Mindful Eating: We are HOW we eat

Food and eating are important parts of culture. Thinking of food only in terms of calories, nutrients, and ingredients is like thinking of language as simply a collection of phonics, syllables, and parts of speech. Food, like language, is a form of expression. It is symbolic of friendship, of closeness, of shared relationships. It represents our heritage and identity. It links us to our family history. When our earliest ancestors offered sacrifices to their gods, they almost always offered food. Food connected them to the divine ~  food was life itself.

I think what and how we eat is worth some mindful reflection.

The Meaning of Mealtime

“The French believe that learning to eat is a form of citizenship training,” says Karen Le Billon, author of French Kids Eat Everything.

This makes me wonder, what kind of citizenship do our rushed, fast-food, on-the-go, yogurt-in-a-tube meals train us for? This quick eating is not new in American culture. In the nineteenth century, according to legend, foreign visitors to the United States remarked about the strange eating practice in taverns that they referred to as “Gobble, gulp, and go!”

By comparison, in many countries eating a meal is a slow, shared, and meaningful experience. In the United States, we might get impatient at a restaurant if the waiter does not bring the check immediately after we finish our meal. In other parts of the world, you have to ask for the check. A dinner out is not about rushing to the next event ~ the meal IS the event. In France, the rude waiter is the one who actually brings you the bill, not the one who allows you to finish your wine and perhaps begin the process of digestion before you leave.

In French schools, children are given 1-2 hours for lunchtime. At the high school where I taught, students had to travel from my classroom on the 4th floor down to the first-floor cafeteria, wait in line with approximately 700 other students, sit down and eat their lunch, and then make their way back up to my room in … 37 minutes! Gobble, gulp, and go indeed!

If food truly is truly a form of expression, what are we saying by eating this way?

Eating Lessons from Around the World

There are many practical and common-sense strategies to help kids eat healthier. In her book Parenting Without Borders, Christine Gross-Loh offers suggestions for parents based on practices from around the world:

1. Offer kids choices, within limits. It’s much easier, she argues, to offer kids a choice between carrots and celery, than to just hand them a pack of carrots.
2. Pay attention to how food is presented. We all know that how the food looks matters. Having food in a special dish, or a special shape, can make it much more appetizing for children.
3. Have kids try everything on their plate before getting seconds. Gross-Loh recommends a rule that my children’s daycare has as well: if kids want seconds, they have to have tried every other food on their plate first.
4. Be persistent. It can take many exposures to a food before children will like it.

We know this is what we should be doing. It’s what I tell myself I am doing.

And then one day I realized that my daughter thought that “macken” was actually a type of cheese. My son told me that Toaster Strudel IS a healthy breakfast because it has “fruit” in it. The above recommendations may be “no-brainers,” but they are also a challenge. And this “no-brainer” advice has made me think about being more mindful of how I feed my family.

What about trying mindful eating? Savoring our meals. Eating slowly and intentionally. Noticing the texture and smell and taste of the food. It is an entirely different experience of eating! I want to be more mindful not only about WHAT I eat, but HOW I eat.

Mindful eating can improve both our physical and mental health. Eating slowly, we likely will eat less. And we can cultivate our awareness. We are aware of what we are putting into our bodies, aware of the people with whom we are sharing our meal, and aware of our connection to the earth, and to the farmers, from which our food came.

Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote in the 18th century, “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.” I am certain he would agree that HOW we eat says a lot about who we are as well.

Ultimately, I think it comes down to balance. We live busy lives, but we can make it a goal to have family dinners several nights a week. We can prepare healthy meals with fresh ingredients, and occasionally indulge in the special treats that make life sweeter.