How to Stop Overeating
Try these tips for getting more satisfaction from fewer calories.
Babies are born knowing to eat when they are hungry and stop when they
are comfortable. But as we grow up and are exposed to fad diets,
advertising, food used as a reward, etc., many of us unlearn this
beautifully balanced way of eating and begin to overeat.
Yet eating when you are hungry and stopping when you are comfortable is
one of the keys to healthy eating and living, says Linda Bacon, PhD,
nutrition professor at the City College of San Francisco.
Much has been written on the "eating when you’re hungry" side of this
equation. But how do you learn to stop when you’re comfortable if
you’ve lost touch with this over the years?
xperts say there are things you can do to make yourself more likely to stop eating when you are comfortable. They include:
- Eating Slowly
This isn’t a new concept. Remember all those familiar dieting tips like
"sip water between bites" and "chew thoroughly before swallowing"?
These were all aimed at slowing us down when we eat. Research led by
Mark Gold, MD, at the University of Florida at Gainesville has shown it
takes 12 or more minutes for food satisfaction signals to reach the
brain of a thin person, but 20 or more minutes for an obese person.
Eating slowly ensures that these important messages have time to reach
the brain. - Being Aware
"Be more
attentive about the whole eating experience; don’t eat when you are
driving or at the computer," Bacon advises. When we’re distracted or
hurried, the food—and calories—we eat tend not to register well in our
brains. Jean Kristeller, PhD, a psychologist and Indiana State
University researcher, suggests a brief premeal meditation to get
centered before eating so you can more easily derive pleasure from your
food, give the meal your full attention and notice when you’ve had
enough. - Make the First Bites Count
Bacon believes that maximum food enjoyment comes in the initial bites.
"After a few bites, taste buds start to lose their sensitivity to the
chemicals in food that make it taste good," she explains. Satisfying
your taste buds by really savoring those first few bites may help you
stop eating when you’re physically comfortable. - Keep up appearances
Using a smaller plate and paying attention to the presentation of a
meal can increase your awareness of the food in front of you and help
you stop eating when you are comfortable. "The brain looks at the plate
and decides if the portion is adequate," Gold says. "It takes some
time, but the smaller the plate, the smaller the portion." - Choose Satisfying Foods
Steer away from foods that give you a lot of calories for very little
volume, such as milk shakes, cheese and chocolate, Gold recommends. The
higher the fiber, protein and/or water content of a food or meal, the
more likely it is to be satisfying in your stomach without going
overboard on calories. - Research during the past decade suggests there are three factors that
help make a meal more satisfying: the weight of the food, the amount of
protein and the amount of fiber.A revolutionary study done by researchers at the University of Sydney
in 1995 noted that of the 38 foods tested, certain foods scored higher
in satiety. Top-scoring foods included whole-meal bread, grainy bread,
cheese, eggs, brown pasta, popcorn, all-bran cereal, grapes, porridge,
baked beans, apples, beefsteak, ling fish (a type of cod) and oranges.
All of these foods are high in fiber, water or protein.And
which foods tend to have low satiety scores—making them much easier to
overeat? These would be foods with large amounts of fat, sugar and/or
refined carbohydrates, like potato chips, candy bars and white bread."Satisfaction Score" for 20 Common Dishes
So is there a way you can determine how satisfying your favorite foods
are likely to be? A mathematical formula calculates a satisfaction
score for a food. First we give a serving of a particular food points
for its weight divided by calories (multiplied by four to give it
significant point value). Secondly, we add the number of grams of
protein it contains. Finally, we add the number of grams of fiber.
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