I remember once, a long time ago, someone asking me, “Do you eat to live, or do you live to eat?”
Oh, the latter, for sure.
Mmmm, breakfast, my favorite!
I LOVE to eat. I am obsessed with food...not just with eating it, but the science of food, where food comes from, the life of my food, the social impact of food, food in different cultures, and what food does in our bodies. It’s why I became a dietitian.
I’m pretty meticulous about my food choices. Preparing my food can be quite the production. Food is never an afterthought, to me.
My husband, on the other hand, is more of an “eat to live” guy. He can make it until lunch, sometimes later, if I don’t slip a meal under his nose beforehand. He will wait until he is “hangry” and then will eat whatever is most readily available.
Beyond being somewhere on the spectrum between the two people above, I’ll touch on four main types of cues when it comes to making the decision to eat.
BIOLOGICAL CUES
Well this one is easy. We get hungry. We eat. There’s a big hormone party going on inside that brings about your hunger and fullness. And if that is all there was to it, we’d probably be running around foraging berries, roasting duck over the fire, and calling it a day. Today, though, there are far more reasons we eat than just biological hunger.
EMOTIONAL CUES
Name an emotion. That emotion, for you, might be a trigger for eating. I know I’m one of those people. I will chow down if I am happy, scared, stressed, bored...maybe even sad. I have many friends that will actually lose their appetite when they are stressed or nervous. Not me.
What do you eat when you are happy? Stressed?
COGNITIVE CUES
The one thing I want to point out here is planned eating. With our hectic lives and busy schedules, we often must plan our meals at certain times, and possibly eat when we aren’t hungry. For instance, your lunch break is at 11:30am. You aren’t really hungry yet, but you know you won’t get another chance for a snack until 3:00pm, so you eat anyway.
ENVIRONMENTAL CUES
This is the category for the other 738 reasons we eat, and it really is the most interesting to me. It’s all about the external conditions around us, and there are A LOT of external conditions. I am talking about everything from marketing, to temperature, lighting, the way food is presented, the sounds around you and decibel level, the people you are with, who is watching you, a conversation, a picture, ease of access to food, colors, portion sizes, weather...you get the picture.
Doesn’t just the sight of this make you want to eat?? Well…I guess IF you like chocolate waffles…
So what’s the advice for developing eating habits that support optimal health and well-being?
Getting those veggies in!
It starts with awareness. First, practicing mindful eating and meditation will do wonders for helping you to feel actual hunger and satiety cues in your body. Second, recognizing your emotions and eating behaviors around those emotions, is the first step in changing those behaviors. Third, awareness of your environment, along with a focus on yourself, will help you to make intentional decisions on what and how much to eat. Otherwise, the environment will decide for you.
Questions or comments on why you eat? Want to change your eating habits? Please reach out to me, I’d love to hear from you!
-M