Mindless Eating versus Mindful Eating
Most of us eat without realizing why.
It's not always out of hunger, and even if we do eat out of hunger, we may continue to eat past the point of being full. Environmental and social factors greatly influence the amount of food and beverages we consume.
Recent food, psychology, and marketing research demonstrates the prevalance of mindless eating and how powerful environmental cues are. According to Brian Wansick, PhD, we are confronted with over 200 food-related decisions each day. In his book Mindless Eating: WHy We Eat More Than We Think, Dr. Wansick explores the vast array of cues in our environment that trigger us to eat. He has found that anything from smells to lighting, to labeling, containers and numbers can affect how much we consume.
Interesting findings:
The larger the container, the more you eat. Even if it's five-day old stale popcorn!
Numbers make a difference:
If a sale sign says "Limit 10 per person" you are likely to buy more than if no limit is stated. Or, if there are "Five for $10" you tend to buy more than if the sign just said "$2 each."
Americans tend to rely on external clues to stop eating, such as an empty soup bowl, rather than a feeling of fullness. If it's served, we will eat it! 92% of people eat everything that is served to them.
We tend to focus on what the portions look like, not how many calories they contain. This is where filling up your plate or your sandwich with nutrient rich, low calorie vegetables comes in.
As the size of a serving or mean increases, the less accurate we are in estimating its caloric content.
For example, we drink more out of a tall, thin glass than from a short, wide glass.
The "see-food" trap:
Seeing or smelling a food can lead us to eat. If the candy dish is on the counter, we will eat the candy, especially if the dish is clear.
Listen to Internal Cues:
With all these external cues, we lose our ability to listen to our internal cues. We tend to eat until we feel full, and not simply until we are no longer hungry, resulting in overeating.
Tips:
~ Being more mindful of what you are eating and why can go a long way to eating less.
~ Eating 100 or 200 less calories per day isn't very noticeable and will allow you to slowly lose weight, or at least not gain the one or two pounds most American adults gain per year.
~ You don't need to avoid your favorite foods, simply be mindful of how much of them you eat.
Resources:
1. Wansick, Brian Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Thuan We Think, 2006.
2. Portion Distortion by the U.S. Department of Health aned Human Services http://hp2010.nhlbinin.net/portion
3. Rolls, Barbara. The Volumetric Eating Plan, 2005.
4. http://www.mindlesseating.org
Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Consult a Registered Dietitian (RD)
If you have:
1. A chronic health condition such as diabetes, cardiovascular problems, or high blood pressure. An RD can help you make lifestyle changes to improve your diet and increase physical activities to help control your blood sugars, blood pressure, or cholesterol levels.
2. Digestive problems. An RD can help adjust your diet to avoid foods, such as fried foods, or caffeine, that may aggravate your symptoms and increase choices, like foods high in soluble fiber, that may alleviate symptoms.
3. Wanted to lose or gain weight. An RD can help develop a reduced calorie, nutritionally adequate diet plan that still includes your favorite foods for weight loss, or suggest additional calorie and protein sources for healthy weight gain.
4. Special dietary needs such as when you are pregnant or trying to get pregnant. An RD can make sure you get adequate nutrients, such as folate.
5. Recently had a baby. An RD can help make sure you are getting enough of the nutrients needed to keep you and your baby healthy.
6. A child or teen that has issues with food and eating healthfully. An RD can help with adding more fruits and vegetables to their diet, answer questions about sports nutrition, and aid in the treatment of eating disorders and overweight issues.
7. An aging parent. An RD can help you understand potential interactions, suggest ways to maintain proper hydration (fluid intake), and deal with taste changes associated with aging.
8. Thought about changing your diet or eating healthier. An RD can help you sort through misinformation, read food labels, discover healthy cooking, and learn to eat out without ruining your diet plan.
9. Wanted to improve your performance in sports. An RD can help you choose the right mix of foods to optimize your performance.
10. Had gastric bypass surgery or are thinking of surgery. An RD can jeop you learn to eat again and ensure you consume adequate nutrients.
Adapted from the American Dietetic Association: www.eatright.org