THE FIELD OF MINDFUL EATING HAS GROWN QUITE quickly in the seven years since this book was first published. The book has been translated into ten languages, including Spanish, French, German, Finnish, Swedish, Korean, Polish, Russian, Dutch, and Chinese. Trainings for medical and mental health professionals in a curriculum called Mindful Eating–Conscious Living have been held in Belgium, Mexico, Spain, and the U.S., and those professionals have spread the benefit of mindful eating to their clients and patients.
In the original edition I introduced the Seven Hungers, seven important aspects of what we lump together and call “hunger.” In this edition you will meet two new aspects of hunger, ear and touch hunger, for a total of Nine Hungers! I have added interesting new research on these two. We know that a pet will come running when it hears the whir of the can opener, but we also become alert and realize that we suddenly feel hungry when we hear popcorn popping or the crunch of someone eating potato chips. And there are some foods that just taste better when we eat them with our hands—and just wouldn’t taste as good if we ate them with metal utensils. Think of warm bread rolls, corn on the cob, hot dogs, or tacos.
I’ve also added a chapter on mindful eating with children. During our workshops and trainings for professionals we discover that many aspects of distress around eating have their origins in childhood. These are common stories: family meals laden with anxiety, children eating as fast as they can in order to escape before the parents begin fighting, children sitting alone at a table long after everyone else is gone because they would be punished if they did not eat a food they disliked, children who crept out at night to stuff themselves with sweets when the fighting finally died down after everyone went to bed, or families in which each person helped themselves from the refrigerator and ate alone in their bedrooms, watching their own computer or TV.
When I ask participants these questions about eating in childhood, “When you were a child, did an adult serve the food? Did they serve you food that they knew you didn’t like? Were you then punished for not eating it?” about a quarter of the group raises their hands. Children have a sense of injustice early in life. There is a natural reaction to that experience—anger, and often rebellion. Rebellion of one kind or another. Perhaps a reactive decision, “As soon as I get out of this house I will eat whatever I want, whenever I want.” “I will eat all the dessert I want.” “When I grow up I will let my own children eat whatever they want.”
Parents tell me they do not want to repeat these unhappy patterns as they raise their own children. The most common request I receive is for advice about feeding children, so that their natural happiness with eating is not subverted, so they will not be tied in the same knots that bind their parents. In the chapter on mindful eating with children I’ve included some interesting research, both old and recent, and exercises you can try with young children and teenagers.
In the last six years we have discovered that there is a universe of “other” organisms living within us, and every month new research appears that shows that this “microbiome” has an important role in keeping us healthy—or not. More information can be found in chapter 5.
Please enjoy this updated Mindful Eating, which I hope will continue to bring benefit to many people around the world!