My much younger siblings come into town once a year for a California vacation. I spend part of the time doing their nutritional analysis and testing. I am proud of the progress that they each have made over the last few years considering they have been dealing with the social hazards of being a teenager or young adult. We go swimming, I cook healthy foods for them, and provide some treats that stay within the realms of reasonableness.
Then we decided to take a day trip to the happiest place on earth; I know that Disney does not have the best choices for the average American trying to stay on a healthy eating plan so I prepare. We ate a good breakfast and brought protein bars for snacking and tuna packets (simply add to a side garden salad!) knowing that the entrée choices will be less than desirable when we get to lunch time. But as I went to the snack bar with them I was FLOORED at the “lemonade” they were serving. Any one that knows me and Angie’s World knows that I am appalled at the injection of corn in our diets. With high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, maltodextrin, and citric acid in everything from soda (no surprise) to salad dressing and crackers (always a surprise). But this latest discovery was disturbing. The lemonade had NO lemons in it…NONE, NADA!! It contained three ingredients that were all corn…Corn Syrup, Maltodextrin and citric acid!! In fact, the label touted it as a good thing in a big bubble that stated: Contains no fruit juice! (like it was a good thing!)
Now I know that lemonade can be full of sugar and not the best choice for hydration but at the very least it should have lemons in it and maybe some cane sugar but ALL CORN! This food staple has been subsidized to the point of poor quality even for our livestock to eat. This product (I don’t even want to classify it as produce anymore) makes our bodies store fat just like cattle that they are getting ready to slaughter and they want them as heavy as possible! Then I see people making the choice for lemonade probably thinking they are making a better choice than soda and I am sad for them. Sad that you have to have some knowledge in chemistry and biology to eat healthfully these days. In Disney’s defense, they do offer fruit stands where you can purchase apples, oranges, bottled water and a few other healthy things. I do wish they would become more proactive and
start offering some better choices in their prepared food selections. Perhaps offering organic choices and food with real grilled chicken (not processed chicken product). I would be willing to pay for such products and so would a lot of others that are gaining knowledge about their eating choices. Come on Mickey, even if you aren’t concerned about people’s health at least recognize this is a market that you could capture and that you would help people to purchase more of your products while in the park as opposed to having to haul our own around!
Perhaps Mickey can create his own food line that only is made from real food… Now, that would make it the happiest and healthiest place on earth!
Posts Tagged ‘food’
The Happiest Place on Earth? Not with fake Lemonade…
Monday, June 21st, 2010The Benefits of Committing to a Daily Eating Meditation Practice
Sunday, June 7th, 2009By Ronna Kabatznick,Ph.D.
The initial experience of mindfully eating a blueberry, a piece of chocolate, a potato chip, or any other food is often a revelation. Perhaps for the first time, you woke up to the full experience of what is commonly called
“eating.” Just one moment of conscious eating often triggers many insights. “I never realized how satisfying one morsel of food could be.” “I appreciated what I was eating in an entirely new way.” “Slowing down helped me observe all the thoughts, fears and criticisms that were jumping around in my mind.”
Typically, a first experience of mindful eating may also include the wish or the determination to eat mindfully all the time. Then you find yourself in a hurry or with a group of people, and you notice, as you stare down at an empty plate, that you haven’t been conscious of eating at all. That earlier determination to always eat mindfully vanishes in a flash, and you think, why bother?
So how do you overcome the desire to give up or turn away from mindful eating? The answer is simple: Commit to a daily mindful eating practice.
Mindfulness allows you to observe what’s happening moment to moment from a wider perspective. When difficult thoughts arise, you learn to witness rather than obey them. In so doing, you begin to realize that your
thoughts and feelings aren’t really who you are. They come and they go, and if you don’t react, they lose their power. You can learn how to be with your experience, but not be caught by it.
With daily practice, you strengthen the capacity to stop and notice habituated, unskillful patterns with clarity. This awareness helps dissolve autopilot behaviors. You realize that “Oh, this is what feeling out of control is
like,” or “Feeling like a failure feels like this.” If you don’t run away from these feelings but rather recognize and accept them with compassion, you may find that you don’t need to drown out these uncomfortable
feelings with food.
A daily eating meditation practice also helps awaken you to the thought patterns and habits that tend to keep you feeling trapped and demoralized, such as the belief that “I’ll never be able to change,” or the intense feeling
that leads to the thought “I have to have this cookie.” Daily practice helps develop confidence, a feeling that is often absent when in the grips of craving or strong emotions.
Awareness gives you the option of choosing which habits to develop and which to abandon, and this freedom to choose helps develop the confidence that change is possible.
Mindful eating doesn’t always awaken insight and delight. Sometimes the commitment feels meaningless and not worth the effort. Ups and downs are inevitable. But over time, your commitment will bear fruit, no matter how many times you feel like giving up. There’s a Zen saying, “Fall down seven times, get up eight.”
When you wake up to an experience like shoving handfuls of candy into your mouth, don’t make it into a problem. Just stop and notice that you’re doing it, and notice what you’re thinking or feeling. If criticism
and judgments arise, and it’s likely they will, let them be. Hold yourself with kindness and compassion. Eventually, all experiences pass, regardless of whether they are pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. As the poet Rilke observes, “No feeling is final.”
Shifts in eating habits don’t happen through control and willpower. If that were the case, all diets would be wildly successful and there would be no eating challenges. Only by noticing and accepting what’s happening in
each moment is it possible for new habits to emerge.
A regular mindful eating practice has the capacity to usher in a transformation. When you observe swallowing or chewing, in that moment you’ve dissolved the habit of blindly engaging in these processes. Pay attention to
simple actions like opening the refrigerator or slicing a carrot or the impulse to take another bite before you’ve even finished whatever you’re eating. Every moment of mindfulness adds up and inspires more practice.
The ultimate feeling of fullness is connection and intimacy with this moment. So, put down this handout, turn your attention inward and ask, “What’s happening now?” And in this moment, you’ve begun your daily practice.
Awareness is an ongoing source of nourishment … so feast on every moment.
Dr. Kabatznick can be reached at
Rkabatznick@tcme.org.
She is an Assistant Clinical Professor, Department
of Psychiatry Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute
University of CA, San Francisco