Why Pleasure with Eating is So Important
I want to be more French. I actually said this the other day to my husband and since then, this phrase has been ringing in my ears. French people, so I've heard, eat more mindfully, enjoy food more, find overall more pleasure with eating than we do here in the U.S. And I'm all about that.
SATISFACTION WITH EATING IMPROVES HEALTH?
Studies actually show us that pleasure with eating is better for our overall health. You may have guessed that it's better for our mental health, but did you know it's actually shown to be better for our physical health as well?In 1977, a study was done examining nutrient absorption of iron in a group of Thai women and then a group of Sweedish women. Both groups were given a dish that was popular in Southeast Asia, one that the Thai women were familiar with but not so much the Sweedish. To sum it up, the Thai women were seen to have absorbed 50% more iron than the Sweedish women, showing us that pleasure with eating plays a role in nutrient absorption. Fascinating, right?Another study looked at French, Japanese, and American diets and saw that Americans were more likely to obsess over health yet least likely to call themselves healthy. And yet French people were less likely to stress and more likely to say they were healthy. Yet another reason to think about satisfaction and pleasure when it comes to eating.Satisfaction is at the core of intuitive eating. If you think about satisfaction being at the center of a wheel with spokes coming out and each of the principles of intuitive eating at each spoke, that is how fundamental satisfaction is to eating.For example......Being satisfied by food helps you as you work to feel your fullness. Being satisfied is a component of being full....When we honor hunger we're able to savor food more when we sit down to eat by not coming to food with crazy hunger....Food is so much more satisfying when we aren't influenced by diet culture or the food police (aka that nagging voice in your head telling you when and how to eat)...Eating satisfying foods is a way to respect your body. You deserve to enjoy food.And so on.
WHAT MAKES FOOD SATISFYING?
Ok, so what makes food satisfying? I don't know about you, but for me, it's very clear when a food is and isn't satisfying. But we don't always think about what specifically it was that made a food satisfying. Typically, satisfying food...
- Meets your cravings (Yes! It's OK to honor your cravings! Cravings are not a bad thing!)
- Is visually appealing (think color, texture)
- Has a combo of macronutrients (carbs, fat, protein)
- Fills you up to a comfortable fullness
- Is eaten mindfully
- Brings us joy
- Takes gentle nutrition into consideration
I wrote another blog post all about 4 questions to ask yourself to determine what to eat to feel satisfied if that's something you want to dig into even further.Can you think of the last time you had something to eat that was super satisfying? What about that meal or snack made it that way for you?
WHAT MAKES FOOD UNSATISFYING?
Along with knowing what makes food satisfying, it's important to recognize what makes food UNsatisfying.In two words, DIET CULTURE makes food unsatisfying. It robs us of the joy with eating, and we need joy to feel satisfied. Diet culture makes us feel guilty for eating food that tastes good and fully satisfies us...meaning tastes good and fills us and meets our cravings. And nothing tastes good or satisfies when we feel guilty about eating it.If you're feeling crazy around food, thinking about it all the time, even always eating but never fully satisfied, that's a good indication to check in with satisfaction. Are you eating foods that satisfy, in amounts that satisfy? Oftentimes when I work with women in my 1:1 coaching program, when they start paying attention to satisfaction and eating truly satisfying foods they begin to feel more calm around food. And feeling more calm is what sets you up to continue cultivating a trusting relationship with yourself.
HOW TO ADD MORE SATISFACTION TO EATING
I want to end with giving you a few practical ways to add more satisfaction to eating.1. Eat what you really want to eat. I love what one of you said on Instagram this week as we were talking about satisfaction over there...Satisfaction means EATING WITHOUT OVERTHINKING! Ahhh, this makes my heart sing! Yes, yes, yes! If you are struggling with this, a good place to start is working on making peace with food. In order to truly honor our cravings we oftentimes need to start with undoing what diet culture has led us to believe about certain foods being "good" and others being "bad".2. Eat mindfully, anticipating pleasure. Satisfaction is about what we choose to eat, but also the HOW of eating. How we eat is going to influence the satisfaction that that meal or snack provides. So as you sit down to eat and start eating, anticipate the pleasure that the food may provide you. Make your space as optimal for satisfaction as possible...distraction-free, set the table maybe, put your phone away.3. Notice taste. Notice each bite you take and savoring the flavor of what you're eating. Eating too quickly keeps us from fully noticing the flavor of food. So a lot of satisfaction comes from slowing down to notice the taste.As you eat, ask yourself questions like...is this as satisfying as I thought it would be? It's ok if it's not. If that's the case, give yourself the option to find something else that may satisfy you more. You may need to do this as you're beginning to think about satisfaction more with eating as you figure out which foods are more satisfying to you and which are not. And then allow yourself to check-in as you're eating and ask yourself, does this still taste good? Noticing taste can also help us notice when we reach a comfortable fullness because as we get more full, satisfaction and taste of food actually decreases. Ok, tell me in the comments...what's the most satisfying meal or snack you've had recently? As you think about that food, what was it about it that made it satisfying?