[Notes] On the Act of Eating…

Elders often warn: don’t wolf down your food.
Others say that to lose weight, you must chew each bite 30 times before swallowing…
Or that to lose weight, you have to starve until you’re dizzy and seeing stars.

I’d say that wolfing down your food can, at times, be a kind of bold enjoyment. But at other times you can savor the flavor of food slowly—take in its color with your eyes, breathe in its aroma with your nose, use all five senses along with your imagination and powers of observation—so that “eating” is no longer just the time-wasting act of “filling your stomach,” but a shared enjoyment of body, mind, and spirit. From there you come to better understand the workings of nature, the original taste of ingredients, and your own state, reaching a realm of “balance.”

And because you’ve reached “balance,” your body becomes healthy, and with health your physique is truly sound. Weight isn’t everything: the distribution of body fat, body proportions, visceral fat levels, cardiopulmonary capacity, physical coordination, flexibility… and other such indicators—plus the most important one, “whether you’re happy”—matter more, don’t they?

Further reading:
http://www.thenewslens.com/post/49803/