Ok –I lured you over to this blog post with a very provocative image! BUT did you know if you eat a couple of cherries ritually every night you can insure a sounder straight through sleep? A much tastier option than NyQuil for sure! Eating rituals require some preparation and a lot of anticipation. Even if we are eating the same thing repeatedly there is something delicious about the “ritual” we look forward to. Holidays, celebrations and traditions all have their rituals which makes eating far more pleasurable. But what about the everyday little rituals? Today there is an excellent piece in the WELL section of the NY Times I wanted to share with you on “why rituals make our food more tasty”. But first have you read some of the Q&A’s in our Healthy Epicurean department lately?
At World Wise Beauty I feature a Healthy Epicurean section and one of my first interviews was with Dr. Paul Rozin who is a Master of Taste and studies all things gustatory! The simple wisdom and takeaway I received from interviewing Dr. Rozin was slow down, eat slowly and savor your meal. But really– his studies are far more interesting than this when you start to look at cultural influences and how what we savor differs. Check out a really interesting YouTube video of Michael Pollan ( Respected Food Author) and Dr. Paul Rozin at the University of California, Berkeley. The video is entitled “Edible 103: The Psychology of Food” .
Savoring seems to be the prevailing thought with almost any food expert worth their salt–no pun intended. I also interviewed Marion Nestle, a highly respected nutritionist, food culture expert and best selling author and she seemed to boil things down to pleasure too. When I asked about what should we eat and what to avoid, she wisely said “Eat what you like, be sure to eat vegetables at every possible occasion, and if you have a weight problem (and who does not?) eat smaller portions. This leaves loads of room for enjoying eating, which should always be a pleasure.”
How do we miss this simple wisdom? Maybe too much temptation and too many options–but we’ll save this for exploring in another blog ! Marion and Paul are just two of the many insightful Health/Food Experts we feature at the Healthy Epicurean department at World Wise Beauty. Come follow WWB and learn from some of the best food experts out there today. You can peruse the HE archives and there is always the surprise posts about foodie culture right here at the Culture Glean department!
Truly Herself,
Lauroly