, her tips apply to anyone.
11. How to Eat | Thich Nhat Hahn
In his book, How to Eat, Thich Nhat Hahn shares inspiration to appreciate all aspects of eating from growing food and grocery shopping to tasting every flavor and cleaning up after a meal.
How to Eat is full of meditations that invite you to find joy in eating, a way to connect with others and the earth. This book explains what it means to eat as a meditative practice and is ideal for those wanting to deepen their spiritual practice.
The Bottom Line
Mindful eating may be just the eating approach you’ve been searching for to mend your relationship with food and improve your overall well-being. Check out the mindful eating books included in this post to learn the core concepts of mindful eating and applicable steps and strategies to help you get started. With this guidance, you may just find you’re able to savor food, trust your body, and achieve a more balanced approach to eating.
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