Food Psychology

Yes, it is raining here today on the Eastern Shore of Maryland but I am happy as a clam.  I get to stay home (not showing houses today) and do some of those domestic things I like to do such as baking and cooking!  So, first I tackled Vegan Chocolate Cake with rich Double Chocolate Fuge Icing, a test cake for my daughter’s upcoming birthday visit.  Then I made some over-sized pumpkin muffins with big raisins for my little grandson.  I made them over-sized so he can share one with me and his mom!  Now I am about to put together some chicken salad for the week’s lunches and chicken parmesan for dinner!  Wow! 

What does all this have to do with food psychology?  Well, I have felt happy today thinking about these recipes, preparing these foods and now sampling them to see if they are a success!  It makes me feel good to know that if the vegan cake is a hit, when I make a fresh one for my daughter’s birthday, she will feel the love when she takes that first sweet delicious bite! 

And those pumpkin muffins?  I made them with added ground organic flax seed to give them some extra nutrition; so I feel extra good about that!  Now, if the chicken salad is as tasty as I think my new recipe promises, and the chicken parmesan turns out moist and golden, I will have done that little extra special something for my husband (who works about 12 hours a day) too, and I like doing that. 

Yes, there is a lot to the psychology of food in its anticipation, preparing, and enjoying.  But most of all, the joy of food to me is in the giving and I am grateful that I have had the time and opportunity today to prepare foods for my loved ones. 

Just hope that it rains for one more day ~ my other grandsons, who live to far to visit, might just like to see a box of chocolate chip cookies on their doorstep when they get home from school one day this week!

I love avocados!  If you have been paying attention to the news and listening to the nutrition experts, you know that avocados are really good for you.  They are jam packed with Omega 3’s and 6’s and although they are high in fat, beneficial  monounsaturated fats.  All that positive press made me happy and I was eating at least one avocado a day.  

You can imagine my surprise, then, when I discovered that avocados, according to Dr. Peter J. D’Adamo in his book Eat Right 4 Your Type,  are not a “beneficial food” for folks like me who are Type O blood type.  In fact, they are on the Eat Right 4 Your Type  ”Type O Avoid List” as a food that is unfriendly to Type O’s digestive tract.  But, could I give them up?  Yes, I reasoned, I could in order to be without digestive distress.  But would I give them up?   Would I be willing to let go of that delicious, creamy, nutty flavor that I had come to love?  That was the question!  And, if I was willing to let them go, when would I do it? 

For those of you who know the Sedona Method, the practice of ”letting go”, perhaps you recognize the 3 questions that precede the “letting go” process.    So, since I was having digestive difficulties, I gave them up for 3-4 days to see if it made a difference.  And it did!  Within 3-4 days I was feeling signifantly less digestive discomfort.  Then,  after letting go of several other foods on the Avoid List, by the end of 2 weeks I would say I was 98% improved.  I only re-experience mild symptoms when I start eating those foods which according to Dr. D’Adamo’s research and experience inflame and irritate Type O’s bodies (those darn Avoid foods again!). 

What does this have to do with food psychology?  Everything!  When we are confronted with a possible answer to our difficulties, especially when it relates to our eating pleasure, we have to be willing to have an open mind to be able to change a behavior that is currently rewarding.  As I said in the beginning of this post, I love avocados  and I did not want to give them up.  To me eating an avocado is like having dessert and it was hard for me to believe that avocados might be contributing to my digestive distress.  But I did want to get better, didn’t I?  That is the question that I was confronted with and I did respect Dr. D’Adamo’s expertise in the field.  So, I owed it to myself to consider that avocadoes could be the source of my undoing and if I wanted to feel better, it was worth dumping them in favor of feeling good!  The only thing I had to lose was pain and a few days of eating pleasure.  So I did it and I am so glad I did.  Pain free is better than a few moments reward of that smooth, velvety, nutty flavor of a ripe avocado (I told you I love them!).  Anyway Dr. D’Adamo says that once your body has healed after an inflammatory condition, you can always give an offending food another try and if you can tolerate it, eat it occasionally.  And I just might do that.  But right now I am content to let avocadoes go

Most experts in applied psychology will tell you that you become what you think about.  Thoughts are things and are very powerful.  New research in the field of quantum physics and neuropsychology bear this out.  Thoughts can be either constructive or destructive, positive or negative, pro-active or demoralizing, etc. and the impact of those thoughts on our brains can actually be documented by brain (SPECT) imaging as affirmed by studies conducted at the National Institute of Mental Health. and by Dr. Daniel Amen, the famous neuropsychiatrist in his book Change Your Brain, Change Your Body and others:   ”It is true. Bad, mad, sad, hopeless, or helpless thoughts release chemicals that make you feel bad….These awful, miserable, negative thoughts make your brain and body work less efficiently…(sic) happy, positive, hopeful and loving thoughts release chemicals that make you feel good.” 

So, what does this mean for us and how does this apply to how we think about food and how we nourish ourselves?  Here are some of the questions we might ask ourselves.  How do we think about food?  Are we mindful about what we eat, how we eat, where we eat?  Do we attend to what is “eating us”, those thoughts, both fleeting and nagging, that keep us trapped in behavior that sabotages our health?    Is food a source of nourishment for our body, mind and spirit or is it something we just do, “eat to live” so to speak.  Do we fall into the habit of playing “fortune teller” when we think about losing weight by saying something like, “You will never lose weight!  You are just big boned and destined to be heavy.” 

Remember to challenge your faulty thinking and not to believe the constant background chatter of what Zen Buddists call the  “monkey mind”.  Take charge and know that it is mindless chatter, not to be believed, only to be aware of and then let go!  Once you do that, you are on the road to healing and wholeness.  Be persistent with good mental health practices.  As the I Ching instructs, “Correct persistence brings good fortune.”

I listened to my body and I did not like what I was hearing!  It was telling me something was not quite right even though I had passed my physical with flying colors.  No, something was not quite right!  I listened some more, prayed about it and then let it go trusting that I would have an answer!  And swiftly, the answer came.  I stumbled on a book I had read many years ago about eating right according to your blood type.  You may have heard or it or read it too!  If so, and you did not take heed, you may want to re-consider.  The book is called “Eat Right 4 Your Type” by Dr. Peter J. D’Adamo and it has saved my life!  As upset as my digestive track has been, I knew I was headed for trouble before I found this book again.  Now I am pain free, lost 10 pounds and feel great!  Here is your link to a better life:  www.miraculousnutrition.com  Let me know what you think!

One of the most important concepts in mind-body nutrition is the “power of slow”; recognizing that we do damage to ourselves at a deep level when we rush through our food, rush through our lives, without awareness of the moment or of its importance to our well-being. 

Everything we discuss on this blog is always being presented in the context of meaningful living.  The ultimate goal of mind-body nutrition and dynamic eating is to create a healthy mind-body balance by observing and reflecting on how you relate to food:  What happens when you think about food and when you eat it?  How aware are you of how those thoughts and feelings are impacting your body and emotions?  Are you aware that your lunch or dinner hour has become a “rush hour”, not sitting down with yourself, family and/or friends and eating mindfully, but rather grabbing something at a sidewalk stand at lunch while you walk to another appointment or staying late at the office pulling something sandwich-like from a cafeteria vending machine?  Do you think that those antacids you are popping are really because you just ate something too spicy or rich, or are you willing tyo consider that there might be a connection between your stress levels, food choices and your current acidic state? 

It has been proven that stress (often experienced by those rushing, rushing, rushing) is a prime factor not only in heart disease, inflammatory disease, etc. but it is also a prime factor in metabolism and weight.  People who live stressful lives, read that as ”distress” and not “eustress”, have a greater tendency to gain weight and keep it than those who practice the “power of slow” when it comes to food and self-nuturing. 

Rx for the Week:  This week become more mindful of how you are eating, where and what you are eating.  Make a conscious decision to slow down!  See how it feels and let us know what you notice!  Have a wonderful week.  Blessings!