Ecohappiness Project

Nutrition

How Mindful Eating Connects Us To Nature and Reduces Stress

Nutrition

It is not only what we eat, but how we eat that can affect how we feel. How often do you just go through the motions of quickly eating without really stopping to savor the moment and considering the special attributes of the food?

When we rush and inhale our food mindlessly, we can feel anxious and experience some physical health issues like an upset stomach. On the other hand, eating mindfully as a family can help us reduce stress, maintain healthy diet habits, and improve our relationships. It also gives us the space to appreciate the delicious, nutritious treats that come from the earth.

 

What Is Mindful Eating?

So, what is mindful eating? According to the Center for Mindful Eating, this practice allows us to realize the positive, nurturing opportunities that can come from preparing and eating food. Instead of shoving food into our mouths and never really thinking about it, mindful eating awakens us to an entirely new experience with food. We can take a moment to savor and truly enjoy what we are eating.

How Children Can Learn Mindful Eating

We can introduce some simple activities at mealtime so that our children can slow down and eat mindfully.

  • Invite your children to help prepare a meal. Focus on the range of colors of ingredients and how they smell and feel. Talk to them about the changes in foods when they are cooked, such as boiling vegetables to make them softer.
  • Eat together as a family at the kitchen table and engage in positive, interactive conversation.
  • Ask children to use their five senses to describe the food on their plates: color, texture, smell, taste, sounds as they chew.
  • Talk about where the food comes from, such as farming, fishing, or your own garden.
  • Consider taking a meal outdoors to soak in the nature while you eat. This could be on your balcony, out on your back patio or deck, or head over to a local park for a picnic.
  • Lead a mindful eating exercise, such as this one with an orange. You can adapt this process to any type of food.
    1. Start by holding an orange in your hand. Roll it around. Touch different parts of it. Notice how it feels. Is it hard or squishy? Is it smooth or rough?
    2. Inhale the fruit’s scent. What does it smell like? Do different parts of the fruit have different smells?
    3. Look at the fruit closely and from various angles. What colors do you see? Is the skin smooth or bumpy? What shape is it? What does it remind you of?
    4. Slowly peel your orange, paying attention to how it feels in your fingers. Notice the juiciness, wetness, and any distinctions between how the inside and outside feel.
    5. Take a whiff of the inside of the orange. Does it smell differently now that it is peeled?
    6. Now it is time to taste the orange. Take a slow bite and notice how it feels on your tongue, on the inside of your cheeks, and against your teeth. How would you describe the flavor? Sweet, sour, bitter, etc.? Notice the texture of the piece of orange in your mouth and any juiciness as you chew it. Does it take much effort to chew it? Take your time and be mindful as you chew, taste, smell, and feel each bite of your orange.
    7. Have fun reflecting on this experience together.

Remember These Five Steps

During the Mrs. Mindfulness Summit, Dr. Susan Albers of the Cleveland Clinic, an expert on mindful eating, suggested a five-step program for changing the way we eat. She gave a clever quote for each step so we can easily remember them.

  • Sit down: “Only eat off your feet”
  • Chew slowly: “Pace, don’t race”
  • Savor food and take mindful bites: “We eat…just eat”
  • Simplify and place healthy foods in accessible places: “In sight in mind, out of sight out of mind”
  • Smile between each bite and take a pause: “Take a breath to manage stress”

How have you incorporated mindful eating into your family meals?

How Lemon Juice Benefits Mental Health

Nutrition

We know how important staying hydrated by drinking water is for our mental health. By simply drinking enough water throughout the day, children and adults can minimize feelings of stress and anxiety. There is a way to make water even more powerful in reducing stress and anxiety: by adding lemon juice.

Why Lemon Juice Is Good For You

Lemons have been found to lower blood pressure, reduce stress and anxiety, and help us feel calmer overall. There are two main reasons for these benefits:

Hydration. Drinking a glass of water, especially warm water, is a wonderful way to hydrate our body. This is especially important in the morning since we have not had any liquids for several hours while we were sleeping. Keeping our body adequately hydrated helps keep us in balance, both physically and emotionally.

Vitamin C. Lemons contain a good amount of vitamin C (almost as much as oranges), a nutrient known to lower levels of stress hormones. Vitamin C has been found to fight brain cell damage due to the stress hormone cortisol. One study found that vitamin C helped people bounce back more easily from a stressful situation. In that study, blood pressure and cortisol levels returned to normal more quickly when people took vitamin C before a stressful event. Additionally, stress makes our body release more free radicals than when we are in a good mood. Vitamin C helps to keep the free radicals in control, repairing the body. Basically, it helps protect the body from the cumulative effects of stress. Vitamin C is also essential for the recovery of our adrenal glands, which can be impacted when we are under too much stress. Without vitamin C we can experience issues like fatigue, stress-related problems, and a weakened immune system.

How To Make Lemon Water With Your Kids

There are a few key tips and tricks to making the best lemon water that you and your children will love. First, know how to pick out ripe, tasty lemons. You want to look for lemons that are firm and have shiny yellow skin. Avoid unripe lemons that are usually green in color and have dull, matte skin. Skip the overripe lemons that can be brownish yellow, have brown spots, be wrinkly, and/or are soft to the touch. And please choose local and/or organic lemons if possible. Get your kids involved in the shopping experience so that they will feel like they are playing a role, which will get them excited about trying lemon water later on. You can even make a game out of it like the “hunt for the best lemon.”

Once you pick out your lemons, store them at room temperature away from sunlight. If you want them to last longer, then store them in the refrigerator. After squeezing fresh lemon juice for a drink, you can save the extra and keep it in the refrigerator for a few days. Display a few bright yellow lemons in a bowl in your kitchen to spark your kids’ curiosity. Turn this into a creative experience by asking them to paint or draw the lemons (they will sure make a great still life painting!). Your kids will also enjoy smelling the fragrant lemons; their scent is known to help relax us.

When it’s time to squeeze the lemon juice from your fresh lemons, you’ll want to choose an easy kitchen tool so you don’t end up with a bunch of seeds in your lemon water and getting your hands all wet and sticky. I love using a hand-held lemon lime squeezer to get as much juice out as possible. This manual juicer is safe and reliable, made with sturdy industrial aluminum and non-toxic certified lead-free coating. It cleans in seconds and is dishwasher safe. Finally, it’s designed to be easy on the hands.

All you need to do is cut the lemon in half and place it face down. Then just press down and squeeze away! You may want to squeeze a few lemons at once and store the juice in your refrigerator to save time later in the week.

Now it’s time to add the lemon juice to your water. Warm water is recommended to get the most benefit out of the lemon juice. Add the juice of half a lemon to an 8-12oz cup of water. Of course, you can adjust the amount depending on your own personal taste. If you want to get creative, you can also try adding mint, honey, ginger, cinnamon, basil, cucumber, strawberry, or another garnish to your lemon water. This is another way to get your kids involved and excited about drinking lemon water. Let they choose what else they would like to add. You can even do a fun taste test by offering them a few different options to see what they prefer.

After you are finished drinking the lemon water, it’s important to remember to swish your mouth with some room temperature water for 30 seconds to make sure the citric acid from the lemon juice doesn’t remain on your teeth. Too much of the acid from the lemon can damage your teeth, so keep that in mind.

Finally, another trick is to freeze some lemon water into ice cubes so you can add lemon to your water quickly when you want it. Just drop a few cubes into a glass of cold or warm water as needed.

Enjoy!

What is your family’s favorite type of lemon water?

3 Good Nutrition Hacks To Keep Your Kids Calm and Relaxed

Nutrition

We are what we eat. But did you know that what we consume can also either trigger or ease anxiety? With so many stressors that our children face on a daily basis—from homework to busy schedules to social pressures and bullying—it’s helpful to understand how something as simple as food and drinks can impact their stress level. Here are three key components of your children’s diet to pay attention to if you want to help them live in a more balanced, calm way.

Drink Enough Water

As one of our most essential natural resources, water provides numerous benefits including improving our health and happiness. By simply drinking enough water throughout the day, children can minimize feelings of stress and anxiety because water plays such a critical role in how our body functions. All of our organs, including our brain, need water to work properly. According to Calm Clinic, water appears to have natural calming properties. Drinking water can be soothing, and our body can benefit from the added hydration when we are stressed.

On the other hand, if we are dehydrated, our body is strained and we can become tense and edgy. Dehydration can even cause symptoms that feel like anxiety, such as dizziness, muscle fatigue, headache, increased heart rate, and nausea. It has also been linked to higher cortisol levels, which trigger stress.

It is so important that we encourage our children to drink enough water to help them stay in balance. The amount of water a child needs depends on several factors like their activity level and the local weather, but generally children should drink at least six to eight cups of water per day. Your children will probably need more water if they are participating in sports; it is suggested that they drink a half cup to two cups of water every 15 to 20 minutes while exercising. For specific recommendations, see the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) developed by the Institute of Medicine (IOM).

It is not always easy to convince your children to drink plain old water. Try boosting their water intake with these tricks:

  • Keep it handy. Bring reusable water bottles wherever you go. Pack water in their lunch box and an additional water bottle to have at their school desk to sip throughout the day.
  • Factor in fun. Buy cups and reusable water bottles with your child’s favorite characters on them or in their favorite color to give them a more enjoyable water-drinking experience.
  • Add flavor. Add berries, watermelon, pineapple, cucumbers, lemons, or limes to water. Try using frozen fruit in place of ice cubes or freezing ice cube trays with berries in them to add to their cups.
  • Be a good role model. Carry your own water bottle with you on the go and drink lots of water at home. The more your children see you drinking water, the more likely they are to ask for it.

Cut Out Caffeine

Shockingly, about 75 percent of children are consuming caffeine daily, according to the journal Pediatrics. This is quite troubling since caffeine is a stimulant, addictive, and has no nutritional value. As the most popular and easily accessible drug in the world, caffeine affects our central nervous system and makes us feel panicky and jittery. Once ingested, we can start feeling its effect within 15 minutes, and this can last for several hours. In fact, it takes about six hours for just half of the caffeine to be eliminated from our system. Imagine its effect on a young child’s small body!

Caffeine causes changes in our body such as an increase in our heart rate and breathing rate. These are the same feelings we get during a stressful event when the fight or flight response kicks in. Consuming caffeine when already hyped up from stress only adds fuel to the fire, making it so much harder for the body to calm down and get back to a balanced state. The National Sleep Foundation recommends that children stay away from caffeine because it interferes with their ability to get a good night’s sleep.

Check out these ways to keep your children away from caffeine:

  • Avoid serving your children caffeinated beverages–soda, coffee, tea, energy drinks, and caffeinated water.
  • Watch out for foods containing chocolate, since they have caffeine that can affect your child.
  • Carefully read labels since some products surprisingly contain caffeine.
  • Get your child to love drinking water (see tips above).

Say Goodbye To Sugar

Doctors and health professionals clearly warn us that added sugar can lead to health problems like diabetes, heart disease, and obesity, but did you know that sugar can also trigger anxiety? Similar to how caffeine affects our nervous system, sugar highs can contribute to symptoms that mimic a panic attack. Our kids can experience blurry vision, fatigue, difficulty thinking, and increased heart rate just from eating sugar! These symptoms can cause those who already suffer from anxiety to be even more worried and fearful, which in turn, worsens their symptoms.

The worst part about the connection between sugar and anxiety is that it can sneak up on us. While primary sugar may be perfectly healthy when found in fruits, vegetables, and milk, secondary sugar is hidden in foods you may serve to your children without even realizing it. Salad dressing, yogurt, smoothies, and even “health” bars can be loaded with hidden added sugars.

Here are some tips to help keep all of that sugar off your children’s plate:

  • Avoid keeping sugary snacks around the house, such as in cookie jars, candy dishes, and gumball machines.
  • Do not use treats to reward or punish your kids. (This includes during potty training!)
  • Instead of giving your kids candy for a special occasion, order or make your own delicious fruit creations like bouquets, skewers, or fun shapes and characters.
  • Prepare in advance when you know sugar-intense holidays are coming up like Halloween and Valentine’s Day. Provide attractive healthy options so your kids don’t miss the sugary snacks, such as delicious fruit and sugar-free desserts.
  • Model good eating habits. Understand that a sugar-free lifestyle for the kids means a sugar-free lifestyle for the parents, too.

Making these changes may seem daunting at first, but there are so many resources and creative ideas available to make your transition go smoothly. In many cases, your children will probably not even realize the difference. By forming these important healthy habits early in their lives, your children will benefit in the long run by living a healthy, calm lifestyle.

What are your favorite food and nutrition hacks for your kids?