Enjoy eating not dieting

October 1, 11:23 AMNutrition ExaminerAnnie Kay

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source: www.foodnut.com

The obesity epidemic has been raging for over a decade, with only glimmers of light at the end of the tunnel. With all the calorie and carb counting going on, there had to be a backlash, and the enjoy what you eat movement has been brewing as a reprieve for those overwhelmed or exhausted by tracking calories per gram and net carbs.

The New York Times reported this week on the trend of shifting from a dieting mindset to consciously eating to enjoy. That trend has been nudged along by a number of books and organizations including French Women Don’t Get Fat, the Slow Food movement who just had a hoe down in San Francisco, and Oldways Preservation Trust, to name a few. Your nutrition examiner also wrote about learning to enjoy what you eat in the 2007 book Every Bite Is Divine.

Eating is one of life’s great sensory experiences, and that’s a good thing. The nature of scientific investigation and how nutrition findings are reported in the media, however, have sadly decoupled healthy eating from delicious food for many Americans. Scientific studies must focus on one nutrient in order to isolate its effect. When the general media takes that microscopic snapshot and applies it to the overall diet, it leads to mass chugging of the latest wonder nutrient (currently fish oil and fermented drinks– yum), while missing the bigger picture and undermining a healthy diet. While Americans know and care more about nutrition than ever before, confusion about what to eat is at an all-time high. Then throw an increasingly commercialized food supply into the mix, where synthetic foods propose to be healthy but taste like sawdust, and who wouldn't resist a healthy lifestyle.

Enter, enjoying your food.

The eating to enjoy movement isn’t about working in a double dip of super fudge chuck or rolling in mashed potatoes with gravy. It’s actually more radical than that. It’s about eating real food (fruits, vegetables, whole grains and clean lean meats and diary) in its most whole form, taking the time to prepare it, and eating with awareness. In essence, it’s slowing down rather than chowing down. It’s not easy, and it takes some practice. You'll need to remember how to cook. But in this rip-your-packaged-lunch-open-in-the-car-en-route-to-the-meeting-you’re-late-for world, rearranging things so that you can savor the preparation and the eating of a simple meal is a way of honoring the rhythm of your body and calming your mind. Beware – taking good care of yourself, and how good you feel when you do, can become habit forming.