eat until you're 80 percent full

[low_delta]

Here's an excerpt from Michael Pollen's book, In Defense of Food.

"Eat Less" is easier said then done, however, particularly in a culture of cheap and abundant calories with no deeply rooted set of rules to curb overeating. But other cultures do have such rules and we can try to emulate them. The French have their modest portions and taboo against seconds. The people of Okinawa, one of the longest-lived and healthiest populations in the world, practice a principle they call hara hachi bu: Eat until you are 80 percent full.

This is a sensible idea, but also easier said than done: How in the world do you know when you're 80 percent full? You'd need to be in closer touch with your senses than many Americans at the table have become. As Rozin and other psychologists have demonstrated, American typically eat not until they're full (and certainly not until they're 80 percent full), but rather until they receive some visual cue from their environment that it's time to stop: the bowl or the package is empty, the plate is clean, or the TV show is over. Brian Wansink, a Cornell professor of marketing and nutritional science who as done several ingenious studies on portion size and appetite, concludes that Americans pay much more attention to external than to internal clues about satiety.* By comparison, the French, who seem to attend more closely to all the sensual dimensions of eating, also pay more attention to the internal cues telling them they feel full.

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*In one study, Wansink rigged up bowls of soup in a restaurant so they would automatically refill from the bottom; those given the bottomless bowl ate 73 percent more soup than the subjects eating form an ordinary bowl; several ate as much as a quart. When one of those hearty eaters was asked his opinion of the soup he said, "it's pretty good and it's pretty filling." Indeed.

At some point in the recent past, I realized the amount I was eating was often based on the amount I usually ate. I'd take a portion that I though was reasonable, and then go back for a little bit of seconds. I thought I needed to eat until I was full, but if I didn't go back for seconds, I was still full.

Comments

[mummm.livejournal.com]

I guess we all need to have measurements somehow tattooed on our stomachs...

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

Install a dipstick?

[mummm.livejournal.com]

*Gag* I guess that would work too.

[sunshine-two.livejournal.com]

we're gluttons.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

But how'd we get that way? Oh - marketing.

[vocalista001.livejournal.com]

I've heard folk wisdom that one should stop eating when not yet feeling full because it takes a few minutes for that "I'm full" feeling to be felt, and if you don't stop eating until you feel "full", then you'll soon feel "too full".

Reading about that endless bowl of soup experiment....I'd have trouble with that. It's ingrained in me that wasting food is a disgraceful thing to do. I find it socially uncomfortable to leave food on my plate, even if someone has served me too much.

I do leave food behind if I "feel full", but it's always a displeasure, and I often feel "too full" about 15 minutes later. At restaurants, I will often ask for a doggie bag of the main dish, especially if I want to feel comfortable about having a taste of some [beautiful, delicious, dark chocolate] dessert.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

it takes a few minutes for that "I'm full" feeling to be felt

That's true, and that's probably what's behind the Okinawans' philosophy. And also a difference between American and French cultures, regarding eating, as discussed in this book. The French eat more slowly, which means they receive the "full" sensation before they've eaten very much more.

It's ingrained in me that wasting food is a disgraceful thing to do.

That's common too. I know a lot of people who are or were overweight (not to imply that you fall into this group), because they feel they have to finish what was given to them. Or even what a family member left behind. They need to learn to put their health above their need to not be wasteful. Just consider easting food you don't need to eat. Isn't that wasteful too?

But to continue that thought, if eating too much is wrong, throwing food away is wrong too. So why do either? Take only what you need to begin with. That should be your goal. Therefore you need to learn how much you really need to be eating.

[ravengirl.livejournal.com]

I JUST heard that Okinawan phrase on Oprah the other night. It was an excerpt from the book, "The Blue Zones" http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Zones-Lessons-Living-Longest/dp/1426202741

I was always a slow eater, which helps, because the brain gets the signals from the gut after about 20 minutes of eating. So that's my theory: eat slower.

As I got older, my problem became my mouth. My taste buds want to taste something like salt or sweet and my mouth wants to feel something creamy or crunchy. That has to be overcome by determination. Blah. I hate that. ;)

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

As I just mentioned above, eat slower is one of the ideas mentioned in the book, and it's hardly a new idea.

Yeah, it takes determination. One thing that helps is knowledge. The more you know about the problem, the easier it is to overcome with reason. And also it helps to know what you're looking for. All those little cues to watch.

[ravengirl.livejournal.com]

Ha! It may not be a "new idea", but it's rarely employed in my experience with others.

[cynnerth.livejournal.com]

That's my problem too. I'm enjoying the sensations of the food and don't want to stop. That's one of the reasons I tend to eat when I'm bored. It's fun to experience the taste.

[marswalker.livejournal.com]

we were taught as kids to "clean the plate" and "no seconds until you're completely done with firsts."

Then again, Dad was no small eater, so we were all taught (by example) to heap it on, and eat until "full".

This was partly because Dad was born in the early 1920's (mom too) and remember meals of bread sandwich and tomato catsup soup...

[tudgedelta.livejournal.com]

Indeed, it seems like the American culture does not like the word "enough" in general, and in particular with food.

There is another aspect to bad eating habits: a lot of people rush through their meals as they eat while working. It's very common where I work to see people shoveling breakfast or lunch down as they work, usually under some deadline. This behavior itself is probably very unhealthy, but may also contribute to mindless eating even when not working.

I took a mindfulness meditation course a few years ago, and mindful eating was one of the practices. When I'm paying attention, I definitely don't eat as much, and generally feel better, than when I slip into un-mindfulness.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

Mindful versus mindless eating is another thing. I'm not one who particularly enjoys eating, so I usually just shovel it in. And then when I get something that is good, I still just shovel it in, because that's how I'm used to eating.

It's interesting, though, because since our portion sizes are generally predetermined, it may not matter if we eat fast or slow, as far as eating too much (or too little, for that matter). We eat whatever's on our plate, or whatever we packed for our lunch. But of course there are other reasons to be mindful.