Wine Lovers’ Tip: Maintain a healthy weight by enjoying food MORE. Eat the same way you taste wine. (Open a bottle tonight and tell everyone you’re on a new diet!)
New Zealand and Australia are known for their outstanding “new world” wines. We weren’t in the heart of wine region in either country but we managed to find some interesting tasting rooms for a little ”practice.”
One tasting room was built in an old mortuary (I know, that should have been our first clue). They served old (I don’t mean aged) wine in little plastic communion-style cups. The wines had creepy names that bore no relation to the grapes that gave their life for us. The wine maker, a retired chemist, said, “Making wine is easy.” I whispered in my husband’s ear, “Making good wine - now that’s the hard part!”
It dawned on me that sometime during the 15 years since I quit drinking white zinfandel (not that there’s anything wrong with that), I had actually learned to appreciate good wine. I’m no expert but I know what I like (and it isn’t usually served in plastic). So how did I become a wine snob?
The same way I became a foodie: one taste at a time.
By simply deciding to be attentive to what I am eating (and drinking), I’ve become much more aware of the aromas, flavors, textures of food. More importantly, I’ve become much more connected to the experience and its affect on my body. Just as I know that there’s an invisible but very real line between enjoyment and abuse of wine, there’s a similar line that many people cross with food.
That is a simple but profound lesson that has allowed me to enjoy food more while eating less. I am no longer dazzled by large portion sizes or distracted by packaging, health claims or other attempts to lure me into eating marginal food (any more than the wine cellar viewed through the hole in the floor where they used to raise the casket could distract me into believing the wine was worth drinking!).
Tomorrow I’ll share the steps for wine tasting and the corollaries in Mindful Eating.
