Candidly now, how do you describe yourself? Do you live to eat? Or do you eat to live? That’s what separates the pleasure-seeker from the health-searcher.

I TRUST YOU ARE THE LATTER, A health-seeker just like this writer. Because in our search for health, we also garner a wealth of benefits such as a long, illness-free life and, consequently, many years of being immensely happy and purposeful.

Purposeful is what my column Mindful Mendicant and this first article is about. Its aim being that of giving you helpful data about what to eat.

As such then, let me start off by defining the different types of eating, namely: Fuel Eating, Fun Eating, Fog Eating, Storm Eating and Mindful Eating.

FUEL EATING is when food is taken as nourishment to charge up, just like fuel, and energize the body of its needs and functions. This is also known as clean-eating; eating real, whole, natural, minimally processed foods that provide maximal energy. Ideally, we should be eating fuel foods 80% of the time to maintain good health.

FUN EATING is just nibbling on anything that you find tasty. It is eating food that doesn’t improve your health and still you enjoy it greatly even if it has no nutritional value (i.e. cake, wine, potato chips, chocolate bars, candy, etc.) You want to pay careful attention when eating fun food, they can build up calories that won’t benefit your health. One could limit fun eating to one small treat a day or two fun meals a week but that’s a hard challenge especially, if like this writer, you have a sweet tooth. The trick to limitation is to savor and enjoy every bite.

FOG EATING is having no awareness of eating while eating. While watching Netflix, you could be munching on salted-egg glazed potato chips without even tasting them or snacking on peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies while working on an article without realizing that you’ve consumed a jar and three packs. You could also finish off six large bars of Swiss chocolate before you even realize how much you have eaten and wouldn’t even remember what it tasted like. Fog eating is not enjoyable or meaningful; it is unconsciously and mindlessly snacking on anything edible.

STORM EATING is binge-eating and emotional eating. Binge-eating is taking in large amounts of food to the point of discomfort, sometimes, even when you’re not hungry. It’s knowing that you’re eating too much and too fast, but having no control over your eating behavior. This could happen if you are too busy and forget to eat, thus allowing yourself to get too hungry. Emotional eating is the natural tendency to eat in response to positive or negative emotions. This increase in food intake often refers to eating as a means to cope with negative emotions such as anxiety, failure or depression and can develop into an eating disorder, especially when giving in to a craving causes feelings of regret, shame or guilt and is done repeatedly.

Other times, it can also include eating to enhance positive emotions such as eating to celebrate a promotion, a successful win or birthdays and other social celebrations. In some other cases, emotional eating can lead to Fog Eating.

MINDFUL EATING is practicing mindfulness before, during and after taking in food. It is intentionally focusing on one’s thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations in the moments before, during and after eating. It is awareness of your physical, mental and emotional senses to observe, experience and enjoy the food choices you make without judging, forming biases and attaching to the food and the occasions of eating.

Mindful Eating is observing genuine gratitude for the nourishment, the persons who prepared the food and the causes and conditions that have brought the food to your plate. Through the awareness of our eating habits, our food preferences and aversions, we can learn to appreciate the real value of food and the eating experience and thus, take steps towards behavioral changes that will benefit yourself, others, and most especially all living beings and the environment. And thus establishing that eat-to-live as a mantra and philosophy makes for a life that is purposeful and immensely happy.