E<\/span>veryone knows it\u2019s important to eat the right foods to live a long and healthy life, but many of us fall short of that ideal.\nWe eat on the run, pulling into a drive-through and scarfing down a hamburger on the way to our next appointment. We grab a candy bar at the grocery checkout and munch on it on our way to the car.<\/p>\n And somewhere along the line, we realize that just as you can\u2019t judge a book by its cover, you can\u2019t judge food by its taste, says Jane Bernard, an educator and author of Lucid Living in the Virtual Age<\/em> (SensualThinking.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that taste can be misleading, at least when it comes to what\u2019s best for us,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople love donuts, but they don\u2019t make a nutritious breakfast. Spinach isn\u2019t popular with many people \u2013 especially children \u2013 but it\u2019s beneficial to our health in many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n But for Bernard, a great meal is less about what you eat than how you eat it. She advocates something she calls \u201cintuitive eating\u201d that\u2019s aimed at improving every dining experience\u2014and perhaps making for a healthier diet along the way.<\/p>\n \u201cIntuitive eating is deceptively simple,\u201d Bernard says. \u201cFocus on one meal at a time to get the most pleasure and nutrition from your food. Notice what you see, smell and taste. Check in with your body to see if you\u2019re really hungry \u2013 because sometimes we keep eating when it\u2019s actually time to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n Although you might find yourself shedding a few pounds, intuitive eating isn\u2019t necessarily about losing weight, she says. It\u2019s about getting more pleasure out of your meals\u2014and getting more pleasure from the people you have meals with.<\/p>\n Bernard suggests a few exercises that could help turn you into an intuitive eater:<\/p>\n Nearly everyone has memories tied to the aroma of food. Perhaps it\u2019s your mother baking cookies on Christmas Eve. Perhaps it\u2019s hamburgers sizzling on a backyard grill. With most meals, people don\u2019t take the time to savor the aroma, Bernard says. Does it smell inviting? Greasy? Fresh? Bad? \u201cIf the food doesn\u2019t smell right, it isn\u2019t,\u201d Bernard says. \u201cLet your nose protect you and help guide choices.\u201d<\/p>\n You may think you already do this, but too often, people don\u2019t really take the time to enjoy the taste, Bernard says. They wolf down their food, so they can move on to whatever is next on their agenda. Tasting food helps your body relax and digest more efficiently, she says. Tasting and savoring what you eat also is good for overall health.<\/p>\n Giving thanks doesn\u2019t have to be limited to Thanksgiving. \u201cThink about what food is giving you: energy, strength, health, nourishment and pleasure,\u201d Bernard says. \u201cIf you take a little time to meditate on that, your body will relax and you will get more nourishment from your food.\u201d<\/p>\n It takes 15 minutes before your brain gets the message from your stomach that you\u2019ve eaten. That\u2019s no doubt one reason people over eat. They don\u2019t give their body time to get the message that they\u2019re getting full before gulping down even more food. \u201cTake time to have conversations when you eat and you will eat less \u2013 and enjoy the meal more,\u201d Bernard says.<\/p>\n \u201cEating is a necessity of life,\u201d Bernard says. \u201cBut there\u2019s no need to rush things. Eat just enough to feel good and trust that hunger will return and another meal will be found.\u201d<\/p>\n Taking time to appreciate food<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7316,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[88,89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-winter-2018","category-winter-2018-columns"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7220"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7317,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7220\/revisions\/7317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Smell food before putting it in your mouth.<\/h3>\n
Taste food as you chew.<\/h3>\n
Be thankful for your meal.<\/h3>\n
Give your stomach time to inform your brain.<\/h3>\n
Jane Bernard, author of Lucid Living in the Virtual Age<\/em> (SensualThinking.com<\/a>) and other books, is a philosopher and educator who writes and teaches about intuition and sensual thinking.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"