Whenever the calendar flips over to a new year, many people restart fitness routines and healthy eating habits that were set aside during the holiday season.
This year, the urge to make New Year’s resolutions may be even stronger. Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, we’ve been turning to comfort food to relieve anxiety at the same time many gyms have been closed. For many, the “COVID 10” weight-gain phenomenon is a real thing.
But for sustained long-term health, Portland registered dietitian nutritionist Carly Knowles says people shouldn’t turn to trendy, quick-fix diets, but should instead focus on eating nutritious food, which has the power to heal the body and prevent disease.
“Typically, January is ‘New Year, new you,’ and I get a huge influx in clients,” Knowles says. “It’s bittersweet for me because it’s fabulous for business. But it saddens me a little because it’s super diet driven, and it’s usually mostly women who believe that prior to that what they had done wasn’t good enough. It’s kind of a bummer that there’s such a heaviness around weight gain or eating for pleasure or comfort.
“I like to be the person who helps disperse some of those feelings, and put people in more-productive places that are more compassionate.”
Knowles recently published “The Nutritionist’s Kitchen” (Roost Books, $24.95, 288 pages), which distills her philosophy that nutritious eating doesn’t have to be blah, but can be flavorful and satisfying when it’s focused on seasonal ingredients and power-packed enhancers like herbs and spices. Her book includes 60 nutrient-dense recipes, many built on easy-to-find ingredients that are both healthy and affordable.
“I love food,” Knowles says. “I tell my patients that I’m a foodie first, and a dietitian second. I want to make delicious-tasting, yummy food. Nutritious? Yes. Healthy? Yes.”
Knowles says being mindful about how we eat is as important as what we eat.
“I think we focus on what we eat because the diet world that tells us ‘These are good foods/these are bad foods,’ " she says. “I think that it almost doesn’t matter.
“What we don’t give enough credit to is how mindfulness plays a big role in wellness. The commitment to see food as more than just something you have a few times a day for fuel isn’t easy. Mindfulness makes a huge difference and can really change the outcome for a lot of people’s goals, even if they are different goals.”
Recipes included with this story: The Simplest Tempeh Tacos; Whole Wheat and Flax Tortillas; Coconut Curry Red Lentil Stew with Cilantro Lime Chutney.
Knowles believes that a good way to start being more mindful about food is to really focus on food when you are eating. Sit at the dining table, not in front of the television, and don’t look at your phone. Instead, focus your senses on how the food looks and smells, then how it tastes as you take the time needed to chew and enjoy each bite.
“I think we sometimes eat to the point that we’re so full because we didn’t stop and say, ‘That was so good,’ or ‘I really enjoyed my lunch.’ We go so fast that we don’t notice when we’ve had enough. It’s good to take a moment, to take a breath and put the fork down. Often, that’s when we’ll realize that we are full.”
Knowles says that to truly focus on food, she coaches patients to take at least 20 minutes to have any meal.
“I get the idea that we can’t spend hours and hours eating our meals every day, but taking more time to eat helps with the way we assimilate ingredients,” she says. “When you slow down, you digest more easily. Slowing down and being mindful might just be enough to revolutionize how we look at our health.”
The West Linn Public Library and Annie Bloom’s Books are hosting an online conversation between Carly Knowles and The Oregonian/OregonLive’s Grant Butler at 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 11. Register online for the live Zoom event.
-- Grant Butler
503-221-8566; @grantbutler
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