Which is most important the way we eat or what we eat? Until the other day I would have said what we eat. But now I’m not sure that’s always true. A few days ago a patient told me that she had woken in the night with excruciating abdominal pain. It was so sharp that she was doubled over in agony – an emergency. Her husband was thinking of calling an ambulance. They thought it might be serious, even appendicitis. Finally she passed a lot of wind and it was better!
We discussed what had happened. Recently, to improve her diet, she had started bringing in a hot meal for lunch. She had eaten organic vegetables, rice and duck with miso soup in a pot that day. Better than the salad (too cold) and sandwich (too much wheat) she had previously eaten in a café.
She now stayed in the office to eat. Although the food was better, she no longer relaxed when she ate as she had in the café. When eating in the office she ‘threw’ the food down her and got on with work. There wasn’t enough time to digest the food and she was tense when she ate it. This caused the wind.
Her meal might have been organic and nourishing but was it better for her? Maybe the break and relaxation was just as important? She’s now thinking about how she can get both. he wonders if a relaxing sandwich and salad was better? What are your thoughts about this?
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October 23, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Ben
Don’t know if you have you seen the BBC article today
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7681458.stm.
Strangely this is similar to what a group of foreign language teachers I know were discussing a couple of weeks ago – that British people were more obese than continental europeans partly because we rush our food down rather than take time to enjoy the food. I’m not sure if they had seen the research reported somewhere else (or just if the conversation was sparked off by watching me eat!)
Seems to be a topic which is getting more focus lately. I’ve always been surprised that researches done into eating and behaviour seem to focus so much more on vitamin content than eating patterns (giving vitamin pills to teenagers, prisoners and other ‘undesirables’! etc). I guess this is partly because content is so much easier to measure than ’style’.
Ben.
November 4, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Angie Hicks
It couldn’t possibly have been sparked off by watching you eat Ben! But it would have done if they’d watched me eating sometimes!!!! I do think you’re right -much better to measure general eating habits but maybe, as you say, it’s more difficult to research. I was actually talking about that to someone today and was saying that a lot of research doesn’t get the whole picture and look at things such as the ‘taste’ of food or ‘heating’ or ‘cooling’ food or measure the type of food in the whole diet such as the balance of vegetables, grains and meat or other protein.