Eating for Pleasure or for Wholeness?

Three of my Korean colleagues took me out for dinner last evening. They assured me that it would be a special treat. The night was cold and blustery. The meal I was promised was especially suited, I was told, to warm chilled bones. The restaurant where we arrived specialized in a traditional Korean "stew."  So we sat, traditional Asian-style, cross-leged around a table that rose about 15 inches from the floor.

Upon its presentation, the "stew" appeared to be something like a spinach soup. There was a thick body of greens, yet the broth had more than a hint of a seafood flavor. I was later told that the base of the broth was a collection of very small shell fish. My colleagues consumed their bowls of stew with only momentary pauses for conversation. I, on the other hand, was talking more and eating less.

Without a doubt, the substance of the stew was quite healthy and hearty. I'm sure that I would have benefitted greatly had I been able to consume more of it. What I found difficult, though, was convincing my taste buds of this truth. It became quite self-evident to me that as a Westerner I have the habit of eating, first and foremost, to please my tongue rather than to fortify my body as a whole.

I was, however, able to take a few spoonfuls of rice, submerging them gently into the broth for a moment, and then swallowing quickly before any distinctly Korean flavors had much of an opportunity to stimulate my gustatory faculties. I ingested a small portion of the stew, but I definitely did not savor its flavor.

So, what's this poor American, bound by the habit of eating for pleasure, to do? I ate as much as I could, and then confessed to my brothers that I still have much to learn from them who eat first for the benefit of their whole bodies' health and who have taught their taste buds to appreciate nourishing foods much higher than tantalizing treats. 

Maybe, that would actually be a very useful approach to all our forms of consumption -- whether it be the food and drink we take-in through our mouths or the images and ideas we "consume" with our eyes and ears.  Clearly, Eastern habits of life have much more to teach me.