What is Normal Eating?

by Diet Detective Editorial Staff
Friday, 07 July 2006
If your eating habits are out of whack, put them back into perspective with these helpful tips. People are eating steak for breakfast, devouring entire packages of fat-free cookies and abstaining from eating fruit-all in response to current weight-loss trends and diet gimmicks. There are, of course, plenty of reasons to maintain a healthy weight but have we lost all perspective along the way? The following is a refreshing depiction of "normal" eating from nutrition expert Ellyn Satter. If you think your eating habits have gone off the deep end, read this to help you get back to reality. Ellyn Satter's definition of "normal" eating: Normal eating is being able to eat when you are hungry and continue eating until you are satisfied. Normal eating is being able to choose food you like and eat it and truly get enough of it-not just stop eating because you think you should. Normal eating is being able to use some moderate constraint in your food selection to get the right food but not being so restrictive that you miss out on pleasurable foods. Normal eating is giving yourself permission to eat sometimes because you are happy, sad or bored, or just because it feels good. Normal eating is having three meals a day, most of the time, but it can also be choosing to munch along throughout the day. Normal eating is leaving some cookies on the plate because you know you can have some again tomorrow, or it's eating more now because they taste so good when they're fresh. Normal eating is overeating at times-feeling stuffed and uncomfortable. Normal eating is undereating at times and wishing you had more. Normal eating is trusting your body to make up for your mistakes in eating. Normal eating takes up some of your time and attention, but keeps its place as only one important area of your life. Normal eating is flexible. It varies in response to your emotions, your schedule, your hunger, and your proximity to food. Bookmark: Trackback(0) TrackBack URI for this entry Comments (0) Subscribe to this comment's feed Write comment Name Title Comment
Last Updated ( Friday, 07 July 2006 )