Packaged Food as Entertainment
How many of you like eating? Think about how many times in this past week you ate a meal that you fully focused on, with a full round of chewing on each bite – just like our parents used to tell us to do. It is astounding how many people are able to eat every one of their meals barely even chewing their food at all.
Today our culture has become accustomed to what I call entertainment eating.
Enjoyment
Enjoyment is like a tune that you just can’t get out of your head, but you don’t care because of how much you like it. You’re glad it’s stuck in there because of how it brightens your day and makes each task you have to do seem easier. Like the saying, ‘whistle while you work.’ Enjoyment is active. Any act that is able to add joy to your spirit is enjoyable.
Entertainment
Entertainment is like hearing that same song sung in a musical on broadway. Entertainment is passive. There is nothing wrong with entertainment, but it is fleeting. Beyond the performance and without an audience, that musical doesn’t exist. . . Unless, of course the passive audience takes the tune with them so they can actively enjoy it at work or at home, right? I guess that’s what’s so great about enjoyment, entertainment, and especially music: it is perfect whether you’re “chewing on it” yourself or whether it’s “being fed” to you!
Unfortunately, entertainment eating is a whole different story.
Enjoying Your Food
Food is here so that we can enjoy it. The trees know that we like our apple sweet. The ancient cooks knew that our meat tastes better cooked over a fragrant fire. Today, there is nothing wrong with being passionate about good food. What I picture when I think about the type of person who really enjoys food is an older gentleman or lady who, first of all, fully enjoys life. He, or she, is sitting down to a meal either at a small table outside near the trees or a large table with family. He breathes deeply and is thankful for the hard work he did that day and finally, chews his food to savor it. A person could really live a long, happy life like that, right?
Entertainment Eating
If I can eat my meal and barely even have to chew, let alone pay attention to it or enjoy it, I am eating passively.
Everybody knows that when we are too busy at work, we are forced to rush through lunch as fast as possible. But have you ever though about it the other way around? Since we have the convenience of fast food, we have the burden of being overworked in our careers. I believe that each statement is just as powerfully true as the other. If one statement does hit you harder, it should be the second one because of the perspective it gives.
There will never be a shortage of pre-packaged food ‘being fed’ to us in America. The reason pre-packaged, convenience, or fast foods are entertainment foods is because they can be eaten passively which means:
- It requires no active attention to purchase it. (The advertisements on t.v. & the obnoxious packaging have already ‘told’ us which items to buy.)
- It requires no active attention to prepare it. (Either in the microwave or simply squeezing the ketchup packet.)
- It requires no active attention to taste it. (We can pay attention to anything else around us like work or television and still be bombarded with the latest extreme taste.)
- It requires no active attention to eat it. (Minimal chewing is needed.)
- And, it requires no knowledge of where it came from or who assembled it. (Quite the opposite of the love that your mom packed in your lunchbox.)
Other than the money you spent on your last quick meal, you had almost no part to play.
Until you have educated yourself and risen above the standard-American-diet, or S.A.D., your taste buds will be unwitting audience members at every quick meal.
The Secret to a Long and Happy Life
First, slow down enough to check in with your gut. You should be able to “speak the same language” as your gut in order to answer some questions. Do you feel nourished by what you eat? Are there things you could do to feel more nourished? If you are having trouble interpreting the signs your body is sending you at first, that’s o.k. Many people are no longer in tune with their bodies.
On the other hand, there are many of us that have tuned out the distractions that bombard us every day in order to get in tune with what our bodies really need.
Whether you are just starting, or you are fluent in the language of your gut, tell your secret to a long and happy life here in the comment section.
How do you tune out the distractions that come from food advertisements, grocery store tactics, the drive-thru, and convenience snacks?
What ways have you found to truly make your meals an enjoyable and nourishing experience?
If you are just starting out, tell us something that you can start doing this week. What is one, simple thing that you can change when you eat that will help you enjoy your meal more?
