In cultures where eating rituals were widespread, people experienced few eating disorders.
Conversely, we see that ours is a culture with few eating rituals and numerous disorders. Many families, perhaps 25% to 30%, almost never eat together, according to many reports. The refrigerator, freezer, and cupboard are full of each family member's favorites, which can be microwaved when each one wishes, maybe between TV shows.
It's the American dream, the American way: freedom, disconnection, food as product, food as fuel, never having to interact. The basic rule, of course, is to pay very little attention to the stuff--food, sitcom, people, or game show--coming in and then to be just a bit baffled as to why you feel so undernourished in the midst of all this plenitude.
How to Eat Just One Potato Chip
Bets have been made. Challenges have been laid. You've been told you can't do it. You've never dared to try, but here's the secret. Taste. Taste what you put in your mouth. Experience it!
The potato chip is already manufactured and is always "ready for you" (waiting perhaps innumerable eons for this opportunity), so concentrate on preparing the other ingredients. To strengthen and focus the concentration, eliminate all the most obvious distractions: TV, radio, stereo, reading material (especially People magazine and the daily newspaper), talking, shopping, driving. Concentration is to be applied to the potato chip and only to the potato chip. No dip allowed. You are encouraged to be seated and not to have a drink in the other hand.
Here's the secret: Taste. Taste what you put in your mouth.
Attention is to be attuned to what is actually present moment after moment. "Attuned" because attention is often turned toward what is wished for or feared, and frequently glosses over the actual experience. Refine or focus the attention by pointing out what is to be attended to: how the chip feels in the hand, how the chip looks in the hand, the smell of the chip, the intention to place said object in the mouth, how the chip feels in the mouth, how the chip tastes (moment after moment!), how the chewing sounds, and, carefully now, the sensation of swallowing.
Mindfulness is to be "whipped up" or aroused, as it tends to save itself for things more important than chips. Remind yourself that eating a potato chip with mindfulness is vitally important. To be mindful means that the experiences attended to actually make an impression.
One way to arouse mindfulness is to practice making notes about what you are going to tell your grandchildren about this particular potato chip: "beige ... greasy between the fingers ... exquisite curve ... cute ruffles ... urge (like a fire flaming to life) to place in mouth ... feel with tongue ... powerful crunch..." and so forth. But please, don't take my word for it. Find your own words.
Got your ingredients together? Seated? Undistracted? Focused? When you are ready, you may pick up and eat (better yet, savor) that one potato chip. Get everything you can out of that chip, because it's the only chip in the entire universe.
(Some of the content of this blog is reprinted with permission from from "Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings: Recipes & Reflections" by Edward Espe Brown (Riverhead Books).)
