The Center for Mindful Eating

Position Statement on Weight Inclusivity

The Center for Mindful Eating rejects the use of mindful eating to promote and/or facilitate intentional weight loss pursuits.

It is the position of The Center for Mindful Eating that all bodies, regardless of shape, size, or composition, are deserving of care, respect, and nourishment. And while TCME affirms that the pursuit of health is not a moral imperative, we believe all people deserve access to non-stigmatizing, body-affirming health services. Mindful eating fosters awareness regarding how both food and our eating experiences holistically impact health and wellbeing, including our emotional, mental, physical, nutritional, social, and spiritual health. Mindful eating views weight as an inaccurate representation of health or wellbeing and supports autonomy around food decisions, encouraging individuals to connect to their own inner wisdom to inform what, when, and how much to eat. It encourages individuals to approach food and eating with curiosity and without judgment—abandoning dichotomous beliefs that categorize food as “good” or “bad” and relearning how to recognize and respond to hunger and satiety cues.

TCME does not endorse weight normative approaches to care that use weight, BMI, or weight loss as proxies for health because such approaches: 

1. Fail to recognize the complex and multifactorial nature of health and well-being 

2. Promote the external control of food and eating 

3. Promote food moralizing

4. Foster weight and size stigmas  

Mindful eating practitioners and teachers are discouraged from making assumptions about an individual’s physical health, emotional wellbeing, or eating behaviors based on their body size or shape. They are encouraged to correct the misrepresentation of mindful eating as a weight-normative or weight loss intervention, to challenge the use of weight-stigmatizing language and practices in their own communities, and to promote mindful eating as a practice that is inclusive of all bodies.

Position Statement on Mindful Eating to Help Ease Food Insecurity

It is the position of The Center for Mindful Eating that food insecurity is a global issue that professionals in fields related to health, food and nutrition need to become aware of. An individual’s past and current food insecurity concerns may promote unhealthy, mindless or fear-based eating. The Center for Mindful Eating encourages members to take steps to acknowledge and, if possible, ease food insecurity in their local area as a way to benefit their community and deepen their mindful eating practice.

Learning More About Food Insecurity

Food insecurity means the lack of access to enough food for an active, healthy life. 
The Center for Mindful Eating believes that awareness of the presence of food insecurity is the first step to overcome this global problem. 

The Center for Mindful Eating has identified five areas of food insecurity:

The lack of reliable and consistent sources of food.
The lack of sufficient resources to produce and/or purchase food.
The lack of access to food that remains stable and sustainable over a reasonable time.
The lack of basic sanitary conditions to choose, prepare and distribute food that has adequate nutritional value.
The lack of outer knowledge and inner wisdom to choose and prepare food that results in balanced eating patterns and good nutrition

The Center for Mindful Eating endorses the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) report (2014) that supports the development and enhancement of sustainable, community-based strategies in the following three ways:

1. Seek ways you can improve access of low-income households to healthful, nutritious food supplies.
2. Seek ways to increase the self-reliance of communities by growing and sharing food through farming, community gardens, and food-waste recovery efforts. 
3. Encourage coordination of nutrition education with local schools, food pantries and farms.