Eating Competence

N O U R I S H M E N T | “She that takes medicine and neglects diet wastes the skill of a physician. Chinese Proverb (slightly altered by me he —> she).
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Eating Competence. The “How” of Eating researched and developed by @ellyn_satter_institute. There are four basic components to eating competency (knowing how to eat/remembering how to eat)

➰Eating attitudes—how you feel about what you like to eat.
➰Food Acceptance—experimenting with new foods and liking it.
➰Internal Regulation—eating as much as you are hungry for and trusting your body.
➰Contextual Skills—making time to eat because it is important to you and you know how do it.

From what I see, many therapists ask about diet without knowing much about food or how to eat despite knowing that what we put in our bodies has an impact on our mental, emotional, physiological (and spiritual) selves.
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To my surprise, upon finding our knowledge lacking about food and eating, we turn our attention to bits of food—ingredients, vitamins, minerals, or hormones—or food types to “optimize” health, and we recommend supplements! Yikes!! This is not eating or food! As therapists, we’ve learned that “you cannot separate the individual from the ‘sum of it’s parts’”—so why do some of us do that when we learn and talk about food and eating with our clients? Moreover, not talking about food and eating can hinder the treatment we provide.
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Let’s start by educating/remembering how to eat so we can better attend to the whole person(s) in front of us. Eating competence is a great place to start remembering how to eat and to eat joyfully. #liveyourwell

Photo x @mariellevchua 

• P.S. You can substitute therapist or any health helper for physician and supplements for medicine in quote above.

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