Ruminations on books about mindful eating

I’ve been reading two books lately, one called Mindful Eating and the other called Mindless Eating. They provide a lot to think about regarding American eating habits (and my own personal eating habits as a member of that group). LTHers by definition are pretty mindful about food, one would think, and I have been wondering how our eating habits compare to the examples in the books.

Brian Wansink, author of Mindless Eating, is an applied economist who conducts behavioral research on what we eat and why and how. He is man who did the experiments with the bottomless soup bowls that you have probably heard about, where people ate from soup bowls that were never empty and had no idea how much they were eating. The book is full of stories about his studies, which include both studies for food corporations about how to get people to buy products, and studies about why we are eating more and more. He delights in showing how even people with PhDs who have just listened to lectures on the mechanics of overeating will respond to the same stimuli as everyone else. He gave a lecture on serving sizes, and then provided ice cream afterwards, in two rooms; in the first room, the bowls and scoops were significantly larger than they were in the second room, and sure enough, the experts who had just listened to his talk ate significantly more in the first room.

Jan Chozen Bays, author of Mindful Eating, is a doctor and a practitioner of Zen Buddhism, and her book is a guide to learning to eat mindfully, to learning to listen to your body and emotions and distinguish among 1) eye hunger (this is the hunger you feel when looking through the Random Food Pictures thread ); 2) nose hunger (what you feel when you walk past restaurants on Devon); 3) mouth hunger (more complex, I think – perhaps what you feel when you know you have eaten enough Peking duck but your mouth has been enjoying the sensation so much that it really wants more); 4) stomach hunger (what you feel when your stomach is empty); 5) body or cell hunger (what you feel when you really need refueling); 6) mind hunger (another complex one, perhaps illustrated by your internal thought process at the LTH picnic: “I’m full, but I don’t know when I will get to try so many great foods again, this is really an opportunity that I should not miss, even though, yes, I am really stuffed and need to loosen my belt.” Or more simply, “It’s noon, I should be allowed to take a break and eat lunch even though I am not really hungry yet and haven’t finished the work that I need to do.” 7) Heart hunger (I’m feeling lonely, perhaps that cupcake will help, etc.). The book is designed to help you learn to eat mindfully, ie, in response to stomach and cell hunger, and to feed the other hungers by other means when appropriate.

Of course, when you eat mindfully, you notice the taste of every bite, in all its glory. Many of us eat the first few bites mindfully, and then zone out with a book or conversation or TV and suddenly discover that all the food is gone and we hardly remember eating it. And so we want more! Which we might not, if we had paid attention all along.

Both books make a distinction between stopping eating when you are FULL, and stopping eating when you are NO LONGER HUNGRY.

Apparently most Americans do not stop eating when they are full; they stop eating when the bag of chips is empty, the TV show is over, the plate or serving bowl is empty, when they have to go back to work, when their friends have finished eating, etc.

You may have heard that the Okinawans do not get fat because they stop eating when they are 80% full. I never found that to be a very useful concept; it sounds like deprivation to me. But to stop eating when I am no longer hungry has been an amazing revelation to me.

FULL means that I will feel slightly stuffed and sluggish for several hours following a meal.

NO LONGER HUNGRY means that I will feel pleasantly refueled and energized.

You would think that difference would make it a simple thing to do to stop before I am full, but of course it doesn’t. Although I am getting better at it as I use the exercises in the Bays book.

Any LTHers read these or similar books? Or have experiences to relate about mindful or mindless eating?

Thanks for the book suggestions. I'll check them out. I've lost about 65 pounds over the last couple of years by eating smaller portions (listening to when I'm no longer hungry) and cutting out a majority of the processed foods I would typically eat. I also work out a couple of times a week. I feel that it is easier to control portion size when eating fresh foods. When eating processed foods I tend to be satisfied by quantity, not taste.

Hi,

I met Brian Wansink when he was still at University of Illinois. I went to his home where he showed me the set-up for the bottomless soup.

Dining with Brian Wansink was an early LTHforum event. It is yet another post I should have written and never got around to it.

I will do my best to dig up the photos, at the very least, to post.

Regards,