A Mindful Meal

Throughout the semester I have tried my best to integrate mindful eating strategies and techniques into my daily life.  Not only have I made a conscious effort though mindful recognition during mealtime, but I have also made an effort to have mindful sips of tea in the morning, walks to school, and moments of silence throughout the day.  Through embodying mindfulness throughout my daily activities and meals, I have come to recognize my increased attention, focus, and productivity.  Furthermore, I am more conscious of my eating habits and the process by which I go about things.  In other words, I am better attuned to my body and mind, and I try to eat healthy, fresh foods in moderation, rather than falling into stress-eating habits because, let's face it, the life of a college student is stressful.

Chopped scallions - aren't
the shades of green beautiful?

Recently, I suggested to my roommate that we have a mindful meal together.  Given that my roommate is also interested in mindfulness, mediation, and understanding the mind-body connection, I thought it would be quite thought provoking to engage in a mindful meal together. 

We agreed that our meal would be a pause in our busy lives, especially with finals on the near horizon, and that we would make a conscious effort to remain in the moment, take the time to enjoy each bite, and thoughtfully experience the tastes and textures of the meal.

In preparation for this mindful meal, I re-read “Chapter 2: Are You Really Appreciating the Apple?” in Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life by Dr. Cheung and Thich Nhat Hanh.  The chapter takes the reader through an apple meditation, encouraging mindfulness, being in the present, and embodying the process of eating by removing any and all distractions.  I hoped to share these steps with my roommate during our meal.

Together we cooked a delicious and healthy meal of my mum's famous sesame noodle recipe (which I have posted below with her permission!) and prepared a fresh, locally grown salad topped with rosemary-roasted carrots and parsnips.  A wonderful springtime combination, if you ask me :)

Sesame noodles topped with roasted
sesame seeds and chopped scallions

Once we had prepared the meal and set the table, we sat down.  Looking at the scrumptious meal we prepared, we set our intentions for the meal, recognizing the delight and nourishment that it will bring us and the fun we had preparing it.  We allowed ourselves to give the meal more than a first thought or glance, and in doing so, we ensured optimal fulfillment, nourishment, and enjoyment of the meal rather than quickly diving in.  In this sense, we focused ourselves on the process of eating and enjoying this meal: we gave the meal our full attention.

The spicy, ginger-sesame aroma of the noodles was enticing and the freshly cut spring onions and greens in the salad were a beautiful portrayal of nature’s goodness.  We served ourselves.  And then we slowly took the first bite.

Texture and flavor filled my mouth.  I chewed thoroughly and thoughtfully, savoring the bite.  I focused my mind solely on the bite, enjoying it for everything it was, and letting other thoughts pass by without judgment.  I chewed consciously.  I allowed myself to fully engage in the process of eating.

...The salad was crisp, and the balsamic vinaigrette provided a spark of flavor.  The rosemary carrots and parsnips were divine... The noodles were flavorful, and the sesame-ginger combination excited my senses...

Yum, mindful bites of salad :)

This eating experience was truly remarkable.  I noticed I ate less and felt better after the meal.  Before sharing my own experience, I asked my roommate what she thought about the meal.  She said it was interesting to take so much time to appreciate and mindfully approach a meal.  She also said that she plans try to practice increased awareness and mindfulness in future meals.

As a whole I found this exercise incredibly successful.  Given that I am feeling pretty overwhelmed with finals at the moment, it was really nice to be in the present and take the time to enjoy a meal rather than eating it at a desk in the library while reading research articles and writing one of my final papers.  I encourage you to try the same.  Give it a chance.  With practice, I guarantee you too will begin to embrace mealtime for more than just the process of eating, but rather the process of being mindful, appreciative, and enjoying the present.

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My mum's yummy Sesame Noodles Recipe: (guaranteed crowd pleaser!)

Serves: 6-8 

Prep time: 30 minutes

1 lb spagetti noodles

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Dressing:

3 garlic cloves

1 chunk of fresh ginger, peeled

1/2 c of each: peanut oil, sesame tahini, strong black tea, soy sauce

1/4 c of each: dry sherry, cider vinegar, sugar

2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/8 tsp cayenne

6 scallions (green and white parts) finely chopped

To sprinkle on top: roasted sesame seeds

Boil noodles until al-dente.  Make dressing in a blender: process garlic and ginger until finely minced and then add remaining ingredients, except scallions and roasted sesame seeds.  Drain noodles, transfer to a boil and toss with olive oil.  Toss dressing with noodles and add scallions.  Allow noodles to sit for at least an hour to soak up the dressing.  Enjoy!

Mindful Eating: Emory University's Perspective

With all the hype around mindful eating in the media recently, I thought it would be interesting to see what Emory University students, faculty, and staff thought of mindful eating.  The aim of this mini-experiment was to begin to understand the extent to which Emory-affiliated persons define mindful eating and the comprehensiveness of their responses.

Throughout the past week I asked multiple Emory students, professors, and campus staff what they thought of mindful eating and how they would define mindful eating.  I asked some of the Tibetan monks studying science at Emory, professors in various departments in the college, college students studying everything from psychology to business, and campus workers in the dining halls.

Here is a representative sample of the responses I got:

• Emory psychology student: “eating is not just shoveling food in your mouth without thinking but taking the time to enjoy and to consciously attend to the act of eating”

• COX dining hall worker: “it means eating foods in colors and making sure your plate is bright because if you got colors then you got fruits and vegetables too.”

• Emory business student: “thinking about what you eat and what you put into your body and being aware of your health”

• Emory anthropology student: “watching the types of foods that you’re eating and that they have proper nutritional value; also trying to eat more organic and local foods”

• Tibetan monk: “mindful eating is when you have a meal and eat more mindfully by paying attention to what you eat and listening to your body”

• Emory international studies student: “eating healthfully”

• Emory professor: “being conscious of what you eat and how you eat; eating like the French!” 

Here is another way of looking at the responses:

To create this word art, I used Wordle™ an online word cloud generator, which sizes the words in accordance to their use.  Therefore, eating, eat, mindful, enjoy, and food, were the most commonly used words.  Other significant words include: body, consciously, time, meal, colors, and thinking.

Although I must acknowledge the overly apparent limitation that asking about mindful eating implies that mindfulness is an essential component, I still believe my findings have significance in understanding Emory’s ideas on mindful eating.  In addition, all participants were affiliated with Emory, an academic institution with strong initiatives in sustainability, the local foods movement, and home to leading research on mindfulness.  For these additional reasons, I must acknowledge the possible recall bias within the responses I received.

This mini-experiment sheds light on the general understanding of mindful eating among Emory’s population.  Overall, I was impressed by the holistic, comprehensive nature of the definitions and explanations of mindful eating. 

Looking at the general American population, obesity ridden, sedentary, and supporting busy lifestyles, I can only hope that their understanding be as well-informed as Emory’s population.  We have a long way to go to promote mindful eating as a means to improving the health, wellbeing, and life of the average American.

Mindful Eating at Google with Thich Nhat Hanh

Book Review: "Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life"

Complementing grounded Buddhist philosophies of mindfulness with nutritional science of eating healthy, Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life, provides a healthy outlook on eating, moving, and living.  Thich Nhat Hanh, a very well respected Vietnamese Zen Buddhist philosopher, and Dr. Lilian Cheung, an innovative Harvard School of Public Health nutritionist, unite their wisdom and knowledge of the body and mind into a simple and holistic lifestyle plan to eating and living well.  Rather than counting calories through careful dieting and exercise regimes, Hahn and Cheung recommend thinking about your food and listening to your body.  By doing so, mindful eating enhances our body and mind’s relationship with food and, as a result, mindful eaters experience weight loss, energy gain, and an increasingly healthier lifestyle.

Through experiencing every moment to the fullest, raising awareness within each daily activity, attuning the mind and body, and practicing mindfulness, we can foster a more positive, healthy, and energized life.  In their book, Hanh and Cheung take the reader through three sections.  The first section, “A Buddhist Perspective on Weight Control,” examines personal weight struggles, calling for both reflection and action.  Following this, the reader has the opportunity to realize the simplicity within practicing mindfulness by meditating on an apple, and thereby coming to terms with their mind-body connection while attuning to the present moment. 

Part two explores the “Mindful Action Plans” of eating, moving, and living.  Mindful eating involves understanding the nutrients our body needs, what healthy foods are and how we can incorporate them into our diet, and how to integrate mindfulness into our eating patterns.  By honoring the food, engaging the senses, eating in modest portions, savoring small bites and thorough chewing, eating slowly, not skipping meals, and eating a plant-based diet, Hanh and Cheung reveal their seven practices of mindful eating.  They explain that:

“Living as we all are in a society that spends so much time and money to promote unhealthy foods and mindless eating, and to limit access to healthy foods, it takes a dedicated, mindful effort to be able to focus on and choose the foods that are best for our bodies and best for our planet” (145).

Likewise, mindful moving discusses the importance of exercise, movement, and activity to ensuring healthy living and a strong body.  Hanh and Cheung go through typical daily activities and illuminate the simple, convenient ways to incorporate mindful exercise.  Finally, the mindful living plan explains the easy ways we can use mindfulness in our daily activities and movements such as cooking, walking, and traffic-jam meditation.

Part three discusses the “Individual and Collective Effort” of living in a mindful world.  This section brings the reader to realize the interdependence between the self and other, the individual and collective, and the inside and outside, while complementing such philosophy with real-life examples of actors of positive change.

“Transforming the world starts with oneself.  It is through attending to our own well-being and staying in touch with what is happening in our own personal lives that we can have a greater capacity to understand and address the world’s suffering.  We are then on a sturdier foundation to contribute to improving our world” (224).

Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life is an innovative, comprehensive, and incredibly relevant book to addressing today's eating habits and lifestyle practices.  By presenting an approach and lifestyle that anyone can adapt to and practice, this book has the potential to promote positive eating habits throughout our fast-paced society, and thus mindful eating has the ability to change how our society views food, eats food, and lives.

"Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life"

Mindfulness as a Foundation for Health with Thich Nhat Hanh

Combatting Obesity in America with Mindful Eating

Recently, health professionals uplifted mindfulness techniques and implemented into clinical settings as a method and process to raising awareness, curiosity, and openness.  Since 1999, when The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded its first three studies related to mindfulness, research in mindfulness and health exploded so much that by 2010, the NIH funded an additional 115 studies related to mindfulness. 

Over the past 20 years, obesity has become rampant in the United States.

Today, the obesity epidemic plagues one-third of the adult population and almost 20 percent of children and adolescents in the United States.  Obesity reflects a crisis of lifestyle, health, nutrition, and societal wellbeing.  Driven by increased levels of stress, decreased physical activity, and poor diet, obesity dramatically impacts an individual’s physical and mental wellbeing.  Treatments for obesity often lead to short-term lifestyle weight-loss interventions that combine diet, physical activity, and behavior change have modest success in the short-term.  However, in the long-term, most people tend to regain their initial weight.  And so you might be wondering, how can we treat obesity and sustain long-term results?  How can we train ourselves to eat well and in moderation?

In recent years, mindfulness-based nutritional interventions have ignited an innovative approach to treating obesity and promoting healthy living.  Mindful eating, as opposed to mindless eating, means taking the time to enjoy food, eat slowly and consciously, and experience each meal to the fullest.  

Mindful eating prevents binge eating and helps to bring awareness to the process of eating rather than falling into the fast-paced and distracted tendencies of American society.  As a holistic approach to relearning and reframing excessive eating and restoring proper weight and health, mindful eating is noninvasive and does not require medication or strict diets.

Mindful eating helps to regain awareness of our relationship with food.

Two recent studies show that mindfulness training effectively improves health and eating behaviors and reduces excess weight.  In a pilot study conducted by Dalen et al. (2010), the Mindful Eating and Living group curriculum produced marked improvements among the obese participants.  Researchers observed significant improvements in weight, behavior, and awareness, thus promoting mindfulness training as a positive and comprehensive approach to preventing and treating obesity.  

Daubenmier et al. (2011) studied the effect of a mindfulness intervention program on patients suffering from psychological stress and high cortisol and abdominal fat levels.  Using cortisol-awakening response (CAR) as a measurement of physical success and reported levels of anxiety, stress, and eating patterns, they conclude that over time, mindfulness training reduces abdominal fat.  Such research incites other health professionals, nutritionists, and researchers to pursue mindful eating in clinical settings and integrate mindful techniques into the treatment of obese patients.

Mindful eating can bring cessation to America’s obesity epidemic.

Mindful eating is an innovative approach to nourishing the body and mind through exploring an individual’s relationship with food.  In the United States, mindful eating proposes a holistic and sustainable approach to addressing the source of the growing obesity epidemic: what we eat and how we eat.  Through utilizing the positive mental and behavioral changes involved in mindfulness therapy and awareness, mindful eating has the potential to reduce overeating, slow down the fast-paced eating tendencies of American society, and decrease distracted and stress-response eating.   Mindful eating may be the key to ensuring long lasting nutritional health, conscientious diet management.

Works Cited:

Dalen, J, et al. 2010. "Pilot study: Mindful Eating and Living (MEAL): weight, eating behavior, and psychological outcomes associated with a mindfulness-based intervention for people with obesity." Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 18(6): 260-264.

Daubenmier, J, et al. 2011. “Mindfulness intervention for stress eating to reduce cortisol and abdominal fat among overweight and obese women: an exploratory randomized controlled study.” Journal of Obesity, 2011.

A Mind-Body Connection Through Food

What is your relationship with food?

For me, eating food means more than filling my belly; it means nourishing my mind and energizing my body. Meals are a time for restoration, rejuvenation, and most importantly, a time for meditation.

                                                                                                                               

Mindful eating means taking the time to enjoy your food, eating slowly and consciously, and experiencing your meal to the fullest.  Mindful eating is not about what food you eat, but rather, how you eat and what you think about while you eat.  It is eating without judgment.  It is channeling food as a way to embrace the mind-body connection. 

Mindful eating is the non-diet; it is meditative eating.

Buddhist teachings promote mindfulness as a way to improve emotional and physical health and wellbeing.  And when utilized through eating, mindful practices reduce binge eating and encourage enjoyment of the meal, one bite at a time.

As I begin a meal with the intention of being mindful, I allow my mind to settle and embrace the meal.  I let go of my pressing thoughts, and one-by-one, my to-do list fades away.  As I take one bite of a bowl of roasted vegetables, I focus on my senses, enjoying the flavor and texture and savoring the taste.  I savor silence.  I savor my state of being. 

On the other hand, were I to quickly gorge down a sandwich while walking to class and talking on the phone, I would not receive the same effects.  This is mindless eating.

Through slow, thoughtful eating, I allow myself to listen to my body.  How much food am I really craving?  What motivated me to eat this?  What is telling me I am hungry?  Is my body getting what it needs?  

Dedicate your mealtime to taking a step back and listening to your body.  Allow your mind (and stomach) to find balance between thought and awareness throughout your meal – but trust me, it is not as easy as it sounds.

Like most Buddhist teachings, practice brings fulfillment.  Through attempting mindful eating at least once a day we can change our brain and restore our mind-body connection.  We can learn to listen to ourselves, and thus heal ourselves.

How can mindful eating play a positive role in clinical treatment?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 35.7% of adults and 17% of children and adolescents in the United States are obese.  Additionally, it is estimated that 8 million Americans have an eating disorder.   The cost of treatment for over- and under-eating is much more expensive than eating mindfully.

And so you might be thinking, so what?  Maybe you’re not convinced that eating mindfully will aid in weight loss or treating eating disorders.  However, mindfulness practices have a deep history in promoting positive health, and recent studies show that interventions with mindfulness-based eating and lifestyle therapy can serve as a long-lasting treatment for people with obesity and eating disorders.

For the generalized American population, the relationship between eating and mental and physical health are constantly put into question.  Whether it is one’s ability to afford healthy food, desire to achieve an idolized body image, ability to slow down for a meal and resist the fast-food tendencies in society, or accept the challenge to listen to your body, we can greatly improve our eating habits by taking the time to eat mindfully.

By taking your time to eat a sandwich, drink mindful sips of tea in the morning, or eat a home-cooked meal, mindful eating can empower us all to truly savor our food and promote a healthy and fulfilling conversation between the mind and body.  Through silent meals and slow and conscious bites, we can begin to embrace mindful eating as a daily practice.

I leave you with a set of challenges.  I challenge you to attempt to eat mindfully at least once a day.  Let go of your mental suffering and explore ideas of compassion and rejuvenation.  And once you reap the personal benefits of mindful eating, I encourage you to teach others to eat intentionally and mindfully.  Through eating healthy and consciously we cannot only improve mental health, but also our physical wellbeing.