As our patients work to manage their diabetes, we should periodically check in on how they are doing with their meal planning. We all know how easy it can be to fall into old habits or just simply not think much about what we are eating. March is National Nutrition Month. It gives us all the opportunity to bring up the subject of eating healthy to our patients who may have put nutrition on the back burner. The theme of National Nutrition Month this year is “Savor the Flavor”. We can utilize this theme to not only introduce healthy flavorful recipes, but also to remind our patients that they should be practicing mindful eating. They should be paying attention to their food choices. They should be paying attention to their hunger levels and making efforts to eat healthy when they are hungry. They should be “savoring” their meal or snack that they are eating instead of just mindlessly cramming down the food (don’t we all do that on those rushed lunch breaks). If we chew slowly, really taste the food, and enjoy each bite, we will be more satisfied and usually with less. However, so many of us eat for so many other reasons besides hunger and we should have that discussion with our patients. Are they eating for emotional reasons or eating just to “clean their plate”. Teaching out patients to get back in tune with their hunger cues and fullness cues is very important and a great way to prevent overeating or emotional eating. Mindful eating is a great tool to use for both diabetes management and weight management. So use National Nutrition Month as an opportunity to open the subject of mindful eating with your patient or maybe even offer a class on mindful eating. It would be a class that fellow co-workers or the general community could also benefit from!!
We can also use National Nutrition Month as a great excuse to provide other services such as general nutrition education for the workplace or community. We can do this by doing a bulletin board at work or hosting a grocery store tour. A cooking demonstration would also be a fun activity. There are many great ideas and resources on the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics website, eatright.org.