🍜 If you’re a fast eater, try slowing down with these tips

💁 Plus, your thoughts on using slang on work

View this email online     Westend61/Getty Images I’m a fast eater. I recently had dinner with a friend, and although my spicy peanut noodles arrived after her dumplings, I had scarfed down my food long before she dipped her last bite into soy sauce. We laughed about how comically different our plates looked — one full and one practically licked clean. There's a way to combat this kind of rushed, thoughtless eating: practice what is called “mindful eating.” It’s when you use all your senses to enjoy your food and “make choices that are satisfying and nourishing to the body,” says Lilian Cheung, a lecturer and the director of Mindfulness Research and Practice in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.  We asked her to share her best advice on how to slow down and eat more deliberately.  Take at least 20 minutes to finish your meal Unlike my five-minute meals, Cheung recommends sitting down for about 20 minutes to eat. "It takes about that time for your body to get the signal to the brain that you are full," she adds. We often find ourselves eating while doing something else, says Cheung — which can make us eat faster than usual.  Notice all the little details about your food You might wonder how to spend 20 whole minutes eating a sandwich. Cheung says one way to slow down is to engage your senses and think through all the details of your meal. "Ask yourself: what's on my plate? How hungry am I today? Is it too salty?" she says. Notice the smell, the texture and other senses that arise as you eat. Actually chew If you're inhaling your food, you're probably not chewing it. And chewing is an important part of digestion, says Cheung. It helps "break up the foods so it's easier for absorption." Look at each bite before popping it into your mouth, acknowledge what you're eating and "chew, chew, chew," she adds. Listen to the episode and read all of Cheung’s tips Before a meal, take a moment to recite "The Five Contemplations" for mindful eating by the late Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hanh. Cheung says it has helped her practice mindful eating. Kaz Fantone/NPR —Clare Marie Schneider, Life Kit producer  What strategy do you use to savor your food? Email us at lifekit@npr.org with your name, location and your response — and we may feature your tip in an upcoming newsletter.  Newsletter continues after sponsor message Listen Sponsor-Free Support public media while getting expert advice on health, finance, relationships and more with Life Kit+. You'll get sponsor-free listening AND that warm fuzzy feeling that comes with making a difference. You can also check out loads of other NPR+ podcasts with benefits at plus.npr.org. Explore Life Kit+ More episodes on food and nutrition  Trina Dalziel/Getty Images/Ikon Images Trust your gut: A beginner’s guide to intuitive eating Knowing when and what to eat may sound simple, but dieting can mess up our connection to hunger cues, making the task fraught with negative thoughts and habits. The practice of intuitive eating can help people make peace with food. Read the article and listen to the episode here.   Ryhor Bruyeu/Getty Images/EyeEm How body positivity can lead to better health Weight stigma can hurt more than just your feelings. Negative messages about weight are actually bad for your health. Instead of obsessing over weight loss, focus on celebrating all different body shapes and sizes. Read the article here.   Gracia Lam for NPR Diet culture is everywhere. Here’s how to fight it Diet culture, the social expectations that value thinness and appearance above all else, can impact how we view our bodies and treat others. The good news is that we can free ourselves from this mindset. Listen to the episode and read the article here.   We asked, you answered Last week, NPR podcast producer Julia Carney asked what you would do if you accidentally called your boss “dude.” The question was part of a newsletter focused on how to navigate tricky workplace dilemmas. Here are a few helpful — and hilarious — responses. They have been edited for length and clarity.  Apologize and move on My answer depends on whether you "duded" your boss privately or in front of others. If the latter, apologize and tell your boss that you intended no disrespect, and that you won’t do it again. But if you "duded" your boss in private, and the boss didn't say anything about it, you shouldn't either. At best, you have a chill boss with a dude self-image. —Michael Woodward, Interlachen, Fla. Give your boss a heads up  I feel for this person because I am very laid back and call animate and inanimate objects "dude" all the time. Bump into a desk, "dude." Cat does something silly, "dude." Husband doesn’t take the trash out, "dude." Female, "dude." Male, "dude." Child, "little dude." It is an all-purpose word. I have preempted this issue at work by being up front when I first get hired. I let my supervisors know that I can be a little less formal in general, and if it becomes an issue or bothers them, please let me know. —Cindy Desrosiers-Rivera, Little Rock, Ark.  Make up an excuse If the boss was offended and called me into their office, I would say that it was actually a compliment, that “dude” is a term I only use with people I respect. Meanwhile, I’d be praying that the boss would buy my excuse!  —Melanie G. Your health Tanja Ivanova/Getty Images Fiber is a dietary superhero. Are you eating enough of it? Fiber does so much more than just help keep us regular. It helps control blood sugar levels and lower cholesterol and inflammation. Here are eight ways to add fiber to your diet (munch on popcorn!) and a grocery list of high-fiber foods that you can print out at home. Read the article here.   Maria Stavreva/Getty Images These habits can cut the risk of depression in half, a new study finds New evidence shows that people who maintain a range of healthy habits, from good sleep to physical activity to strong social connections, are significantly less likely to experience depression. Read the article here.   Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: LifeKit@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Daily News, Code Switch, Health and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Life Kit emails. 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Fight Disinformation

The NPR Network needs you to act now

View this email online Fighting disinformation is just one of the many ways NPR is strengthening democracy. NPR's dedicated disinformation team has broken stories, revealed business models that fuel disinformation, elevated possible solutions, and educated listeners about how to spot and respond to manipulative media—resulting in 66 stories with over 23.5 million views. Please don't take this work for granted. Your donations ensure important stories across the NPR Network are reported while remaining freely accessible to all. Donate Now Everywhere news is, we are: NPR Network reporters work around the world and around the clock to publish the in-depth, quality journalism you expect. We count on your support to make it happen. From radio to podcasts, the website, the NPR app, and beyond. The difference you can make by taking just a few moments to donate now is very real. Grassroots support is the foundation of public media because it's powerful. Support people-powered media by donating today.   Donate Now You received this message because you're subscribed to Life Kit emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy

Let's stop making innocent strangers go viral

Plus: Late-night hosts, doppelgangers, Beyoncé and a fall preview

View this email online by Linda Holmes Welcome! It was the week when Natasha Lyonne offered to solve a crossword puzzle with you. It was the week when two shows that normally have writers claimed they could wing it. And it was the week when there was NSYNC again. (Lots more at the news quiz.) Let's get to it. Opening Argument: Let's stop making innocent strangers go viral It's challenging to explain the problem of people thoughtlessly making other people into social media content, because if you provide examples, you only draw more attention to something that shouldn't be happening in the first place. Or, worse, you confuse your point and sound like you're being critical of people who film police or otherwise try to document dangerous situations. Suffice it to say that on a regular basis, a photo or a video will go by in some social media feed or another in which a totally ordinary person doing a totally ordinary thing -- eating lunch, walking down the street, talking to friends -- is removed from all context and made into a snotty comment about how the world is. "Why are they on their phone instead of looking at the beautiful sky?" "Why are they talking to their friends too enthusiastically about that movie I didn't care about?" "Why are they wearing those shoes?" "Why are they walking like that?" Delmaine Donson / Getty Images And if you look at the numbers on the post, it will turn out that some totally ordinary and unwilling person has been viewed in this quite dehumanizing context by a million people. In fairness, this was a pretty predictable result of everybody having a camera with them at all times. Who hasn't wished they had a camera to document the amazing "small person walking huge dog" moment they spontaneously got to enjoy? Or a video of the man giving his friend a speech about ... whatever, Robert De Niro or whether people should roll up the cuffs on their pants? Curiosity happens, and surprise happens. The observation of and interest in other people in public is not inherently exploitative; it's often lovely, actually. Surveillance of them, not so much. This isn't to say surreptitious video of people engaged in some sort of harmful or dangerous treatment of somebody else is wrong, or that you need to ask permission to film somebody who's harassing the clerk at Target. But if the person isn't doing anything wrong, if you are purely using someone as a curiosity, what exactly is the reason you know not to say, "Can I take your picture?" Deep down do you know the person might not want you to? That they would not allow it if they knew about it? "Can I take a picture to use you as an example of how boring I think your clothes are?" Nobody says that. What is that person doing by wearing those shoes that entitles you -- not legally, but personally -- to do something using their image that may be a deeply unpleasant experience for them? Is the answer to walk around with your head down, ignoring the world of hilarious weirdness that's often around you? Of course not. Here's one answer: Become a storyteller. Instead of publishing a photo of those three people you saw wearing almost identical yoga pants and tank tops to demonstrate how basic you think that is as a standard uniform, put a little effort into describing them with words in a way that doesn't allow anybody to identify them. This is what language is for! You are telling a little story about something that you saw. You can be just as cutting as before, maybe more so. You're just not making anybody famous without their consent. We need an etiquette of pictures and videos of strangers, I think. We're far enough into the "practically everybody has a camera" age that we know how it goes, how much people often do not welcome attention they never asked for, and how you just never know when your post you expect to be a small deal will become a big deal, bigger for someone else than for you. There are digital stickers you can put over somebody's face if you don't know whether they want their picture on your feed. There are ways to offer descriptions and preserve anonymity. There is your group chat to share things with; there are your texts. We're all finding our way through a very different environment than existed maybe 10 years ago. But bear in mind: Standing there with your phone out taking a picture of people who are innocently eating lunch might qualify as pretty weird behavior to some people. And one of them might also have a phone. Newsletter continues after sponsor message We Recommend The Netflix film Love at First Sight is the kind of solid romantic comedy that used to be thick on the ground and now requires a little more tracking down. Haley Lu Richardson and Ben Hardy are very charming as a couple who meets on a plane and then has to figure out how to reunite once they land. PCHH favorite Rob Delaney is a delight as Richardson's loving dad. (Do they dance together? They do.) A swell, cozy watch. I've just started reading Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein, and if you just said to yourself, "Wait, which one is Naomi Klein again?" then you know what the book is about. Also: Coming this week, dropping on Wednesday on Apple TV+, the series The Super Models, about Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista, is the latest entry in the genre of documentaries about people made by those people, and it should be taken as such. With that said, I found a lot of what these women and the people who worked with them had to say quite interesting, and if you remember the height of the supermodel era, you might, too. Listen to the Podcast Sponsor-Free Support your favorite pop culture junkies AND listen without sponsor interruptions with a subscription to Pop Culture Happy Hour+! Learn more and sign up at plus.npr.org/happy. Learn More What We Did This Week Hulu; Peacock; Apple TV+; Tubi TV; Keri Anderson/Prime Video; Katalin Vermes/Starz Entertainment NPR's sharp TV critic Eric Deggans joined me to talk about the state of late-night and the Strike Force Five podcast that several late-night hosts recently launched. (Eric also wrote this week about how to help fix streaming.) Aisha talked to Reanna Cruz and Shar Jossell about Beyoncé's Renaissance Tour. Stephen chatted about Olivia Rodrigo's album GUTS with Anamaria Artemisa Sayre and Cyrena Touros. And Glen, Aisha, Stephen and I talked about some of the things we're excited for this fall in our fall preview. I have always found The Morning Show very frustrating but fun to write about, and I wrote this week about the third season and how much better I think it would be if it would let the lead characters just be bad. Some of the PCHH team also helped with NPR's fall streaming guide, which I hope helps you make your way through the very crowded landscape. What's Making Us Happy Every week on the show, we talk about some other things out in the world that have been giving us joy lately. Here they are: Glen Weldon: Stephen Fry, Mythos, but specifically the audiobook Aisha Harris: Victoria Monét, Jaguar II Stephen Thompson: The Beaches, Blame Your Ex Linda Holmes: Why We Love Baseball Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+. Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free episodes. What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: pchh@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Music, Books, Daily News and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Pop Culture Happy Hour emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy