I didn’t have time to sit down and eat yesterday, but I still managed to consume two muesli bars, a quarter-roast chicken, small mocha-soy latte, three handfuls of nuts, a banana and two bits of toast. Oh alright… I also had a bowl of cornflakes before dinner.
More worrying than the actual amount of food I downed, is the fact it took me ten minutes and one phone call to a friend to totally recall what I ate. I forgot the Burger Rings… wrapped in cheese singles.
Overeating is a common problem in a culture like ours where food – particularly the fast variety – is readily available and we have the disposable income to indulge in it. Take restaurant dining, for example. You’re served a meal that is double the size your hunger requires but eat it anyway because it’s yummy and it’s social, which is also why you order a sticky date pudding with caramel cream sauce afterwards.
The ever increasing and less realised phenomenon, though, is absent-minded eating – or ‘eating disinhibition,’ as it’s known in the health industry. It’s not the kind where you think, ‘I’ll eat now and jog it off later.’ It’s the muffin you have at your desk while you’re flat out working, or the packet of biscuits you demolish while watching Under Belly. It’s eating without thinking about eating, and that could be while you’re driving, working or sitting around bored.
Dietitian Trent Watson says, “It’s well known that the major limitation to any dietary assessment is under-reporting what we eat. And snack foods seem to be the part of our diet we under-report because it’s between our main meals; it’s not considered a major part of what we’re eating.”
FIVE WAYS TO BEAT ABSENT-MINDED EATING
1. Do you ever go to the kitchen hungry and feed yourself before deciding what to put on a sandwich? Decide what you’re going to eat first instead of dawdling in front of the fridge.
2. Most of us enjoy combining the two relaxing pastimes that are: watching TV and snacking – both no-brainer activities. The temptation to eat mindlessly is further exploited in front of the box, thanks to tasty commercials featuring luxurious chocolate treats and glistening chicken burgers.
If you can’t break the habit, find a new amusement that makes it difficult to eat simultaneously difficult (walking, arts and craft, painting your nails).
3. Destroy food before it destroys you. I know it sounds drastic and wasteful but if delivering the food to someone who needs it more than you do is not an immediate option, think Miranda and the chocolate cake in Sex And The City. Detergent and a bin funeral prevented her from picking at it. Last week – faced with a post-dinner party slice of cheesecake – I sprayed it with Glen 20. Very empowering.
4. Catching up with friends is lovely but we all know it’s mostly an excuse for coffee and Tim Tams. Very few women are skilled at gossiping and concentrating on calorie intake at the same time. Meet somewhere like a museum, that doesn’t allow food inside.
5. Never underestimate the power of a packed lunch. Dietician Trent Watson says: “It means you’ve made a goal about what you need, rather than what you need to gratify your taste buds.”
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh how true!!! Personally, I find that I keep missing lunch. Time, gets away from me, and I am so bored with what’s in my fridge, that nothing is inspiring. Then the 3 o’clock munchies come, and I basically eat from 3 till 7!! Great – I don’t even want to think about what I get through – however it’s usually ‘diet’ stuff – what a joke.
Tomorrow I will be better!!! (till 3)
In a course we did at work with Clued on Food they called this ‘incidental eating’. That little thing you pop into the mouth without noticing, that fizzy drink you need to get through the afternoon…it all adds up…who knew??