When I started this blog I wanted to make sure that I sometimes talked about the idea of mindful eating. It is both something that I really believe in, and something that I really need to work on. Most Americans do I think. Most of us are guilty of mindless eating from time to time, and for far too many, it is the rule not the exception. Not just obvious things, like eating in the car (which should simply be an absolutely never rule) and in front of the television, but often in more subtle ways. Like when we eat too fast to really taste the food we are eating. The concept of mindful eating is one of the healthiest habits we can teach our children, and a lesson you can be sure they are not getting at school where they are usually required to scoff down bad food quite quickly. I'd like to begin this discussion by recommending a new book;
Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life, a practical life guide written by zen master Thich Nhat Hanh and Harvard nutritionist Dr. Lillian Cheung. I haven't read it yet. It's new and the hard cover price is a bit more than I can handle right now, but I am anxious to read it and hope my library will get a copy soon.
Of it's message Cheung told Harvard staff writer Sarah Sweeney, "When you sit down to eat a truly mindful meal, you will see far beyond the rim of the plate. Look closely at your salad, and you will see the farmer who planted the seeds, the rain and the sunshine, the rich earth that nourished them as they grew. Mindful eating can help us approach the core Buddhist concept of 'interbeing' the recognition that everything and everyone is interrelated. With this as our foundation, we realize that it is important to eat not only for our own health, but in a way that promoted the health of others around us, as well as the health of the planet."
