I think just *paying attention* to your food is a key thing. Most of us have been trained to NOT pay attention, because the thing was (when I was growing up) to "do what you are told". That usually meant: eat what you are given. That meant: forget about your opinions about this food.
I rebelled against this at some point. Part of it is a family story about my Dad. He was a really big baby (runs in the family). Big and healthy. Born in pre-war Germany. The docs told grandma: he only should have 4 oz of milk.
Now this tells me 2 things: 1) He didn't get breastmilk. The docs were ALSO saying: don't bother with that, use cows! 2) The docs know best how much this baby needs. Forget that he is twice the weight of the average babe. WE know how much he needs to eat.
As grandma told it, Dad cried and cried. He was hungry. She was steadfast though, and didn't feed him. He was only supposed to get 4 oz. Who cares that he wants more? You have to discipline this young guy!
OK, does that sound harsh? It does to me. Also stupid. But back then, that was how people thought. When I had my own first baby, and asked "how much should I feed her?" the doc just laughed, "Don't worry about it. You can't overfeed a baby".
So the baby docs got smarter I think! He was correct. My daughter occasionally ate too much ... and threw it up again. She simply could NOT eat too much.
What does this have to do with chewing? I think we "scarf" our food ... wolf it down as fast as we can. Partially to get around our own inner voice that would tell us to "stop eating". Because as my daughter got older --- 4 or 5 --- she would not eat much. And pretty much everyone except me would say "eat more! eat more!". One stick of broccoli was simply not enough.
But I never made her eat more, because ... the "skill" of eating more than what you need is not a skill. It's the ability to ignore your body's signals ... kinda like sword swallowing or those overeating competitions or walking a tightrope. There is no way I know how much her body needs. If she was overly skinny I might make an issue of it, but she isn't.
On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 2:16 PM, tamaratornado <tamaratornado@yahoo.com> wrote:
When I chew my food well, I notice that the more I chew, the more I taste my food. I notice that whole foods taste better as I chew, while junk foods tend to taste worse the more I chew (except chocolate candy!) I also notice that if the food is even just slightly spoiled, I will taste the spoiledness of it more when I chew - then it's eewww, spit it out!
You are supposed to get more nutrients from your food if you chew well. Some foods are especially important to chew, such as grains.
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