– Becoming aware of Cellular Hunger –

When we are inants, we are tune in to the signals from our body that told US when to eat and when to stop. We had an onstinctive awarness od what foods and how much food our body needed. As we grew older this inner wisdom became lost and outer voices told us how we should eat.

If we are to return to healthy and balanced relationship with food, it is essential

That we learn to turn our awareness inward and to hear again what our body is always telling us about its needs and its satisfaction. To learn to listen to cellular hunger is the primary skill of mindful eating.

We can learn to hear the call of our cells for certain nutritients. Our body may signal hunger through symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, irritability, a light-headed feeling, or sudden loss of energy. Not to be sensitive to these signals, or mix them up, won’t be beneficial for our body.

Through mindfulness we can become more sensitive to cellular hunger and learn to separate what the body actually needs from what our mind is demanding. If we stop and listen carefully and often enough, eventually we might be able to do what some animals do, taste a food and know it is what we need. We would eat banana when our cells asked for more potassium, carrots when we need beta carotene, egss or meat when we need proteins or iron, oranges when our cells asked for vitamin C etc. We would also know the difference between hunger and thirst.

We can train ourselves to listen to what our body is saying in a very simple way. We take a small pause before eating. We turn our attention inward. We ask the body what it needs to do its work.

– Satisfying Cellular Hunger –

The essential elements satisfy cellular hunger. These include water, salt, protein, fat, carbohydrates, minerals, and trace elements such as iron or zinc. At the times when we get clear request: citrus, water, tomato soup we should support our body with these requests.