5 Minutes staring at a Sultana will make you Lose Weight… According to Research
Brace yourself lads, this one seems weird.
Now I’ve spoken a little bit about the influx of ‘advice’ on how to improve yourself (see My Article). Everywhere you go there seems to be an ‘expert’ giving us new information on how to get that perfect summer body, how to get a certain celebrity’s legs or how to drop 5 stone by eating a diet consisting of eggs and sadness. I don’t think it is particularly surprising anymore, when you’re flicking through the magazines or browsing on the internet, to see these articles. I’m sort of immune to the ridiculous statements that seem to be constantly pouring out of them, because you know no matter how much research has gone into the fact that eating 25 sticks of carrots a day can help prevent cancer, there will be research the next week to the contrary. Just when I thought I’d skimmed over the most ridiculous ones I could find, the Daily Mail (surprise surprise) jumped on in there. I read something so confusing I thought I just had to share it. So here goes.
Mindful eating. This is the topic surrounding this research. Now to me, mindful eating is sitting through a seminar and instead of paying attention, planning what meal I’m going to make. Mindful eating is choosing to treat myself to Cathedral City cheddar instead of regular supermarket own. Mindful eating is choosing what restaurant to go to with your gf, depending on how much the two of you can eat (which is frankly a lot). Mindful eating is not spending 5 minutes with a sultana “using your senses”. An Australian clinical mindfulness consultant (yep I don’t know that was a thing either), Charlotte Thaarup, reveals her research on the matter. I’m gonna pull a direct quote from her talking about what you need to do with a sultana:
“Look at it, notice the textures and colours. Smell it… Feel it between your fingers. Finally taste it — roll it around on your tongue. Observe how it feels between your teeth.”
Now I’m pretty liberal, but that made even me feel pretty uncomfortable. Apparently doing all that helps you to focus on your meals, makes you mindful about what you’re eating and in turn this will make you re-think your eating habits and subsequently lose weight. Now I don’t think I’m going out on a limb here when I say I’m pretty sceptical, if not disturbed, by the whole sultana thing. The semi-erotic advice makes me feel rather odd if anything. But… maybe there’s something in it? I’m nothing but just, so I will give this idea a fair trial.
It is, apparently, the case that negative thoughts surrounding your eating can affect the way you eat. Feeling guilt for example, a study at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand showed, makes you more likely to abandon diets or fitness plans. Back to Charlotte, who says that shopping for ingredients you love and making the eating experience something you are excited about helps you to cook good, healthy food and consequently will help with a healthy lifestyle and consequently a healthy body. Now this is something I can get on board with. I myself lost weight since I was 18 until about 21 where it has sort have stayed consistent. To be honest, the most dramatic part was last year where I was in Germany and due to certain circumstances, I was incredibly stressed out and dealt with it in the gym, as an outlet and due to me feeling low about the way I look (sorry this got a little deep). It wasn’t dramatic but it certainly was a niggle in the back of my head that seemed to fluctuate dependent on my stress levels. But coming out the other side and this year, I’ve learnt how to be positive about what I eat. I enjoy cooking from scratch and this way I know exactly what goes into everything I make. I do, pretty much, eat whatever I want because most of the time what I want is home-made tasty food. But when I want that whole Dominoes pizza, I bloody well eat that as well. When you’ve had low self esteem it is easy to slip, but I bloody love food and I enjoy everything surrounding it: cooking it, eating it, and going out for dinner. It’s especially ok for me to eat whatever I want because I literally do so much exercise throughout the week that I need to eat a lot in order to maintain energy.
It is, for this reason, why I am somewhat sceptical about some of the further points made by this research. Mindful eating is based on Buddhist principles of meditation and control, and such techniques like putting your knife and fork down between bites enables you to eat slowly and savour the tastes of what you are eating. Now that does make sense, but unfortunately to me food is delicious and something I want to savour, yes, but it also sustains me and allows me to do sport and exercise up to 6 times a week. To put it mildly, I am hungry all of the time. For those delicate flowers who are able to eat a lettuce leaf and be satisfied, I’m sure that this ritual of putting your knife a fork down would be possible. But for me… it really really isn’t. If you imagine your dogs at feeding time, eating as if they have been starved for years, that’s pretty much how I approach all food. I don’t feel any less positively towards it, quite the contrary I’m actually enjoying it so much I need it in my face quicker.
I guess that there might be something in it. Thinking positively about what you are eating is a pretty good way to form a healthy relationship with food, and in turn you would probably have a healthy relationship with your body and a healthy outlook on life. I guess the best person to really know what’s best for you, is you. The important thing is to enjoy life, and the incredible sensations that we get from food all over the world, the sheer creativity that goes into making some dishes, is something that should be celebrated and thought about positively. Being ‘healthy’ isn’t necessarily about eating just lettuce for the rest of your life, it is about a mindset and fundamentally what makes you feel good. Whether you’ll catch me in a dark corner somewhere having some private times with a lone sultana, or eating food like the queen of England… well that remains to be seen.
With thanks to Naomi Gilad
