Attention--The Other Vitamin A

Have you ever grabbed a package of potato chips or cookies and plopped down in front of the television only to find that a few minutes later, the package is empty, and you don’t even remember eating most of it or, even worse, that you still feel unsatisfied?  This is caused by a severe deficiency in what I term the “other” vitamin A — not the kind
found in carrots, but the one called attention.  Although it’s not commonly seen as a necessary nutrient, it should be!  Without paying attention during meals, our health suffers.  

When people are asked what they enjoy in life, eating will always be somewhere near the top of the list. Talk to the right person, and even a fast-food cheeseburger is a little slice of heaven!  The question then is, if we love our food so much, why do we give it so little attention?  If we were on a date with someone we loved deeply, we would never ignore
them for the television or read a book in their presence, completely avoiding eye contact. Why do we hurry through meals doing anything but looking at and loving the food in front of us?

 Stress is reason number one.  When our bodies are under the influence of stress hormones, our brains become convinced that we are running out of time.  We begin to hurry through our days and seek ways to multitask. Mealtimes are often sacrificed. In addition, many of us have mixed emotions about the foods we eat.  Perhaps there is guilt surrounding indulgent choices, or maybe we eat tasteless diet foods because we believe we “should”,but in our hearts, we dislike them.  With either mindset, we distance ourselves from the act of eating.      

Because each of us is different, attention related to eating is a complex and often confusing subject.  What is clear, however, is the detrimental effect of ignoring our meals.  Ingestion of food is only a part of nourishment.  According to nutritional psychologist Marc David, scientists who tested individuals based on attention found stunning results.  They exposed their subjects to “dichotomous listening," meaning they heard different conversations through each ear while drinking a mineral beverage.  Simply being an audience to two conversations caused a 50% drop in mineral absorption from the drink!  Multitasking during meals doesn’t work. 

Lack of attention doesn’t just rob us of nutrition.  When we come to the table without awareness, we don’t listen to our natural hunger signals. 
We may choose foods we aren’t even interested in, which lowers our pleasure during the meal (vitamin P, a subject for another day).  We don’t watch our bodies’ fullness signals, so we overeat.  And worst of all, because our brain wasn’t paying attention during the meal, it is literally unaware that we’ve eaten and continues to beg for food!

So next time you eat, turn off the television.  Put down the paper. Make mealtime your special “date” with your beloved food.  Give it your undivided attention by taking a moment to breathe deeply and inhale the scent of your meal.  Look at the colors on your plate.  Chew slowly, noticing every flavor, every texture as it comes to you.  Continue this practice and you may find that you become fuller, faster.  Your interest in some foods may diminish, while you begin enjoying others more. Even better, your stress levels will drop, and digestion can improve.  Fill up on the “other” vitamin A and you’ll see everything about your relationship with food changing for the better.