[Food as Medicine] Applying food as medicine to you

Mindful eating: Introduction

MELISSA ADAMSKI, RICHARD CHAMBERS: video transcript

MELISSA ADAMSKI: Hi everyone. I'm here with Richard. He's a clinical psychologist from our Mindfulness suite of online courses here at Monash University. And he's here today to talk to us about mindfulness and mindful eating. So Richard, can you tell me more about what mindfulness is?

RICHARD CHAMBERS: Sure. Mindfulness is about paying attention to what we're doing, and being fully engaged, present, and aware in each moment.

MELISSA ADAMSKI: And this is a very important aspect when we're talking about food as medicine. So while some of you might be wondering why we're talking about mindfulness in our Food as Medicine course, we need to think about how mindfulness plays a large role in determining what we actually put into our bodies. So if you're someone who's looking to use foods to change a health outcome in prevention or in treatment, you can use mindfulness or mindful eating alongside of the knowledge around nutrients and their effect on health. And bringing it all together, to determine a dietary pattern that's right for you. And that's going to last over the long term.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: Research shows that we spend at least half the time that we're awake not paying attention to what we're doing. So we get caught up in stressful thoughts. Or perhaps we're just reducing our productivity by not paying attention. So mindfulness offers us an opportunity to actually learn to pay attention, engage our attention in the senses, and ultimately to become more engaged and aware in each moment.

MELISSA ADAMSKI: And we can apply that to eating, Richard. And this is the concept called mindful eating. Most people, when they go to eat, they're governed by some sort of rule, or some piece of information that they've learned. Maybe some past diet they've been on, or something their friend's trying at the moment. Not necessarily listening to their own bodies, and their body cues, what cravings they might have, or what actually works with their own lifestyle.

RICHARD CHAMBERS : Eating's one of the things that a lot of us do very unmindfully, right? Whether it's because we're distracted, perhaps eating in front of a screen or while we're doing something else. And if we're not paying attention when we're eating, that's going to make it very hard to eat in a healthy way, isn't it?

MELISSA ADAMSKI: Absolutely.

RICAHRD CHAMBERS: Perhaps eating too much because we're not listening to the body and noticing those feelings of fullness or satiety, I think that's called.

MELISSA ADAMSKI: And with that comes a lot of the health costs around the burden of disease. The chronic disease, the most driven a lot of the time by a sedentary lifestyle and eating. Eating too much of the wrong sorts of foods.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: Yeah, not noticing the kinds of foods that our body really wants to eat. Plus, we just eat what's in front of us, or what we think is a good thing to eat, rather than actually listening to the body.

MELISSA ADAMSKI: Mindful eating is applying mindfulness to the way that we eat, Understanding some of the behaviours of why we eat, and why we choose the foods that we do.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: To bring more mindfulness into your eating, you might just start by paying attention more to your body, tuning into the signals that it's giving you, noticing if you're actually hungry Or if perhaps you're eating because you're stressed or emotional. And then when we're eating, to actually bring our full attention to the meal. Ditch the screens. Don't do other things, and to fully taste and enjoy each mouthful of food.

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How to eat mindfully

MELISSA ADAMSKI, RICHARD CHAMBERS: video transcript

RICHARD CHAMBERS: OK, Mel, so let's do some mindful eating.

MELISSA ADAMSKI: Sure.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: And if you'd like to do this yourself, perhaps just hit "pause" on the video for a moment and go and get some food for yourself and then come back. One of the most important steps of mindful eating is just to tune into your body. So take a moment now just to tune in, and notice how your body's feeling. And in particular, tune in to your stomach and notice how hungry you are, or aren't. How hungry are you right now?

MELISSA ADAMSKI: Not very hungry. Just had lunch.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: OK, so now that you know that, take a look at this platter of food in front of you, and just let your eyes go over all the different foods, and getting a sense of what your body would naturally like to eat right now. Which of these foods calls to you the most?

MELISSA ADAMSKI: Well, since I've just had lunch, I think something a little bit sweet. So I think I might try the dried blueberries.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: OK, so take one of those dried blueberries then. So now, just bring it up close to your eyes and take a really good look at it. So now we're going to connect with the senses. So looking really closely at this dried blueberry, perhaps turning it over in your fingers, noticing the irregular pattern that the skin's formed as it's dried, noticing the colour of it, noticing the raised edges, how they catch the light and there are the darker folds and valleys. Just close your eyes and just realise that this blueberry was once growing on a vine somewhere. And you might, just for a moment, wonder where it might have been growing. And then it was picked. And you might wonder who picked that-- maybe it was a machine, or a farmer, backpacker. And then it was dried, perhaps on a big sheet in the sun or maybe in an oven, something like that. And then, how did it get to you? What was that journey like? You might just wonder how it got here. And then if you come back to your senses, just closing your eyes again and just feeling it. Just noticing the texture of the skin, the roughness, the smoothness. Giving it a gentle squeeze, noticing its consistency. Bring it up to your ear, listening to it. Perhaps you should give it a squeeze. Give it a really good squeeze. What are you hearing?

MELISSA ADAMSKI: Yeah, that's a slightly juicy sound.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: Yeah. And then bring it to your nose. So taking some deep inhalations, noticing what it smells like, if your mind goes off into memories or associations. Just keep coming back to the actual smell. And as you do this, you might also notice perhaps salivation taking place, where your body's preparing itself. Are you noticing anything like that?

MELISSA ADAMSKI: Definitely. My mouth's watering a little bit.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: So the body's preparing itself to digest the food before you put it in your mouth. And as you place it in front of your lips, but not yet in your mouth, and anticipate eating it, just noticing what that's like. And then placing it in your mouth and just holding it on your tongue for a moment, perhaps starting to taste it. Noticing what it feels like to have it there. And then very deliberately biting into it, and noticing which teeth do the biting and the chewing. Noticing the movement of your jaw muscles. Perhaps you're already noticing the urge to swallow it, yes?

MELISSA ADAMSKI: Definitely. Yeah.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: So just keep chewing it. Noticing where you taste it the most on your tongue. Noticing if you taste the sweet and the sour on different parts of your tongue, or if that's just a myth. And then, when you're ready, very deliberately choosing to swallow it, and noticing what happens in your mouth as you do that. The movement of the tongue. Perhaps you can follow the blueberry down the back of your throat, down into your stomach. And now something else that's really important with mindfulness eating. Just take a moment now to savour the experience. So perhaps just, with your eyes open or closed, just enjoying the aftertaste.

Really noticing how, even though you've finished eating it, that the experience is still there, the taste of it, so you can continue enjoying it even after you've swallowed it, rather than rushing on to the next bit of food, or the next activity. So that's mindful eating. What was that like for you to eat like this?

MELISSA ADAMSKI: It was very different.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: A bit different than how you ate lunch, right?

RICHARD CHAMBERS: Yes, exactly. It really gave me the opportunity to appreciate the flavour a lot more, and the food itself. So I think that the food had a lot more of an intense flavour. And especially when you take the time to smell it first, and savour it about to go into your mouth, so the anticipation of eating it.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: Anticipating it.

MELISSA ADAMSKI: Yeah.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: And did you notice how your body was preparing itself to digest it before you put it in the mouth?

MELISSA ADAMSKI: Absolutely.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: That's got to be good for the health, right?

MELISSA ADAMSKI: Definitely. And even when it was in the mouth and taking the time to chew it, having it in the mouth a lot longer, the flavour was that much more intense.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: Yes. And what about savouring it rather than rushing on to the next thing? What did you notice when you really savoured it?

MELISSA ADAMSKI: That I feel more satisfied. That I might not need to have as many to get that same flavour hit.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: Yes. And so you might just wonder what it would be like to be eat a bit more mindfully. Maybe we wouldn't eat all of our meals like that. That might get a little bit impractical.

MELISSA ADAMSKI: Take a while, wouldn't it?

RICHARD CHAMBERS: And weird, to be honest. But what would it be like to bring 10% of that to our next meal, or to all of our meals, and to use them as an opportunity to practise mindfulness, and also just to notice the body and the senses and to fully enjoy eating everything that we eat?

MELISSA ADAMSKI: Especially, I think that smelling of the food and that anticipation of eating, and putting it up in front of your face, and waiting before actually taking that first bite can really help you savour that flavour and taste the food that you're eating. And even though we might not use it with every food that we eat, even just using it the times when, perhaps, we're most unmindful throughout the day with our food.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: Mid-afternoon, perhaps.

MELISSA ADAMSKI: Mid-afternoon at work, or after dinner in front of the telly.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: In front of the telly.

MELISSA ADAMSKI: Yeah. So that's where you can start to bring these practises in and they can help you reduce your portion sizes or change your dietary habits.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: Yeah, and just enjoy eating more.

MELISSA ADAMSKI: Yeah. Yeah, bring back the joy of food, the flavour, the tastes.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: And so what was that like for you? Perhaps you might like to reflect on your own experience of doing that, whether you did notice something about your body, or did enjoy eating the food more, or perhaps really got more out of it through savouring. And you might like to just bring a little bit of that to your next meal, and perhaps to all of your meals, just as a way of eating more mindfully, and bringing more mindfulness into your day-to-day life.

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Mindful eating: Discretionary foods

MELISSA ADAMSKI, RICHARD CHAMBERS: video transcript

RICHARD CHAMBERS: Melissa, mindful eating doesn't just mean eating so-called healthy foods all the time.

MELISSA ADAMSKI: No, no, not at all.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: Because it also makes a lot of sense to bring mindfulness to the times that we eat occasional foods, or what do you call them in the business?

MELISSA ADAMSKI: Discretionary foods.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: Discretionary foods. That's right. Because it makes sense if we're going to eat something that's very sugary or salty, we'd want to bring our full attention to it and enjoy it as much as possible, as well as notice the effect that it has on the body.

MELISSA ADAMSKI: That's right.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: And of course, we could do the same thing with drinks, you know? Maybe if we're having soft drinks or even alcohol, we probably want to make sure that we really enjoy every sip and get the most out of it, as well as noticing the effect that it has on us. And so, once again, here we've got a plate of discretionary foods. And we're going to do some mindful eating again. Right? Again, so just tuning into your body, noticing how your body is feeling. And again, just getting a sense of how hungry you are and using that information. Now, having a look at the different foods on the plate here. And again, just which one do you naturally feel like you really want to eat right now?

MELISSA ADAMSKI: As somebody who really loves chocolate, I'm naturally going for the Tim Tam.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: The Tim Tam. So take one of the Tim Tams. Incidentally, a Tim Tam is a classic Australian biscuit. And now we're going to use all of the senses to eat this. So just holding it, again, where you can see it and really taking it in. So just looking at it, noticing the colour if it. You can sort of see how it's been put together. Yeah. So--

MELISSA ADAMSKI: It smells good.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: So smell it. Just start to take in the smell. Notice what that's like in your body, the effect that has. And now, place it at your lips and just anticipate biting it. And I want you to just really anticipate it and notice what happens in your body as you do that. That salivation(타액분비). Something happening in your stomach. What are you noticing?

MELISSA ADAMSKI: It's telling me to eat it.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: It's telling you-- [LAUGHTER] OK. So very deliberately, with all of your attention, just taking a bite. Just taking a bite out of it. Noticing that crunch, the texture of it. And as you start to chew it, noticing which teeth are doing the biting. Noticing what it tastes like. The texture, the crunch, the smoothness of the chocolate. So really exploring it with the senses. Enjoying it as much as you can, bringing your full attention to it.

MELISSA ADAMSKI: It's interesting letting it dissolve in your mouth, because usually you just take a bite, crunch, crunch, and swallow.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: And then take another one.

MELISSA ADAMSKI: But now, moving it around, it sort of dissolves and a lot more of the flavours--

RICHARD CHAMBERS: Right. Good.

MELISSA ADAMSKI: --pass over your tongue.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: So you start to notice new things. So seeing how much you can notice about that bite as you continue chewing. And then, when you're ready, very deliberately choosing to swallow it. So noticing what happens in your mouth as you do that, the movement of your tongue. Following it right down the back of your throat, into your stomach. Again, remembering to savour it. So you might even close your eyes, and just taking some time to really enjoy the sweetness, the aftertaste. And notice how if we don't rush on to the next Tim Tam or the next experience or the next activity, you can actually continue to enjoy the taste of it even after you've swallowed it. The sweetness, the whatever is still going on for you.

MELISSA ADAMSKI: It lingers a lot, the taste.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: Yeah. So hang out with that. Linger with that taste, and just let yourself fully enjoy that single bite of a Tim Tam.

MELISSA ADAMSKI: It's stretching a lot further than I would have thought is possible.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: Probably. Yeah. It's very different, isn't it, to how we might eat-- if I gave you a pack of Tim Tams and put a movie on--

MELISSA ADAMSKI: Yeah.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: --it would probably be a very different experience, wouldn't it?

MELISSA ADAMSKI: I probably would have eaten two or three Tim Tams in the same amount of time.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: In that time.

MELISSA ADAMSKI: And still probably be wanting one more. But--

RICHARD CHAMBERS: Yes.

MELISSA ADAMSKI: --after doing it like this, that one bite was quite sustaining. The flavour is very intense.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: And you feel quite satisfied from that. Yeah. So this is a way of, obviously, perhaps maybe eating less. But maybe even more importantly, really fully enjoying it. Getting the most out of it. So it's not like we shouldn't eat this. But if we're going to do it, we might as well enjoy it, right?

MELISSA ADAMSKI: And many people find these foods sort of pleasurable foods, in a way. They're very satisfying. They really enjoy them. So to have them gone in a second is very disappointing. So stretching out the enjoyment is a good thing.

RICHARD CHAMBERS: And so that might be a really good principle to keep in mind next time you're eating discretionary food or drink, just to notice your body and the effect that it has on your body, and also to really let yourself enjoy it as much as you can, as fully as possible. And just notice the effect that that has.

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https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/mindfulness-wellbeing-performance

Mindfulness for Wellbeing and Peak Performance - Online

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• Reference 

Food as Medicine from Future Learn. free courses https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/food-as-medicine

Food As Medicine Online Nutrition Course - FutureLearn

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