When I was young I learned that in order to get a few more valuable minutes of sleep all I had to do was eat breakfast quickly. By the time high school rolled around breakfast was inhaled in 5 minutes or less. On a side note, thanks Mom & Dad for always getting up and having it on the table ready to go. I doubt I ever was expressed gratitude for the effort and love you put into those meals.
My sweet Granny always commented on how quickly my siblings and I ate whenever we visited. Reminding us to slow down and enjoy our food, she demonstrated a pace that drove us crazy as we waited for everyone to finish before we could be dismissed from the table.
We knew, on some level, that she was right. Sharing a meal is a celebration of tastes, relationships, and experiences. None of this was important when we had pressing things to do and places to be, which seemed to be all the time.
It seems science agrees with my Granny. Dr Alan Kristal, Dr.P.H., has just published a study which links mindful eating with weight control. He and his colleagues found that regular yoga practice may help prevent middle-age spread in normal-weight people and may promote weight loss in those who are overweight through teaching mindful life practises.
“The researchers found that people who ate mindfully – those were aware of why they ate and stopped eating when full – weighed less than those who ate mindlessly, who ate when not hungry or in response to anxiety or depression. The researchers also found a strong association between yoga practice and mindful eating but found no association between other types of physical activity, such as walking or running, and mindful eating.”
So when your children are taking their time getting through their supper, try not to rush them. The need to hurry through meals will come naturally enough as they get older. Instead take a cue from their example and mindfully enjoy the sight, smell, taste, and texture of food.
This was precisely what Granny was trying to teach us.
