Abstract
The writing goes on to discuss about the book Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food that has been written by Jan Chozen Bays. After providing a brief abstract of the content of the book, the paper explores the specific elements of the book by Bays. The authenticity of the data provided in the book is critically analyzed in the course of the writing. Moreover, the usefulness of the book in context of the clients is also discussed in detail in the course of the paper. The writing explicates how the book can be beneficial for the clients who suffer from addictive behavioral patterns in relation to food habits. Thus, the paper aims at analysis and explication of the book in a holistic manner.
Eating Disorder
Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food is a famous book penned by Jan Chozen Bays who is a meditation teacher and pediatrician by profession. The author has been involved in teaching mindful eating for over twenty years. The author opines that the book is penned for those people who wish to improve the relationship with food. The book starts conversation with people who have a tendency of overeating or the ones who are obese or anorexia or bulimia. Bays opines that curiosity, skillful attention, tasting, preparing, intention to choosing as well as eating food. The author describes how the mentioned senses come to life, and the process of self-criticism gets transformed into self-nurturing. Jan Chozen Bays goes on to explore as many as seven kinds of hunger in humans: nose, eye, stomach, mouth, cellular, heart and mind. The book explains how many people feel sad, bored, frustrated or insecure before they start the process of eating. Apart from this, there are other people who eat so as to relieve loneliness. According to Bays (2009), “Most unbalanced relationships with food are caused by being unaware of heart hunger. No food can satisfy this form of hunger. To satisfy it we must learn how to nourish our hearts.”
It has to be reckoned that Bays goes on to totally explore the relationship of people with food. The author shows how people have become conditioned to approach the matter based on certain factors. These factors include gender, culture, and other forms of mental conditioning. This, the book plays a major role in addressing the issue of selection of food in a holistic manner and it brings into context the perspectives that might have been left in oblivion by people otherwise. In this way, the literary work goes on to offer a totally way in which people might start to think about consumption of food in their lives. The assumption regarding the personal choice of selection of food goes on to get challenged by the writing of the book. One might hardly think that he or she is conditioned in the course of life to make choice of some selected food items for eating. The role of gender or culture might not be explicit it their functioning. Thus, it might be difficult for any person to gauge the role of these factors in the determination of food items by someone.
The usage of Buddhist principles in the course of the book is another dimension that adds to the appeal of the work in context. However, this never makes the book a strictly Buddhist one. It goes beyond saying that the author portrays authentic content in the course of the writing. Thus, she is able to put the limelight on the issue in context and addresses the matter holistically with evidence, insight, and logical explanation. This in turn has a huge effect on the minds of the readers who are left to comply with the opinion that is voiced in the course of the book. The writer correctly focuses on the attitude of people while eating. Food intake is one of the major factors that directs the health and life of humans. The intricacies of food intake, thus, require exploration and interpretation. While it is the general tendency of people to ignore the matter in context, the author focuses on it as it is a burning issue that concerns the lives of all the people in the world.
In the course of the book, Bays gives a description of as many as seven types of hunger in humans. A proper comprehension of the different types of hunger would enable one to know the subtleties that are involved in the process of eating food. The author goes on to explain how people are stimulated by sight, and a meal that is nicely presented enhances the eye hunger. A person can feast his or her eyes in eye hunger before eating. On the other hand, if a person endeavors to experience the aroma of the food before actually eating it, then he or she is satiating nose hunger. Mouth hunger is the type of hunger where the person has a greater awareness and sense of the textures and flavors in the mouth while eating the food. People have a grumbling feeling in their stomach when they are hungry. Thus, the stomach gives specific signals to show hunger. This is known as stomach hunger. The author opines that one can learn to listen to the cellular hunger if he or she practices mindful eating. When the cells need nutrients, the person feels tired, irritated or has a headache.
People can become more aware of the needs of the cells by the skill of mindful eating. The author properly explains in the book how the modern society has come to show its influence on the minds of the people. People have come to become quite anxious eaters in the modern society. The people of the society are continuously influenced by the nutritional guidelines or the fad diet of the latest times. Thus, these factors make it quite difficult for the people to pick up the natural cues of the human body. Mind hunger is another kind of hunger that makes the mind focus on a new craving if one craving gets satisfied. Another form of eating is emotional eating that has its roots in the wish of being looked after or loved. A person has specific emotions before having a particular snack. This can be called heart hunger. In this way, the author successfully shows how food plays such a vital role in the lives of humans. It is related to a lot of factors (from the body to the mind), and most often people tend to be in oblivion or ignorance of these intertwined relationships.
One has to take into consideration the fact that all of these types of hunger are different from one another. The book goes on to explicate how the food habits or intake of food in general can be driven by any of these types of hunger. It is quite possible that a person is prone to a specific type of hunger, while another is inclined toward a different type of hunger. Thus, the subjective nature of food habits and practices can be taken into account. It should be remembered that eating mindfully needs a person to have an enhanced awareness about his or her food habits. This would enable the person to have a clear idea about the subtleties that are involved in the process of hunger and intake of food. Thus, people would be able to make more conscious decisions regarding the choice of food. Jan Chozen Bays makes a very useful distinction to show how the different kinds of hunger are related to the various parts of our anatomy. As a person becomes aware of the various types of their hunger and the associated reasons, it becomes easier to respond appropriately so that the types of hunger can be satiated.
It would be suggestible to all clients to go through the book by Bays. The book plays a very important role in enlightening the masses regarding the domain of eating disorder and food habits. This is surely one of the finest works in the domain of knowledge concerned. The clients would be greatly benefitted if they choose to read this book. They can have a proper perspective of the subtleties that are involved in the process of choice and consumption of food on the part of the humans. Generally, all these subtleties go unnoticed in the daily life scenario of the people of the world. Although the people can receive expertise opinion regarding food and nutrition, it is always the best to have a complete understanding of the matter on a personal level. If a person comprehends the importance of food selection and the possible implications, it becomes very easy for him or her to abide by the correct habit so as to attain proper health.
Thus, it would be correct to conclude by saying that the book by Bays is one of the seminal works in the domain of food and nutrition in relation to behavioral addictions of humans in the world society. The work puts the limelight on the issue that otherwise go unfathomed by people of the society. The work not only explains the behavioral patterns of humans in relation to food habits, but it also explores the possible remedies from the problems at hand. In this way, the book promotes a better lifestyle and healthy practices among people through the dissemination of knowledge and required persuasion in this regard so as to influence the people who opt to go through the writing by Bays. The work is really commendable to be precise, and its significance can only be described to be of immense stature in the domain of human behavioral patterns, food habits, and health. The addiction of eating disorder finds its holistic exploration in this book that is a perfect guide for people who wish to work with the ones who are affected by such addictions. The book is sure to elevate the consciousness of a person in his or her way of life, thereby making it easier to have a better view of the self and the world.
References
Bays, Jan Chozen.(2009). Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and
Joyful Relationship with Food. Massachusetts: Shambhala Publications. Print.