How to Raise a Mindful Eater by Maryann Jacobsen

Author:Maryann Jacobsen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mindful eating, feeding kids, weight loss kids, healthy eating kids
Publisher: Maryann Jacobsen
Published: 2016-12-28T00:00:00+00:00

The Food Framework – Health Before Enjoyment

GINA WANTED FAMILY meals to be enjoyable, but in her pursuit of getting meals on the table pleasure felt like a luxury she couldn’t afford. First, was her children’s behavior ― they were constantly acting up so she disciplined them, sometimes ordering them to their room. Then they always seemed to take the starchy food first, wanting to skip the protein and veggies. She was constantly devising ways to get them to eat the healthy food, which was exhausting.

The truth was no one enjoyed dinnertime. Her kids were starting to associate dread with eating together as a family. They often left the table dissatisfied, even the rare times their eating performance pleased their parents. Inside Gina’s children was a growing sense of guilt for wanting the wrong food, and always disappointing their parents. Eating out was everyone’s refuge.

The wonderful food that Gina went to the trouble of making was going to waste but not because the kids barely ate it. It was because the whole experience was wrapped up in negativity. The kids were not exploring food or tuning into hunger and fullness, and their relationship with food was at risk. They just wanted to get their “duty” of eating over with.

The Negative Food Environment

Research suggests that the when the atmosphere around food is negative, children don’t eat as well.1 In one study, a more disapproving food environment such as hostility and inconsistent discipline was linked to more overweight and obesity than a warm and responsive family table.2 A strong inverse relationship between eating enjoyment and picky eating has been found, meaning that the more food is enjoyed, the less picky the kids are.3 Controlled eating atmospheres filled with pressure and restriction, researchers believe, can hinder a child’s eating.

One of the factors that kills family meal joy is the constant pressure to get kids to eat a certain way. Many times, parents are reacting to a child who is more difficult to feed, whether it’s pickiness or a big eater. Children experience different texture and taste worlds, which is why using force and pressure tends to make everything worse.

Most families don’t realize decreased enjoyment may also result in poor digestion and absorption of nutrients. Take a study where women were given Thai food. Women who claimed the Thai meal was too spicy, thus enjoying it less, absorbed 50 percent less iron than the women who enjoyed the spicy meal. When the meal was pureed into mush to be less desirable, it decreased iron absorption by 70 percent!4 This has to do with the anticipatory part of digestion called the cephalic phase, the foreplay for eating. Digestion doesn’t just occur when food hits the gastroinestinal tract, but rather it begins before the meal with anticipation of seeing food, smelling it, and developing an appetite. This prepares the body to digest food by stimulating saliva, gastric acid in the stomach, and pancreatic secretions like insulin. This “gearing up” of physiological processes intensifies the more a food

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