Unconscious Eating
A retired patient was relating his observations of people who smoked at the shipyard where he had once worked.
He said that he would see people prepare their cigarette packs so they had easy access to the cigarettes and could pull them out at any moment.
As he mused in his remembrances he said, "Some might come in and put the cigarette down and thirty seconds later reach into their pocket to light up another while the other burned away in another part of the room, totally engaged in the work and unconscious about what was happening with what was going on at the level of the mouth."
There is a movement in Canadian health magazines to instill interest in the idea of mindfulness in eating.
The idea is to be engaged in the process. How many times are we so engaged in the conversation that we hardly know what we ate let alone what it tasted like, not to mention how it made our mindbody feel.
In energy science nutrition the concept of eating in silence two to three times per week helps set this trend. Of course the matter science nutritional literature is devoid of such a suggestion.
So let's make a deal with ourselves about eating and lifestyle behavior:
Eat in silence during the week and when doing so, feel how the food make you feel
Always eat sitting down (but not in the car)
Reduce conversation at the table by example
There is an intuitive sense that when we do so we will digest our diet, foods and drink better.
Until tomorrow To health as a skill Love DrBill
