Every Bite Is Divine:

Frequently Asked Questions for Annie B. Kay MS, RD, RYT

Q: Where did you come up with the idea for Every Bite Is Divine?

A: This book is really a culmination of all my study of nutrition and yoga, and my own personal struggle with weight and eating. But there was a moment in 1993, when I was at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, at the end of one of their beautiful soulful yoga classes, when I had a transcendent experience that changed the way I think about body image and weight. In that moment (after a week of yoga and meditation) it felt as though the top of my head opened up, and I was bathed in light from my own open heart, open mind. I experienced for the first time my physical body as divine and beautiful. I had never externalized the ideas behind positive body image; through I’d tried for years! From that point forward, I saw most of my life from a more yogic, unified perspective. Doing nutrition counseling with people who struggle so with eating habits and my own struggle gave me lots of material and opportunities to try different strategies.

Q: Why combine yoga and nutrition?

A: For me, nothing gives me that mind-body work, stress management, and physical movement that yoga does. Yoga is a real multi-tasker in that regard. And it supports aspects of healthy lifestyle –motivation, facilitating and maintaining change – that are so challenging for so many people. I find that a healthy diet just doesn’t work without physical activity, and this is one activity that anyone can modify to do. Working yoga or another enjoyable physical activity into your life helps with some of the mental struggles around improving our diets – at some point, you have to give a little on some of the foods your mind loves but your body doesn’t – not in the quantities you’d prefer, anyway! Yoga can help integrate that transition to more conscious eating.

Q: How can you combine a scientific and a spiritual approach to weight?

A: One of the most fascinating things about science is that what we don’t know is limitless. There’s a lot of mystery in science, and spirituality is a link to mystery in our lives. A hot area of research now is around respiration (breathing) and its relationship to emotion. Yogis have been talking about that for 5,000 years! I think the research community is moving beyond a dualistic view that the body and the mind/spirit are separate. Those of us exploring the combination of science and spirit need to be vigilant about not overstating or misconstruing the science, which when you get into the spiritual side of things, is easy to do. But in practice, spirituality is a wonderful tool to motivate behavior change.