Everyday Systems: nosdiet: message 1288 of 3212

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On Wed, Sep 01, 2004 at 05:58:40PM -0000, gratefuldeb67 <deborahfederlmt@...> 
wrote:
> You go Jen! Food should be a nourishing experience for all of your 

> senses, infact in the acupuncture system, the stomach meridian begins 

> under the eye, travels down to the jaw then back up to the temple and 

> back down the face in a U shape path, then through the throat 
> eventually going through the whole front of the body...So
> 1.you look at your food
> 2.you chew your food
> 3. you think about your food
> and then
> 4. you swallow your food
> 
> Lets face it..Our fast food society usually doesn't encourage steps 
1-
> 3 and skips straight to 4...

It's funny you should mention this.

I recently had a couple of live crowns done (where "live" means 
"the
tooth under the crown is ground down, but the root is not removed";
no root canal = tooth still has feeling, quite a bit more than it did
when there was no crown in fact). Bottom middle molar on both sides.
One side has settled down a lot, the other's still working on it.

This means that I have to be careful where I chew. I don't really have
to *avoid* much, but I do have to evaluate whether or not the worse
side can handle it, and whether or not to use the big crown or the 
smaller molar behind it, and so on. It also means that I have to
think about whether or not food is sufficiently chewed, since I can't
put my mouth on autopilot.

I used to always finish eating long before my girlfriend. Now it's
the other way around! The end result? I serve myself less food. Not
so little to stay hungry, but the outcome of giving myself a serving
and a half is eating alone for the last third of the meal, or feeling
silly that I'm not done yet. I still enjoy the food just as much
without that extra bit: I still spend just as long eating it, and
I still feel full at the end (where before I'd probably have felt
overfull), and it still tastes the same.

I have no idea if conscious chewing would help anyone else with 
downsizing portions, but it might be worth a try.

-Rich

-- 
Rich Lafferty --------------+-----------------------------------------------
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada | Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus!
http://www.lafferty.ca/ | http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus.html
rich@... -----------+-----------------------------------------------