Unlike prehistoric people who ate purely for survival and whose food was hunted, gathered and laboriously prepared, today we Americans have access to abundant quantities of food that can be easily produced.
From birth to death, food is the center of our lives. It is presented at the celebration of the birth of a child, birthdays, bar and bat mitzvah celebrations, weddings, anniversaries, and finally food is served to the bereaved who sit shiva following the loss of a family member.
Food has shaped our Jewish culture and traditions as it defines how we celebrate our Jewish holidays. The Jewish dietary laws define when and what we can and cannot eat. Adhering to these laws is a form of mindful eating.
Foods like matzos and salt water are specific to Passover and are the very essence of this holiday. Pomegranates, round challahs, honey cakes, apples and honey are eaten at Rosh HaShanah; potato latkes and doughnuts for Chanukah; and hamantaschen for Purim. We tend to have wonderful memories of our mother’s delicious matzo ball soup or our bubbe’s scrumptious potato latkes.
Another added dimension is the secular holidays that emphasize food. For Valentine’s Day, we express our love with boxes of chocolates, cakes, and candies; and brunches, lunches, and dinners abound for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.
Given our food-saturated life, it is understandable how the obesity rate has skyrocketed. We know that diets only work for as long as one adheres to them, but given all the above-mentioned temptations, how does one win the weight battle?
Unfortunately many of us eat more for pleasure than for hunger. We have become emotional eaters.
We eat when we are lonely, tired, anxious, angry, or bored. Food comforts and soothes our souls. It has become our best friend, always on hand and available when we need it.
Our relationship with food has more to do with how we feel and less with being truly hungry. We eat mindlessly, and to change all these unhealthy eating behaviors we need to be more mindful of how we eat.
“Mindful eating” is not a diet, but an approach to eating that encourages a healthy relationship with food. By eating mindfully you pay attention to what you are eating, as well as those factors that influence you to eat more, not only the physiological factors, but the psychological ones as well.
Mindful eating is an experience that engages all parts of us, our body and our emotions, in choosing, preparing, and eating food. Mindful eating involves all the senses, and immerses us in the colors, textures, scents, tastes and even sounds of drinking and eating.
• Be honest with your feelings before you eat.
• Take the time to chew your food thoroughly — at least 20 times for each mouthful.
• Put your utensils down between bites, making an effort to stop several times during eating to “check-in” with your stomach.
• Be aware of your sensory experience as you eat. Appreciate the visual image of the food, the delicious smell, and the texture of the food in your mouth.
By becoming in touch with your eating habits in this way, you can gain the power to decide whether to continue eating because you are genuinely hungry, or to say “enough” and leave the table.
Having this kind of control over your eating means that it is no longer a matter of how much food is left on the plate and whether you finish the plateful for the sake of it.
Instead it is about managing one of the greatest pleasures in life without stuffing yourself and eating gratuitously.
So as we get ready for the holidays of Purim and Passover, before your reach for your first hamantaschen or matzo ball, take the time to practice mindful eating and truly enjoy the culinary delights of these holidays.
Melanie Wasserman, MSW, LCSW, is a psychotherapist at Health Psychology Associates in Milwaukee.
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