The Pleasure of Food

Eating is truly one of life's most pleasurable and sensuous activities. Quite simply, food tastes good. It pleases all your senses of taste. Food offers delightful aromas and textures. It refreshes us. Enjoying food, especially delicious food, is one of the most natural experiences in the world. Hooray!

So why do we persist in our love-hate relationship with food? It's so unnecessary. Food in and of itself cannot make you fat. It has no such power. The power resides in you and your eating habits. If you overeat any food, you can gain weight. If you eat food using the 0-5 approach, you can reach your ideal size.

A Healthy Appetite Really Is Healthy

Just as hunger is a valuable feeling you don't want to suppress, a normal appetite is a good thing, too. Appetite is the desire for food. Your normal appetite for certain foods fluctuates from day to day. You should honor your appetite. Don't ignore or resist its natural function. For instance, you might have an appetite for eggs and bacon for breakfast. You don't have to resist your appetite and eat only cereal. Go ahead and eat the eggs and bacon.

Crazy About Those Cravings

Unfortunately, there is such a thing as a false appetite. A false appetite is basically an irrational craving. Your brain becomes self-programmed to desire something so strongly that it incites you to compulsive consumption. Your false appetite often is for foods that can be harmful, such as allergic foods, lots of sugar, and highly processed refined starches such as breads, pasta, cookies, and cakes. We call these fluffy starches.

Mike, a college student, is allergic to wheat, corn, and milk products. They give him stomach cramps and frequent diarrhea. He can't resist eating certain wheat products, especially sandwich bread ... even when it makes him sick. His craving for bread can be so extreme that he will even put a fancy steak between two pieces of bread with a couple slices of cheese. Like someone who needs a daily fix of coffee, his desire for bread compels him to eat irrationally. His eating habits are ruining his fun and health. Of course, he can ultimately control his urge for these allergic foods by substituting other foods he loves that aren't harmful.

You can manage your appetite by directing it toward good-for-you foods such as the basics--meat, fruits, vegetables, and fats. If one day you have an urge for broccoli, give in to it. Ditto for steak, salmon, salad, and so on. Your body will be glad you did. You don't need to battle your appetite. Just manage it as one part of your overall eating approach.

Good Digestion Comes with Pleasurable Eating

Many people who are overweight have poor digestion. For the most part, poor digestion is not inherited or genetic. We give it to ourselves through the way we eat. Eating to soothe stress or anxiety is often the culprit.

Alas, poor digestion can lead to weight problems. Here's how: When a person feels stressed, the part of the central nervous system that regulates digestion switches off. This is called the parasympathetic nervous system. At those times of stress, the body can take in food and process some of it, but digestion doesn't work correctly to extract all the nutritional goodness from the food.

Poor digestion is not always obvious by observing symptoms. You could get heartburn, diarrhea, or constipation, but not always. Poor digestion can be seemingly silent.

If you eat when you are stressed, anxious, or nervous, you might as well be eating cardboard for all the nutrients your body gets. Yes, eating when stressed is a gaining situation. Now you might think, well, gosh, if I'm not digesting, the calories aren't getting handled, so I should be losing weight. Good idea, but wrong reality. When digestion is impaired, the body starts "starving" from lack of necessary nutrients. Yes, it goes into starvation metabolism and starts hoarding fat and energy. It thinks it's in a famine. The good news is that it's easy to make some corrections and get rid of stress at mealtimes.

If you feel stressed often, it can be helpful to take a supplement that contains multiple B vitamins. These help, but you could still find yourself stressed at mealtimes. Here's how to make meals a pleasant "losing" experience.

Whether you're eating hamburgers on the patio, a hot dog at a baseball game, or a five-course dinner on Valentine's Day, you can use the following principles of eating with elegance and grace. Yes, even if you are eating with babies and small children, you can improve your digestion and enjoy your meal.

Eat Beautifully

Think back to your eating environments for the past three or four days. Have you eaten in the car, in front of the TV, or with your e-mail as a companion? Have you eaten at your desk or during a difficult and emotional discussion? Have you been so upset that you took your dinner to bed with you? In each situation, you're missing an opportunity to eat beautifully and healthfully. Eating beautifully means eating in an environment that is peaceful, health-giving, and enjoyable.

Let's start with the basics. Beautiful eating is eating while seated at a table with utensils, plates, and napkins, maybe even with placemats or a tablecloth. Even better, include flowers, candles, and perhaps a centerpiece.

Next think about the sounds you want to hear when you are enjoying your food. Do you want to hear the evening news, a TV sitcom, or an argument the children are waging? Or do you want lovely music and even better conversation? You will enjoy eating--and will eat more intelligently--if you turn off the TV and focus on your food and your eating companions. Stop reading and just enjoy your food. If the phone rings, you don't need to answer it. That's what voice messaging is for--to handle phone calls when you don't want to. The phone ringing is not a good enough reason to interrupt your enjoyment of your food. Food is such a wonderful thing in and of itself that you don't need a diversion. In fact, it's so wonderful that it deserves your full attention.

In a study of women, some ate while watching an interesting suspense story on television. The others simply ate their food without outside stimulation. The second group ate less food at the meal than those who watched the show.

The most fattening eating can be done when standing up or lying down. How many of us have shoveled in lots of food while standing in front of the kitchen sink staring out the window? Far too many. Eating while sitting sounds so fundamental. People who are at their ideal size are not the people who hover over the hors d'oeuvres at a cocktail buffet. They don't eat a full dinner while standing at the stove cooking dinner. Most adults who are at their ideal size enjoy beautiful meals. So whenever you are hungry, sit down and eat. Don't stand and stuff.

The best way to practice this principle of sitting to eat is to take all of your food and snacks to your place at the dining room or kitchen table. Eat your food there.

What have you brought with you to the meal? Set aside your concerns of the day when you sit down to eat. Believe us, they will be right where you left them when the meal is over. You can set guidelines for conversations at dinner. If someone insists on discussing things you don't want to hear about, you can put your fork down and wait until the person stops. You never need to eat even one mouthful of food in an environment or situation you don't like. Should your children act up, as children often do, put your fork down until the ruckus abates. There's no reason to ruin good food by eating it in chaos.

You have the opportunity for three or more pleasurable eating interludes every day. Don't let them get messed up with less-than-pleasurable surroundings and activities. As best you can, eat beautifully at every meal. Yes, we know you can't always do this. But whenever you can and as often as you can, make your meals beautiful.

Slow Down and Lose Weight

By eating slowly, you give your stomach the best chance for good digestion. For several reasons, a meal should take at least 15 minutes. Twenty minutes or longer is better yet.

It takes about 15 minutes from the time when you begin eating for your stomach to signal the brain that it has had enough food and that it is satisfied and comfortable. Your mouth can consume food faster than your stomach can register that you have eaten it.

If you eat quickly, you are more likely to overeat, easily reaching 6 or higher on the 0-10 scale. It is difficult to eat beautifully and sensuously in less than 15 minutes.

Chew Sanely

We are often asked how many times a person should chew before swallowing. Rather than answer this question directly--we don't want you to ruin your meal by counting chews--we prefer to think of it this way. Finish swallowing what is already in your mouth before you take the next bite. Before you swallow, chew thoroughly and slowly. Eating is not a race you win if you eat the fastest. Make every mouthful a delight.

Chewing is the first step in the digestive process. Saliva starts to break down the food and prepare it for the stomach. If you bypass chewing, your digestive efficiency is impaired.

Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Healthy Weight Loss © 2005 by Lucy Beale and Sandy G. Couvillon. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

To order this book visit the Idiot's Guide web site or call 1-800-253-6476.