be there for your breakfast taco

"Your breakfast is there for you…
You have to be there for your breakfast." 

Thich Nhat Hanh shared this in a lecture I listened to last week.  His insight, which made me both laugh and think, is pretty impactful from a brain perspective.  For one thing, it's a great weight loss helper (I'm 100% certain TNH was NOT thinking of dieting when he suggested we be more present at meals)!  According to a study published this year in Nature Communications, rats who were disrupted while eating, had less memory of having eaten in their brains' hunger control center, so they ate more often.

There's also the matter of being aware of the deliciousness in front of you!  Paying attention lights up the insula (taste) and orbitofrontal cortex (reward processing), meaning that food tastes more flavorful and is more satisfying.  Besides, when we're scrolling or working while breakfasting, "screen dopamine" and "eating dopamine" compete, so food feels less rewarding.

There's more, of course, but it boils down to being in the moment we're in...because it turns out, how we do anything is how we do everything!