Over my many years of studies in both traditional Easter medicine and traditional Japanese martial arts, the idea of eating your food slowly has been a recurring theme for weight control and optimal health. I think everyone is familiar with how often children are admonished to chew their foods slowly, and now thanks to recent research we know that this age old health tip does indeed have merit.
In a study published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, seventeen healthy male adult volunteers were observed to see whether eating the same meal at different speeds would bring about any differences in hormonal response. For the study, volunteers were given a serving of ice cream and made to eat the same amount at different speeds. Blood samples were taken to measure both insulin and gut hormones and what they found was that the volunteers released more hormones that made them feel full when they ate the ice cream in 30 minutes as opposed to five minutes. The two particular hormones released glucagon-like peptide-1 and peptide YY are key components to signaling feelings of perceived satiety and fullness and thus leads to eating less.
Several Studies Confirm That Eating Slowly Decreases Caloric Intake & Risk Of Being Overweight
Several other studies back this claim, including a very large scale survey published in the British Medical Journal. For this survey 3287 adults (1122 men, 2165 women) ages ranging from 3 to 69 years old participated in reports on cardiovascular risk from 2003 to 2006. The results found that those who self reported consuming their foods quickly and eating until they were full had three times the likelihood of being overweight when compared with others that ate at slower paces. Another randomized study of 30 women published in the American Dietetic Association found that participants reported greater feelings of satisfaction and consumed less calories when they ate at a slower pace compared to when they ate quickly.
Our Fast Food Mentality May Be Doing Us More Harm Than We Know
The ancient wisdom of eating slowly and enjoying your foods can indeed help you eat less and thus should be considered a simple and effective method of weight control but it also raises some questions about common practices that might be contributing factors to our obesity epidemic. Given the ever increasing numbers of children that are overweight in the United States and the small alotment of time given to children for lunch breaks in public schools one cannot help but wonder just detrimental this practice is to the health of our children. For adults the idea of eating on the run and for that matter the whole idea of fast food and rapid eating may be more of a problem than we think. So eat slowly and enjoy your meals!
Guilt over eating the wrong foods only makes you more likely to keep eating them!
Is It Beneficial To Beat Yourself Up After Eating Junk Foods?
Guilt \ˈgilt\: noun 1 : the fact of having committed a breach of conduct especially violating law and involving a penalty; broadly : guilty conduct
2 a : the state of one who has committed an offense especially consciously b : feelings of culpability especially for imagined offenses, sin or from a sense of inadequacy : self-reproach
3 : a feeling of culpability for offenses
Guilt. In many ways food has become the new sin the Western world, one that justifies self torment and lowers self esteem everyday. You have that extra slice of chocolate cake, the glass of wine at the company party or the applepie at the family holiday dinner and in the moment there is no mistake that you do enjoy it. Sometimes rich and fatty foods can be almost sinful for lack of a better word, but you feel absolutelyterrible afterwards, and you really wish that you had not eaten the foods that you had. The guilt for some can be overwhelming, but the question remains, are these feelings of guilt really helpful? The answer is a resounding no! In fact what we know of human behavious is that the more you beat yourself up about eating something that you feel that you shouldn’t have the more likely you are to keep eating it! Interesting cycle, and one that has helped most of us stay locked in a constant and unsuccessful struggle to improve our eating habits.
Understanding Our Patterns Of Food Consumption
The first step to understanding the harm that guilt inflicts upon us when we associate it with food is to understand our patterns with regard to food consumption. Know thy enemy and know thyself and in a thousand battles you will never be in peril. These words written by a Chinese sage thousands of years ago apply just as much to war as it does to behavior modification as it is only through an intimate understanding of ourselves that change can be effected. Most simply make the resolution one day that they will no longer eat unhealthy foods and as valiant as this may be it is almost always unsuccessful. If it were that easy then weight management would not even be an issue and as most can attest this simply isn’t the case.
It Is A Mistake To Believe That Our Slips Are Caused By Lack of Willpower
To change the way we eat requires something far more than a resolution or diet, there must instead be an unrelenting commitment to a very real change in lifestyle. For this to happen we have to divorce ourselves from the destructive perspective that somehow there must be some form of atonement for any failures that occur while we are on the path of change . It is human nature to believe that when a ‘wrong’ is committed, that some form of guilt is required, usually followed by some form of penance as well. The problem is that when the ‘wrongdoing’ comes from eating something that we believe we shouldn’t nothing positive comes from it and it can be the starting point for lifelong eating disorders as one of our most basic acts as human beings is defiled by what we perceive as a lack of willpower.
Over the course of my career as a personal trainer I have seen so many men and women suffer tremendously from this way of thinking and the sad part is that society itself plays a large part in reinforcing feelings of guilt and failure in those that are struggling to control their weight. When people stray from their perceived perfect eating plan by eating something that falls into the category of forbidden, they tend to fall into a downward spiral of self hatred and disgust. This self inflicted form of flagellation is followed by a resolve to either exercise more, diet harder or employ some extreme method to compensate for the ‘damage’ done by their indulgence. Sadly this is an all too familiar refrain for most people today.
Guilt Has No Place In A Healthy Mind and a Healthy Body
Physiologically speaking, there isn’t anything that can be done to compensate for a slip in one’s diet. Nothing at all. What is done is done and any attempts to try to undo the past are wasted exercises in magical thinking. You eat something and there is nothing that you can do to reverse the fact- the universe does not have a rewind button and so we must simply move on. By wallowing in guilt we only bring ourselves closer to the likelihood of developing an eating disorders or at the very least lose some of our self respect. None of this has anything to do with the intended goal of living better and healthier lives in healthier bodies. Instead the slips must be looked upon as what they are; learning experiences that teach us more about ourselves since every slip holds the information necessary to help avoid their continued reoccurrence. With this attitude in mind, guilt no longer has a place in our relationship with food.
Guilt Makes You More Likely To Keep Eating The Wrong Foods
If you decide that you are no longer going to eat unhealthy foods, your new attitude only serves to supplement your original behavior where eating unhealthy foods were acceptable. Behavioral psychology reinforces what many of us have learned through objective observations;. namely that the very habits that we seek to change resurface because they are not fully forgotten. New and old ways of thinking co-exist as opposing impulses that will always be in competition unless steps are taken to disarm undesirable attitudes. Simply put, the more you beat yourself over the head about eating that piece of cheesecake, the more you help yourself recall the image of you eating it and the harder you are making it for yourself to forget about eating cheesecake.
What needs to happen is a gradual shift in eating patterns over time where new foods replace old foods. In time the new foods stay at our primary level of consciousness and the desire for the old ones simply fades away. This leads to a true definition of health; one where we want the foods that are good for us as opposed to avoiding bad foods because we know they are bad for us. Disarming those attitudes requires a fundamental change in perspective, a change that comes only with time and patience. It is only when you are able to enjoy foods that are good for you that you will be able to break the cycle. In the meantime, do your best not to eat the wrong foods, but if you do just keep going and don’t look back! Have a wonderful and guilt free holiday season!
The Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise TM works on a basic principle that foods that historically have been natural parts of the human diet are the best choices that can be made in terms of not only health improvement, but also in terms of achieving peak physical condition. All other foods fall into the category of junk foods, in that they have not been shown to have adverse effects on human health and performance. Many of these foods include foods that people often associate as being healthy, and so it is a good idea to check through the listing to ensure that you are on the right track.
Foods such as dairy products and soy products are not recommended, nor is what is commonly termed junk food. Junk food contains high levels of refined sugar, white flour, trans fat and polyunsaturated fat, salt, and numerous food additives such as monosodium glutamate and tartrazine; at the same time, it is lacking in proteins, vitamins and fiber, among other healthy attributes. It is unfortunately popular with manufacturers because it is relatively cheap to manufacture, has a long shelf life and may not require refrigeration. It is popular with consumers because it is easy to purchase, requires little or no preparation, is convenient to consume and has lots of flavor.
Consumption of junk food has been associated with obesity, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and dental cavities, and will have a strong impact on your performance and the results you will see from the Naturally Intense System. While many nutritional sources will say that junk foods can be part of a balanced diet, and many dieting systems employ a ‘cheat meal’ occasionally, it is my experience that that complete avoidance gives way to better long term health and allows you achieve what many refer to as ‘the look’ on a permanent basis.
Our goal is to foster a sense of the body being sacred, and a perspective where the idea of ingesting a food that could be in some way harmful, unnatural or toxic to your body is simply unacceptable. Through a changing of the body’s nutritional requirements, and proper nutrition through personalized dietary guides, we have had outstanding success in helping individuals stay off these foods and developing this very view. As hard as it may sound in the beginning, though, we ask that you do your utmost to avoid them.
Excelsior!
Warmest regards,
Kevin Richardson
Founder, Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise™
