Why we should eat blindfolded
Not knowing when you are full can play a big part in weight gain, writes Paula Goodyear.
BACK in 2003, Swedish scientists blindfolded a group of people and told them to eat until they were full – and found they ate 24 per cent less food than when they were not blindfolded.
It is an experiment Dr Helena Popovic repeats at weekend retreats that teach people how to eat more healthily – not by reducing carbs or whipping up kale smoothies, but by learning to reconnect with both the feeling of real hunger and the signs the body has had enough to eat.
Like the people in the Swedish experiment, most of Popovic’s blindfolded eaters don’t finish everything on the plate – with fewer distractions, they’re more tuned in to the body’s ‘‘I’m full’’ signals.
The blindfold is a way of driving home the importance of focusing on the food, rather than on the other tasks that often accompany eating in the 21st century: working, texting, checking Facebook or watching a screen.
According to Popovic, a Sydney-based doctor specialising in lifestyle health and weight management, this loss of connection to the body’s hunger and satiety signals contributes to our weight-gain woes – and one of the drivers of this disconnect is our time-poor, multi-tasking way of life.
‘‘Eating has lost its value – it’s not so much something to be savoured, as something you squeeze in between other things,’’ she says. ‘‘I see people who feel guilty for taking half an hour for lunch – we are valuing productivity over our health.’’
Many of the people Popovic sees have forgotten what true hunger feels like. Some have become used to eating until their stomach feels stretched, which can happen when we eat too quickly, or because we equate ‘‘stretched’’ with ‘‘I’m satisfied’’.
‘‘When you slow down and eat mindfully, you become more sensitive to the signals that are telling you to stop eating and you can detect the messages sooner,’’ she says. ‘‘When you eat until you’re 80 per cent full, but not stuffed, it also enhances your enjoyment at the end of the meal. You feel comfortable, because your stomach hasn’t been overstretched.’’
Non-hungry eating is part of the same disconnect with hunger. It happens when we keep eating in response to stress or boredom or because we’re procrastinating – or because it’s mid-morning and we always eat something.
Popovic’s approach, set out in her book NeuroSlimming ,isto help people retrain the brain to eat in response to internal body cues – not external situational cues, such as stress, anger or wandering into the food court. But first, it helps to know what real hunger feels like.
The first clue is that hunger is a sensation, not a thought – it’s your body signalling that it needs to top up on fuel and nutrients, Popovic says. A rumbling stomach is an obvious sign, as is a feeling of emptiness.
Physiological hunger comes on gradually, while emotional or psychological hunger tends to hit suddenly. If you’re uncertain, ask yourself: did anything just happen (either positive or negative) to trigger anxiety or bring on an emotion?
If the hunger sensation comes with fatigue, irritability or mental fog, it’s often a sign of hunger.
Physiological hunger can be satisfied with a range of foods. Sometimes we want something specific, but generally any number of foods will hit the spot. A craving, on the other hand, is more specific and won’t be satisfied by an alternative or a healthier substitute.
But non-hungry eating isn’t the only way we can lose touch with real hunger – restrictive diets can have the same effect if they teach us to habitually ignore hunger pangs, Popovic says.
‘‘Not eating when you’re hungry can lower your levels of the hormone leptin, which tells you you’ve had enough to eat and can also slow down metabolism.’’