By: Sarah Alligood, MPH, RD Date: 10/30/09
Note: This is the final post in our series looking at some key takeaways from last week's American Dietetic Association Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo by International Food Information Council Foundation staff members who attended. For more see our previous posts on sustainability and nutrition vs. exercise for weight loss.
I had the pleasure of attending last week’s American Dietetic Association (ADA) Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo (FNCE) in Denver, CO. Not only was the weather AMAZING, but I really got a lot out of the educational sessions I attended too.
There was one that really stood out to me on the topic of mindful eating featuring the expertise of Megrette Fletcher, MEd, RD, CDE, and Michelle May, MD. The speakers talked about breaking the cycles of overeating and restrictive eating and listening to your body’s instinctive ability to eat appropriately. They discussed how the “Instinctive Eating Cycle” is driven by hunger rather than external triggers (i.e. it’s noon, I guess I should eat, or food is in front of me, I guess I should eat it) or strict dietary rules (i.e. no food past 7:00 pm or no carbs at dinner). Rather, if you can focus in on your body’s signals of hunger and fullness, you can intuitively know when and how much to eat.
While some of my dietitian friends find it easy to pass over the French fries or chocolate cake, I’m a dietitian that has no desire to give up the foods I love. I’ve been on many first dates where I’ve shocked the poor guy by reaching for a hush puppy or buttering my bread, but I’ve learned over the years that there is no shame in enjoying food. One of the most valuable concepts I learned during my nutrition training was how to tune into hunger cues and let my body tell me when and how much to have, whether I am having a salad or a chocolate treat. One of the tools that can help with this process is the hunger scale – a scale gauging your body’s fullness, ranging from:
1 – I am going to pass out if I don’t get some food in my stomach stat
to
10 – I just finished Thanksgiving dinner, popped a button on my trousers, and am in a food coma
Both ends of the scale are pretty extreme, so the trick is learning to stay somewhere in the middle. You should eat when you feel signals that it’s time to eat but stop when you are comfortably full. Once you get the hang of it, it’s incredibly liberating to be able to enjoy your favorite foods without overdoing it. This is a concept that has really helped me maintain balance in my life, allowing me to enjoy the foods I love as part of an overall healthful diet and lifestyle.
But that’s not to say that you won’t find me in a food coma on Thanksgiving…I mean it only comes once a year!!