“Conscious eating” — it’s a term that is picking up steam, and it encapsulates a very simple concept: thinking — actually thinking — about what we are putting into our mouths.
Do you think about it, or do you just habitually go to [insert your favorite fast food place here] for lunch every third day? Do you think about it, or do you just buy the [insert your favorite breakfast cereal here]?
“Conscious eating” means knowing what you are eating, thinking about it, and making an informed decision. How many grams of fat are in this? How many grams of sugar are in that? What are the ingredients? Once you know, you can eat consciously.
Eating consciously goes beyond that, though. It also involves taking in what we are told about nutrition and saying, “Hmmmmmm…. Maybe I should explore that further before I accept it.”
For example:
- All my life I’ve been told that milk is good for me. Now I am not so sure, so I don’t drink it.
- All my life I’ve been told that the best form of protein for my body is animal protein. Now I am not so sure, so I don’t eat it.
- All my life I’ve been told that vegetables are good for me. Okay, I think that’s still valid.
I’ve been fed so many lines of crap over the years, from the government and diet gurus alike. Hell, we are all exposed to this stuff, and so many of us buy into the latest diet crazes, whether they involve eating a lot of oatmeal, not eating wheat, avoiding carbs, whatever. Problem is that we need to choose a path and stick to it for a bit in order to see if it works for us.
Nothing drives me crazier than when someone has, for example, high blood sugar. So, they, wanting to take control of their own health — a behavior I loudly and publicly applaud  — start eating a particular way. They give it a shot for 6 months, have a blood panel run, and, oops, their blood sugar is still high.
“I don’t know what else to do,” they say. “My doctor told me to eat this way, but my blood sugar is not improving. I guess I’ll need to take the meds.”
Hmmmm…. I dunno. Maybe, well, just maybe your doctor doesn’t know what she’s talking about? How about that?
“What?” they shout. “My doctor went to med school, which is more than I can say for you!”
Hey, now, come on, think about it. Your doctor went to med school. She learned about diseases and which drugs or procedures to use to treat them. How much did your doctor learn about nutrition in med school?
According to a 2006 study by the NIH (available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2430660/)
Ninety-nine of the 106 schools responding required some form of nutrition education; however, only 32 schools (30%) required a separate nutrition course. On average, students received 23.9 contact hours of nutrition instruction during medical school (with a range of 2 to 70 hours). Only 40 schools required the minimum 25 hours recommended by the National Academy of Sciences. Most instructors (88%) expressed the need for additional nutrition instruction at their institutions.
Wow, in that case, I have a lot more nutritional training than your doctor probably has, and I am certainly no expert.
Anyway, the point is that even your chosen authority figure doesn’t have all the answers, so when he gives you advice, think about it. Read and get yourself educated. Try things out on yourself. That is how you figure out what works and what doesn’t work for you.
That’s called “critical thinking” and, getting back to the title of this article, you can apply that same principle to the way you eat. Conscious eating applies critical thinking to how we consume food. Start doing that and your body will love you for it.