Food for thought (get it?): Overeating

I tend to overeat.

Not that I'm fat. Far from it. I'm certainly not at my college weight anymore, but in my "adult" life I've gained a bit of weight that I could do without. Part of it is that I'm not as physically active anymore (something I'm trying to rectify), and part of it is that as I get older, I become more and more obsessed with food.

I have always loved food. I like eating. As I get older, my palate broadens. I still love a fat, juicy burger, a pizza, and rich pastas, but I also love a light orzo salad, bruschetta on toasted baguette, raw oysters, a chicken salad... it's all good, as long as the dish is balanced and tasty. Fatty does not always equal tasty. Salty does not always equal tasty. I want to taste the food. If there's mozzarella, tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, and basil, I want to taste all of those things together and separately. I don't want tons of salt hiding it all.

This isn't to say I don't love salty or fatty foods, but I know there's more to great tasting food than that.

It's that taste that I crave, but my body wants more than a regular-sized portion. Maybe that stems from my childhood, when my youngest sister and I used to argue over who could eat more (a contest best left to the young with high metabolism). Or maybe it's an extension of whatever obsessive-compulsive tendencies I have (a lot). Perhaps it's the one part of my personality that is addictive.

I read a few different articles on overeating. Here's one from Web MD.

So, basically, fat, salt, and sugar are like drugs and my body responds to those stimuli as substances that give pleasure. This pleasurable reaction to such foods also cause us to seek out other, similar foods. The solution? Set a time for eating and know how you're going to eat, which I take to mean this: know you're going to eat at 7 PM at a restaurant, for example, and plan on only eating half your meal. Also? Set rules, like not eating between meals, and when you do eat, don't think, "Wow, all this food is going to be awesome!" Instead, think,"If I eat too much of this, I'll feel pretty bad afterwards."

After reading the article, I laughed. It all seemed like something out of a cheesy self-help book. The tips may prove useful, but there are some things to think about.

First, set meal times don't always pan out for the busy American, which is a shame to let the hustle and bustle of life rule us (but that's another topic). We often eat when we can, and this means sometimes we'll be less hungry, sometimes we'll be more hungry. The notion of not eating between meals actually contradicts something else that I've heard, which is the habit of eating smaller meals more often throughout the day (more on that later).

Second, as far as how you think about your meal ("If I eat all this food, I'll feel gross, like a mass of fat in a chair"), why think of it negatively? Food should be pleasurable. Eating should be a pleasurable experience, whether you're eating on the go or sitting down with your family. Though eating is a necessity of survival, it's pleasurable and we should enjoy it. If you're staring at a huge plate of food, it might be better to avoid negativity and instead let yourself know that you'll enjoy the food until you feel content. Not full, not stuffed, just content. Stop when you've had enough.

Speaking of which...

This short article addresses the notion of portions versus listening to your body. Apparently, people feel the need to eat the food in front of them, regardless if their body is telling them they've had enough (which makes you wonder, is that mom's fault? "Finish your food or no dessert!").

Alton Brown, one of my food heroes, mentions dissatisfaction as a catalyst for overeating (from question 4 in this Slashdot interview):

There are no bad foods, only bad food habits. I eat cream, butter, and bacon; I just don't eat pounds of it at a time. I use these things when they are needed in recipes and leave them out when they're not needed. As for substitutes, I only agree with them if they really don't change a person's response to a dish. Take mashed potatoes for instance. I recently saw a recipe that suggested that the fat we all know that mashers need could be replaced with vegetable broth. Hogwash. All that does is lead to dissatisfaction and I think that dissatisfaction results in overeating. We like fats because fats satisfy. They break down in the digestive track very slowly so they keep us fuller longer. Now if I find a way to replace a fatty ingredient without missing it (I do this a lot with yogurt) then you bet I'm going to do it. But I repeat: there are no bad foods.

How does dissatisfaction lead to overeating? He seems to imply that when the fats are removed from foods that would otherwise have fats in them, people may eat more because it will take more food to make them feel full. Interesting. This may not be the only reason dissatisfaction leads to overeating, however. What I think may also happen is this: when one is dissatisfied with what they're eating, they will seek out something else that satisfies them, regardless of the fact that they've just eaten.

Now, I don't plan on giving up any foods. I like burgers, and I like salads. I like beer, and I like water. What I need to do is eat less. And this will take some doing, because I'm used to eating a lot, which means that it requires a lot of food until I feel full. But, as stated earlier, I'm going to have to eat until I'm content. This means that when my belly has a good amount of food in it, and I know that eating more will make me feel "full" - stuffed, as it were - I should stop. I'm hoping that sooner or later, "content" will become the new "full" and that the old "full" will become "Good God, I'm giving birth to a banquet."

How will I do this? At home, I'm going to have to limit myself to a single plate or bowl of food. At a restaurant, I should eat half of my order. After eating that amount, I will need to ascertain the following: Am I still hungry? And I mean literally hungry. If I'm not hungry, if I'm at that point right before I feel full, I won't eat anymore. My taste buds might whine and cry, but like a toddler throwing a tantrum, I can't give in.

The other thing I'm going to try, in addition to eating smaller meals, is to eat small snacks throughout the day.

That's right. I'm going to eat more often in an attempt to eat less.

Eating mini-meals throughout the day has been a point of contention in the nutrition community. Here are three articles addressing the point: The New York Times, Medicinenet.com, and AskMen.com. And here's something from chef and Food Network personality Giada De Laurentiis on her eating habits, and if you've ever seen her, she's very slender:

1. How is it possible to be a chef and stay in such great shape?
I have to say that this is by far the question I am most frequently asked, and my answer is always the same: genetics, portion control and fresh ingredients. If you’ve ever seen my mother either on the show or in photographs, you’ll notice that she is quite petite, trim. So I have her to thank for getting me off to a good start. In addition, I’ve never been one to sit down to a meal with a large plate of food and eat every morsel until I was uncomfortably full. Rather, I graze – eating small portions of food all day long. And the ingredients are clean and fresh. Yes, I absolutely love chocolate, and I do eat it but just a bite.

The idea I like is this: if I snack in between regular meals, when it comes time to eat those regular meals I won't be super hungry, thus I'll eat less. There are a lot of times I go hours and hours without eating and, therefore, when I do sit down to eat, I'm incredibly hungry and eat a lot of food. By eating in small quantities throughout the day, I should cut down on how hungry I am by the time I'm ready to eat a regular meal. And while this might seem like I'll be eating more, I won't be eating too much in one sitting, which is really bad because that's putting tons of food into my stomach all at one, which basically just stretches it out, and that's a big problem. By minimizing how hungry I am in between meals, I should be able eat less in the long run.

I'll have to do more research into the whole mini-meal concept to see about medical benefits - after all, there are arguments for and against it. In the meantime, I need to find an answer to this question:

What the hell am I going to do about the holidays?!