Why mindful eating contributes to better health

Cabbage and kidney bean soup to be served with toasted herb bread

A winter staple at Chez Rockwell

Where did the notion of mindful eating come from? It was defined by Jon Kabat-Zinn, the original developer and leader of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School  as “paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.”  His book 1990 book Full Catastrophe Living offered guidance on living mindfully based on his experiences with this program since 1979.

In my world, mindful eating is also related to mindful grocery shopping, meal preparation and cooking, using two old broad-friendly appliances — the slow cooker and the toaster oven. How food is prepared and how it’s presented contributes to an awareness of what we are putting into our mouths. Are we eating to live, living to eat, or comforting ourselves with food to combat stress? Stress eating can easily get out of control and requires effort to address. No doubt there are many among us who would benefit from having a meal buddy, someone with whom to interact while mindfully dining; eating slowly, chewing well, and drinking enough water with the meal to ensure healthy digestion. 

Here at Chez Rockwell, mindful eating is only one component of my daily living as I safely and healthily age with cerebral palsy. That journey began in toddlerhood when it was clear that I’d require a lot of nutritional input each and every day, to accommodate carrying my tiny body around wearing waist high metal braces and using forearm crutches. I learned all about the importance of the grocery list back then, too. A grocery list is critical to nutrition awareness as it helps one to ‘colour within the lines’ if items are organized by grocery aisle or a relationship to each other, as a menu is planned. It also ensure less wasted food and money. 

I rely on ‘the list’, to organise daily menus to include 3 meals/day plus snacks, preparing main dishes that are nutritious and accommodate 3-4 frozen servings which makes them both cost and energy efficient. This is especially important for those among us on fixed incomes who find healthy eating financially challenging. 

Being on my own, it’s critical that food preparation be energy efficient, as I cannot know from one minute to the next when my heart is going to hurt and I go into a fatigue slump, or I’m going to feel nauseated, or my eyes are going to go blurry. I still have to eat well. In that regard, I’m very disciplined, choosing foods that contribute to my continued wellness.

Because I drink a lot of water through the day, I don’t always have it with a meal, but hydration before a meal will ensure mindful eating of what’s on your plate and reduce the risk of over-eating. Insufficient hydration continues to be a major concern amongst the senior set. A few glasses throughout the day improves physical performance as well as mental acuity — win-win. So drink up and do the crossword puzzle.

Easy access to information has acquainted us with the Mediterranean diet, which is fruit, vegetables, grains, seeds, nuts and vegetable oils. In essence, it’s also about mindful eating.  A key feature of mindful eating that cannot be ignored — improved nutrition concurrently reduces dependence on a range of medications used to treat various conditions and diseases. The internet is great for gathering information about vitamins, minerals, benefits of certain foods, and how to incorporate healthy eating into your day, but equally important is having conversations with your doctor and other caregivers about how you can improve nutrition with the goal being to reduce dependence on medications.

I’m fortunate to have a lot of help with meeting my nutritional needs. The bulk of my food is purchased at Victory Meat Market where I’ve shopped since the 70s; they provide me with a helping hand by doing the shopping for me, based on a list I email to them. The fatigue factor associated with aging with cerebral palsy doesn’t allow me to do a big shopping on my own. I have to really think about what I need and what I’m going to prepare as the list is developed, though sometimes I miss a few things. That shopping trip takes care of almost 2 months worth of shopping. Then the batch baking and cooking begins, filling up the chest freezer as previously prepared meals in stackable containers are moved to the fridge freezer. 

Mindful eating, with its various components, has served me well for decades and I am confident that I will continue to do well, home alone, with many years of fine dining ahead.

Carla MacInnis Rockwell is a freelance writer and disability rights advocate living outside Fredericton, NB with her geriatric Australian silky terrier and a rambunctious Maltese. She can be reached via email at carmacrockwell@xplornet.ca

On demand hospital food a great idea

From the Chez Rockwell kitchen - sweet n sour beef and veggie stir fry

My relationship with hospital food is limited, as my last extended stay was in the early  80s at the then Northern Carleton Hospital in Bath, NB; incarcerated, trapped for a full month recovering from a dislocated elbow thanks to tripping over a black cat in a darkened hallway in my apartment. Hospitalization was the only viable solution as I could not safely be on my own during recovery; having an out of commission arm compromised my upright mobility within the parameters of living with cerebral palsy. During hospitalized recovery, I would require the same intake of food as I would at home. 

The food wasn’t all that bad, but times are different now, with far too much prepackaged and heat `n’ eat fare that is not terribly appetizing, negatively impacting the hospitalized patient experience.

Before modern medicine, at-home prepared food was the only tool to promote healing or provide comfort. As time passed, there was a separation of food and medicine and food AS medicine.  Modern wellness trends embrace pharmacology and various therapies to enhance the body’s ability to move (physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and so on). What if we came to realize that improved nutrition would reduce pain, improve mood and enhance sleep quality? No miracle drugs required and with proper planning through investigation, eating well isn’t going to break the bank, especially if one breaks bread with others or several others  —friends and cost-shared food is a great prescription for improved health all around.

My own mother took a page from those 19th century notions, filling me up with soups, custards, rice puddings, bread puddings, milkshakes with bananas; the goal was weight gain, as I was diagnosed with ‘failure to thrive’ — one of the many labels attached to infants, toddlers and youngsters growing up with cerebral palsy. Today, I love to cook and bake and I love to eat. My latest thing is a fabulous cabbage and kidney bean soup laden with other healthy veggies. Want the recipe? Get in touch! 

If flavourful soups instead of ‘foods’ that are barely identifiable, were served in hospitals, patients would be more inspired to eat them. There’d be less waste. Think about how much food tray waste there is in hospitals across the province, across the country. Then assign a ballpark dollar value to that waste.  It's no wonder on-demand food service is gaining traction in many provinces across the country. Hospital management in this province has a duty to embrace a better, more palatable model that demonstrates that they really do care about patient health and wellness.

What is food? In my world,  a smoothie is food. In the hospital setting, a veggie and fruit laden smoothie would significantly contribute to stepped up nutrition, particularly for the malnourished senior, who often goes into hospital with compromised nutrition and leaves after ‘recovery’ still malnourished because they just couldn’t eat ‘that horrible hospital food’. When my late husband was a patient at the Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton in 2007, Dr. Sydney Grant asked me to provide them with smoothie recipes, so the staff could introduce them to pique the interest and taste buds of  patients who were struggling to eat.

Food offerings need not be constrained by time of day. In the absence of dietary restrictions, if Mr. Jones wants a salad and smoothie for breakfast, that’s what he should have. If Mrs. Brown wants a bowl of oatmeal and a side of toast and peanut butter for dinner, she should have it, no questions asked. She might even enjoy apple slices with a few pieces of chocolate on the side. Making real, palatable, fresh foods available will reduce the numbers of the malnourished. Rule of thumb: fresh is best. On-demand food service WILL cut costs and improve patient outcomes. The number of malnourished will decrease. Education about nutrition can be structured so patients can take home with them tricks and tips for healthy eating post-hospitalization. That practice alone would contribute to reducing repeat admissions, therefore reducing costs.

It’s time for the powers that be to look to better ways to DO good medicine and that includes food offerings. Healthy eating is part of recovery from trauma to the body, whether through illness or during post-op healing, so we really are what we eat. If we don’t like what we ate at our local hospital, we must communicate our concerns to effect change. After all, our money helps pay the bills.

Carla MacInnis Rockwell is a freelance writer and disability rights advocate living outside Fredericton, NB with her geriatric Australian silky terrier and a rambunctious Maltese. She can be reached via email at carmacrockwell@xplornet.ca