Culinary Medicine and Mindful Eating
At University Hospitals Connor Whole Health, we recognize the essential role that food and nutrition plays in achieving and maintaining your best health. But optimal nutrition isn’t just about what you eat – it’s about how you prepare, eat, digest, shop for and think about your food.
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What Is Culinary Medicine?
Culinary medicine is an evidence-based field of medicine that blends the art of food and cooking with the science of medicine. Our goal is to provide the education and skills to guide personal decisions about selecting, preparing and enjoying nourishing meals that help to heal chronic health conditions and restore well-being.
Culinary Medicine is not:
- New or a fad.
- A single dietary philosophy or diet.
- A rejection of prescription medication.
- Simply about good cooking, flavors or aromas.
- Solely about the food matrices in which essential nutrients are found.
Culinary Medicine seeks to:
- Improve a patient’s health using food as a primary treatment.
- Help people make decisions about preparing and eating high-quality meals that prevent and treat disease and restore well-being.
- Address specific health conditions to ensure dietary changes support long-term health goals.
- Give special attention to how food works in the body and the enjoyable aspects of eating and cooking.
- Empower the patient to care for herself or himself safely, effectively and happily, with food and beverage as a primary care technique.
Food as Medicine…
- Food as a building block to support health and well-being.
- Food as medicine in disease management and treatment.
- Food as medicine to improve nutrition security – defined as the availability, affordability and consistent access to food and beverages that promote well-being and prevent or treat disease.
What Is Mindful Eating?
The practice of mindful eating is to be present and aware of the eating experience. Mindful eating is part of mindfulness, which is the centuries-old practice of focusing on your thoughts, emotions and sensations in the present moment without judging them as good or bad. By cultivating mindful eating, you reduce judgment and are invited to connect with body, mind and heart to honor the body’s need for nourishment.
Mindful eating involves:
- Consideration of all aspects of the meal: where the food came from, how it was prepared and who prepared it.
- Observing internal and external cues that affect how much we eat.
- Noticing how food looks, tastes, smells and feels when we eat it.
- Acknowledging how the body feels after eating a meal.
- Expressing gratitude for the food we eat.
- For some, practicing deep breathing or meditation before or after meals.
- Reflection on how our food choices affect our local and global environment.
For More Information
Call 216-285-4070 or schedule an appointment online with the Connor Whole Health Lifestyle Medicine team.