Savoring every bite

You would expect someone who has hundreds of cookbooks and writes about food nearly every day to linger over meals, relishing each and every bite of food, reveling in the joys of wonderful kitchen aromas, and generally enjoying food to the max. I fit the first part of the description but not the last. Many times dinner is a bowl of cereal scarfed down between jobs: gourmet fare it ain’t. Even when I sit down to a great meal I often eat too fast (I blame the school lunch lady who always admonished us to “hurry up and eat so other kids can use the tables”). I take solace in the fact that I am not alone in fully appreciating the food that I eat. At Saveur, Betsy Andrews writes about why we should try to savor our food – not only for enjoyment but also for our health.

Andrews first dives into the act of “mindful eating”, which is promoted by both psychologists and nutritionists. Mindful eating is associated with stress reduction, decreased binge eating, and eating higher quality foods. Another approach is known as intuitive eating, which is associated with “numerous adaptive psychological constructs” and can elevate your mood and allow you to engage better in daily activities.

It seems there is no single “right” way to achieve a better connection with your food, but it is clear that everyone can benefit by finding mechanisms that allow them to more fully appreciate the foods they eat. It can be as simple as taking 10 minutes to focus on nothing but eating your meal – no scrolling through Facebook, no jotting down work notes.  “If you’re in a hurry, save the rest for a snack. You’ll get hungry later, and you can have the food again and appreciate it,” says Dr. Lilian Cheung, author and director of mindfulness research and practice at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.