Healthy Students: Mindful Eating

How do we encourage our students to eat right? Recommend mindful eating. That’s what Lilian Cheung, a lecturer in nutrition for the Harvard School of Public Health, advises. Helping our students think before grabbing a sugary snack and while they are taking each bite, will help them focus upon what they are putting into their bodies. You may want to take a look at Cheung’s Harvard site, The Nutrition Source, and watch her video, which describes the seven practices of mindful eating. Using resources such as this and those that detail the problems of sugary drinks and overuse of salt might help students think twice before nibbling mindlessly on salty chips while enjoying a too-sweet drink or downing a meal from a fast food restaurant. Considering the problems of obesity of students in our schools today, it’s wise to take advantage of the instant and up-to-date health information available from reliable online sources.