For the Love of Food

So many people tell me that their weight problems come from their love of eating.  They are surprised when I argue otherwise.  The way we treat food in our American culture is such a poor example of a loving relationship.  So many of our food choices are made mindlessly, meals eaten quickly or based on poor substitutes for actual, real food that I find it hard to believe that so many of us truly claim to love food.

Think about the last meal you ate at your desk.  (C’mon, I do it too…)  Do you remember what it tasted like?  Looked like?  How much of it did you eat?

When was the last time you ate in your car?  Or nibbled on something at a meeting to distract yourself from the actual meeting?  Food is more often used than loved or admired or experienced.  Just think of how different your eating experiences might be if you truly did treat each meal with respect and love.  Food is not just a means to deliver nutrients to us but nor is it meant to be used as an pacifier, as entertainment or as something quick and convenient to quiet the mid-day rumblings in your tummy.

People often wonder how the French can dine on high-caloric foods like chocolate, breads and cheeses and stay so much thinner than us.  The secret lies in their cues of when to stop eating.  Research studies that quiz French citizens on questions like “how do you know when to stop eating?” find that time and time again, the French stop when they are full.

When do we stop?  If you guessed “when it’s gone”…. you’re right.  And think about what that means for us if we’re eating while doing other things – watching TV, reading email, working on a deadline, even letting out mind drift in a meeting.  If you rely on the cues of the plate to tell you when you’re full, that means you’re at mercy of the portion size.  It doesn’t take one long to realize how this could be troublesome.

If you claim to love food (as I do!), give yourself a gift: treat eating as a pleasurable experience. Trust me, that’s not what got you into trouble in the first place.  I’m not talking about using food as a substitute for pleasure when you’re stressed, worried, sad or anxious.  I’m talking about consciously creating pleasurable eating experiences.  Here’s a few tips for doing so:

• Sit down to eat every meal at a table.  (No, not a desk.  And sitting down behind the wheel of the car doesn’t count either.)  If this seems monumental, start with just your meals and gradually work up to incorporating snacks into the picture too.  When I lived in Spain in my college years, it struck me as odd that I never saw people walking around the streets of Seville eating. In fact, the one time I strolled around, granola bar in hand, you would have thought I was an alien amongst humans with the looks I got.  I realize now my fellow Sevillanos had it right: food is meant for the table.  Not the car, the desk, the bed, the couch and certainly not strolling around.
• Eliminate distractions: turn off the TV, put away the newspaper or computer or Blackberry, stop working for a minute, pull over.  Focus on the food: how does it taste?  how hungry are you?  When are you full?  Again, if this feels like a monumental task: start small by choosing one meal a day to eat distraction free.  This is one of my greatest challenges; I know I often eat lunch while finishing work and it’s not unusual for the TV to be on 2-3 nights a week during dinner.  I have set aside breakfast as my distraction free meal of the day, and I’m working up from there.  I have found the times I do this, I often end up eating less than the portions I’ve doled out for myself.  (I will often pack the rest of my breakfast as a snack for later, which I normally would have eaten anyways.  Being satisfied with less feels good.)
• Create atmosphere. You know what they say: presentation, presentation, presentation.  Set the table.  Light a candle.  Arrange the food artfully on the plate.  Even if you’re eating a frozen entree, take it from the plastic container and put it on a plate.  I know, I know – that’s one more thing to wash… but you’re worth the extra dishwasher suds, trust me.
• Choose food that fuels you.  This is the final step, and possibly the most critical.  Start shifting away from processed, packaged and convenient foods to choosing whole, delicious foods that nourish you.  Think of food as fuel and you’ll start to question the value of some of the things we put in our body.

These changes are meant to be made one by one, and slowly over time.  Choose one that seems reasonable to you, and begin by incorporating that into your lifestyle.  Try to create conscious moments whenever you are eating, by stopping and asking yourself questions like: “How does this taste?  How hungry am I?  Why am I eating?”  Think about food as something to have a relationship with – remember, if you treat it with kindness and respect, chances are, it will treat you better.  And that’s something to love.

My breakfast routine: sit down, no distractions, create atmosphere.

(Much more enjoyable than eating in the car!)