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Articles, Books & Handouts
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Discover Mindful Eating By Frederick Burggraf M.Ed. Megrette Hammond M.Ed. RD, CDE, LD
“Discover Mindful Eating: A Resource of Handouts for Health Professionals” is a collection of handouts for professionals working in counseling practices with clients who want to change their eating habits and their relationship with food. The approach in this book can be generalized to a great variety of problems with eating, from the eater of healthful foods who is “missing most of the meal” by not being fully attuned and present at the time of eating, to those with more serious problems of overeating, diabetes, and serious eating disorders. While the handouts do not attempt to be an answer or cure for eating disorders, they suggest gentle but powerful ways to guide any eater to be fully present at each meal. Increasing awareness of everything that is present at a meal enhances enjoyment of food and cognizance of bodily sensations that give important feedback as to when one has had enough food to feel nourished, but not overly full. This collection of handouts has been designed to be used in any sequence to address the salient problem at hand. While this is true, reading the entire book from beginning to end works beautifully as a whole, conveying the myriad aspects of mindful eating. The early handouts focus on practical measures such as how much food to place on one’s plate, how to cut up food into just the right bite size so that optimal chewing, enjoyment and digestion take place, how to save calories by eating more slowly, and how to mindfully shop for food and read food labels to improve food selections. The concept that eating is used to meet a huge variety of emotional needs is introduced. Because serious emotional problems associated with eating disorders require medical, psychiatric and nutritional care, acknowledging that severe obesity, anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa usually require specialized types of treatments in addition to mindfulness practices would be helpful in this section. Many well-documented strategies such as avoiding deprivation, refraining from labeling foods as “bad”, eating a wide variety of foods, including dessert, and taking responsibility for making food choices are creatively and convincingly presented in a series of handouts. The acronym STOP (Select, Taste, Observe, Pause) is used to teach the technique of learning to be mindful of every bite of every meal, and that this requires patience and practice. Learning that one’s whole body participates in many ways with how eating and digestion take place, and that there are many ways to bring grace and dignity to every meal, is a powerful lesson in being present with one’s whole self during eating, and not focusing solely on the activity of tasting and chewing food. Perhaps the most enlightening and expanding concepts about eating, for me, were the handouts on pausing before a meal and appreciating all the steps taken before a meal arrives at the table. Giving appreciation for the workers who toiled to grow the food, for the plants and animals that were sacrificed so we can eat, for the hands that bought and prepared the food, and for the visual enjoyment of the color and textures of food is extremely important in defining our relationship with food before it reaches our lips. So much of a meal takes place before anyone takes the first bite! These handouts helped to raise consciousness about meaningful ways to fully appreciate food and to stop taking for granted the abundance of food available in this country, and to truly recognize our dependence on food for living. The pause before a meal can remind us how fortunate we are to have food and how many in the world are not as fortunate. The importance of the pause between bites, as well as a pause after the meal encourages us to slow down and pace our eating and to be fully present at the table. As one who has worked with people with serious binge-eating disorders and bulimia nervosa for the past twenty years, I found these handouts to be a welcome, long-over due and important addition to work that has been published to date on raising awareness of on eating and overeating. This book offers a respectful reverence to the art of eating, and moves us back as a nation to a time when making time for eating was part of our culture, when taking time for lunch meant eating a lunch that was made by a family member or eaten in a cafeteria or restaurant; not eaten out of a fast food wrapper at one’s computer or in a conference room. The way our workplaces have marginalized eating to be done while attending to something else, a lecture, a conference, a meeting, all activities where our minds are intended to be actively engaged in anything except what we are eating, is a way that we have let other priorities rob us of one of the most enjoyable and delightful experiences of being human. “Discover Mindful Eating” goes a long way in taking us back to the full flavor and delicious delight that living in the present moment with every bite can offer. I highly recommend this book to everyone who is interested in how they are eating, not just professional counselors, as the concepts in this book apply to everyone who wants to get more enjoyment out of their relationship with food. I would like to see this approach woven into existing programs for people battling overeating, eating disorders, and anyone who wants a more joyful experience in eating, which is one of our most primary life pursuits. This book clearly is a model for mindfulness as an approach to life itself, with eating being the primary metaphor. Reviewed by: Helen Riess, M.D. Author: Integrative Group Treatment for Bulimia Nervosa. Columbia University Press, New York, 2001. Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry Harvard Medical School Director of Education for Psychotherapy Supervision Massachusetts General Hospital Wang Ambulatory Care Center 812 Boston, MA 02114
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