Mindfulness at the dinner table!

is_that_so

So there's this! Talk about taking the joy out of a great social occasion. Even table manners have more purpose.

one email that made me roll my eyeballs with such intensity I’m sure the neighbours could hear the grinding of flesh. It proposes “mindful eating”. A few ill-advised clicks later and I land on a self-styled food guru’s manifesto. “Have you ever noticed,” it starts, “how incredibly silent it becomes at dinner as soon as the food hits the table? Then you may have experienced mindful eating.”

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/jan/16/mindful-eating-gurus-silence-at-the-table-jay-rayner

Beeping Kitchen Appliances

Looking at the picture in the article, that poor girl doesn't even
have a dinner table

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Church on Tuesday

That's The Guardian for ya.

stoneill

Eat by yourself, and think about that.

Seamai

There's are places for mindfulness but I don't think the dinner table is one of them, there's always a lot of chat (sometime it can be chaotic) around the table in my family and meals tend to go on a bit. One of my sister in laws was surprised when she started coming for Sunday lunch that we didn't all stop talking, wolf down our food and bolt out the door before the last mouthful of food had hit our stomachs. For me getting together for food and conversation is one of life's great pleasures.

cashback

Church on Tuesday wrote: »

That's The Guardian for ya.

The Guardian is actually dismissing the Mindful food thing. Well, Jay Rayner is. His opinions are usually decent.

MrAbyss

I sometimes think the Guardian is a newspaper from an alien planet in far off outer space.

Actually I lie. I think that all the time.

MrAbyss

the Guardian needs that Paypal Donate button for a reason.

Bobblehats

Ommm nom..nom..

Gretas Gonna Get Ya!

Vladimir Lenin — 'Every society is three meals away from chaos'

Think about that while you scoff down your lasagne tonight!

(On second thoughts, some of you lefty loonies around here will probably be raising a toast to old Vladimir before your meals...) :P

topper75

I often read the Guardian online. The trouble is only in believing it.

meeeeh

MrAbyss wrote: »

the Guardian needs that Paypal Donate button for a reason.

Yeah because they don't have paywall like other decent newspapers. Anyway some of their opinions are a bit out there but they are decent source for cooking tips. Jay Rayner is overweight middle age man who likes meat and reading something from him won't make you a snowflake. Anyway I agree with him about mindful eating, it's usually advocated by people who had or still have some issues around food.

topper75

Gretas Gonna Get Ya! wrote: »

Vladimir Lenin — 'Every society is three meals away from chaos'

Was he the same guy who came up with the trendy phrase "Everything is fine. Until it's not!"?

A favourite of fear-mongers seeking to sound clever. You are all too stupid to see this bad thing that clever me can see! My paranoia may save you all!

Church on Tuesday

cashback wrote: »

The Guardian is actually dismissing the Mindful food thing. Well, Jay Rayner is. His opinions are usually decent.

The best thing about The Guardian is David Squires' football cartoons.

Earthhorse

In my house there were a lot of arguments at the dinner table. Stupid arguments but arguments nonetheless. In work this week a colleague hijacked a pleasant conversation to rant about his political views. I'm not advocating for total silence at mealtimes but some people should learn to keep their mouths shut.

Capt'n Midnight

Here's a guide

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/friday-night-dinner/on-demand

andekwarhola

Church on Tuesday wrote: »

That's The Guardian for ya.

I always find the guardian a much more palatable read when you stick to news and sport and avoid the opinion pieces like the plague.

I love a nice chat over a meal, but why oh why do some people seem to wait until you shovel a slightly-too-big mouthful of din-din into your mouth to ask you a question?

And why do they sit there waiting for an answer with an expectant look on their faces while you chew away for what seems like forever before you finally choke it all down, at which point the questioner will have given up and turned their attention to some other poor soul who just wants to finish their roast potato in peace? Those are the people who should be silent (or killed, I'm good with either).

Your Face

In my house we put a bit of effort into dinner so its usually silent when it comes to eating because the food is so good. We chat afterwards over coffee and tea.

Nothing to do with mindfulness. Why does everything has to be something other than what it is?

Graces7

Oh memories! Had an old uncle decades ago who used to wait until one of us kids had a mouthful of food, then crack a really funny joke to make us laugh. We nver learned to avoid it. The grin on his face!

I almost never have a meal in company. Last time was the Lunch Club's Christmas Dinner in Westport way back in 2018; was grand and no embarrassment . Lovely folk...

Candie wrote: »

I love a nice chat over a meal, but why oh why do some people seem to wait until you shovel a slightly-too-big mouthful of din-din into your mouth to ask you a question?

And why do they sit there waiting for an answer with an expectant look on their faces while you chew away for what seems like forever before you finally choke it all down, at which point the questioner will have given up and turned their attention to some other poor soul who just wants to finish their roast potato in peace? Those are the people who should be silent (or killed, I'm good with either).

Not sure what the article is talking about. Last time I heard about "mindful eating" it had nothing at all to do with conversation at the table. In fact "calling for silence" is the opposite of some of the stuff I heard before.

It was just someone advocating not eating "on the run" while you are doing other things. Like eating at your desk or shovelling it in your face while you are also pulling your pants on to get out the door in the morning. Or sitting in front of the television mindlessly feeding yourself while your mind is on the screen.

It was the just the idea that maybe you might find yourself better off if you set time and a place aside just for the eating - making it the primary focus activity of the moment - and remember how to enjoy the process and the experience and the flavours and the moment. In other words making food a worthy activity of it's own again - rather than something you do while doing something else, or something you feel you have to do before getting back to the things you feel you should be doing or want to be doing instead.

It was a suggestion nothing more. One at least worth of consideration before accepting it or rejecting it as not for you. I certainly found it was for me some years ago. I love food. Deeply. And I had forgotten that.

Gretas Gonna Get Ya!

Deleted User wrote: »

Not sure what the article is talking about. Last time I heard about "mindful eating" it had nothing at all to do with conversation at the table. In fact "calling for silence" is the opposite of some of the stuff I heard before.

It was just someone advocating not eating "on the run" while you are doing other things. Like eating at your desk or shovelling it in your face while you are also pulling your pants on to get out the door in the morning. Or sitting in front of the television mindlessly feeding yourself while your mind is on the screen.

It was the just the idea that maybe you might find yourself better off if you set time and a place aside just for the eating - making it the primary focus activity of the moment - and remember how to enjoy the process and the experience and the flavours and the moment. In other words making food a worthy activity of it's own again - rather than something you do while doing something else, or something you feel you have to do before getting back to the things you feel you should be doing or want to be doing instead.

It was a suggestion nothing more. One at least worth of consideration before accepting it or rejecting it as not for you. I certainly found it was for me some years ago. I love food. Deeply. And I had forgotten that.

Yes, something along those lines is always what I understood 'mindful eating' to be... it's also quite often advocated by nutritionists who favour a more natural way of controlling people's weight.

As a qualified nutritionist myself, I do not really promote it to clients... I've never seen enough first hand evidence of it's effectiveness. Mostly also because I know how our minds work when it comes to being disciplined with food. Without a solid well thought out plan beforehand, almost nobody has the self-discipline to make good choices at meal time... most of us are too busy and distracted, and we will generally wolf down our food no matter how much we try to be 'mindful'... try coming home from a hard day of work, and being completely "in the moment" every single evening... it's just not realistic for most people.

A solid plan, on the other hand, gives you a clear framework you can follow everyday. You can even prep meals in advance, which removes a lot of the confusion and bad choices we are prone to making "in the moment" so to speak... this is where discipline ultimately develops from and you get into good consistent routines.

Mindfulness is a nice idea, but in practice it just demands too much willpower on a daily basis... nobody has a limitless well when it comes to willpower... it's a finite resource that you should be careful with.

ohnonotgmail

Church on Tuesday wrote: »

That's The Guardian for ya.

are you a fan of mindful eating then?

Church on Tuesday

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

are you a fan of mindful eating then?

Just the eating part.

ohnonotgmail

Church on Tuesday wrote: »

Just the eating part.

so not a fan of mindful eating then. In which you should have been happy with the article. assuming you read it.

Church on Tuesday

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

so not a fan of mindful eating then. In which you should have been happy with the article. assuming you read it.

I have. I simply don't like a lot of the nonsense articles The Guardian covers.

branie2

Concentrating on the taste of your food

biko

I am a fan of "shut up and eat".

If that is called "mindfulness" now I am all for it.

Gretas Gonna Get Ya!

Gretas Gonna Get Ya! wrote: »

... it's just not realistic for most people.

It is and it isn't I suspect. I think when we ask the question about how realistic it is for people we have a direct 0 to 60 view of it. It is not realistic in the same way it is not realistic to think most people could start coming home from work tomorrow and go out for a 10k run every evening.

The fact is things like 10k runs and constant mindfullness are things that for most people require we start small and work up to it. Many things look unrealistic if you only focus on the current state and the desired state and nothing in between. Which for me is an approach founded in a kind of pessimism that has just never been part of my character since I was about 22.

In other words I think it is very realistic for most people to be able to do these things. I just do not think it is realistic to think most people will actually attempt to get there. Most people likely do not even care to. And even if motivated to do so - it is not clear how people like myself would even go about getting them to care. So I rarely try.

The kind of advance planning you advocate for example is great stuff. I am 100% for that kind of idea. It would be in fact one of the initial steps I would detail to anyone were they to be interested in some kind of "mindful eating" as a whole.

For example if I am guiding people into Mindfullness and Meditation - which is something I have been doing a lot over the last decade here locally where I live - quite often a first important step for incorporating that into their lives - is planning. They need to plan their day better in such a way as to set aside this time for meditation in the first place.

TL-DR - for me I guess there is no real distinction between mindful eating on one hand and "solid plan" eating on the other. I see them as being mutually beneficial concepts. And rather than good planning being offered in place of mindfullness - I would suggest it is a valid first step in the process.