Bestselling author Geneen Roth
says “anytime we eat when we’re not hungry or continue to eat when we’re full,
the food we’re putting into our mouth has no connection to the body.” When we eat in response to situations
other than hunger, we’re actually trying to feed an emotional hunger that will
not be satisfied with a full belly, but if done habitually, could negatively
impact our health.
What are some of the situations
I’m talking about? Here are a few
and how they usually play out:
Eating after a long day - You’re sitting
in front of the television to numb out, inserting one potato chip after another
or spoonful after spoonful of ice cream into your mouth. You barely see what’s going in or taste
what’s going down and you usually stop when your favorite show is over, or the
container or bag is empty.
Not only are you not paying
attention to what you’re eating when you eat while mesmerized on something
else, like the TV or computer, you’re more likely to eat unhealthy foods that
can pack on the pounds. How often
do we make ourselves a nice tossed salad and sit down to watch a movie? In
addition, a long-term
study that tracked over seventeen thousand Canadians ages 18-90 found a
positive correlation between regular length of sitting time and mortality due
to cardiovascular disease and cancers.
Combine extended bouts of sitting with eating unhealthy foods and you
can understand how the risk for disease can increase.
Eating in response to stress, boredom, or sadness - The healthiest
and most effective way to deal with our emotions is to bring them up to the
surface and feel them. Yet, many
of us have are uncomfortable either expressing our emotions, or spending time
with them so we’ll find ways to divert them. Eating in response to our emotions enables us to suppress
them - we stuff them further down as we fill ourselves with food. I understand this all too well because
I’ve been there many times. The
obvious consequences are that we don’t heal from the emotional trauma and we
add potential physical stress to the body with excess food. As Robert Frost said, “The best
way out is always through.” When
we experience our emotions head on rather than numbing or packing them away,
we’ll emerge stronger and wiser.
Eating for hunger, but not paying attention
- Okay, this one involves hunger and I am absolutely guilty of doing this. Many days after my yoga class, I will
eat an apple or drink a smoothie on the drive home. Am I paying attention to the apple? Not completely because I have to focus
on driving, which means I’m missing out on the juiciness, sweetness, crispness,
beauty, and smell of the apple.
Even though I may be hungry, I’m not receiving the full benefit from the
food I’m eating and I may later forget that I even ate it.
If you frequently eat your meals
while surfing the net or reading the newspaper, you may also lose track of what
you’ve eaten and miss out on the enjoyment. What’s interesting is that when I’m
home and I cut up an apple into wedges and eat it that way, I often don’t even
need to eat the entire apple.
The few pieces that I do eat are enough. To me, this
says that when you’re more in tune with what you’re eating, you instinctively
know when enough is enough.
If you treat eating as an event
in and of itself, eat when hungry, eat slowly, and follow the cues of your body,
you’re less likely to use food as something other than the pleasure and
nourishment it’s meant to be.
Image courtesy of Ambro
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