Secrets of your appetite: Part 3-sensory

We can probably all think of moments where we walked past freshly baked cookies or caught a whiff of french fries that restaurants so kindly pump in the air to catch our attention. In moments we can go from not thinking about food to needing to eat that food. Like now! And have you ever been faced with deciding what to eat but nothing sounded very good until you see what someone else is eating and bam, now you want it?

Last summer, the NY post featured an article highlighting a diner menu special called “my girlfriend’s not hungry”. For 5 bucks, this restaurant would add a few french fries, wings or cheese sticks. Because even when your girlfriend thinks she isn’t hungry she is going to end up grabbing food off your plate. This is that sensory input (the seeing and smelling) that is signaling our brains to eat. 

And then many of us, especially the older generations suffer from “clean your plate” syndrome. Part of this is not wanting to waste, but another big part is the visual cue of eating what we see in front of us. One year Bobby Flay made the resolution to always leave some food on his plate. I love that! I sometimes make a point to do the same. It is my way of rejecting the clean your plate syndrome. No, I don’t have to eat if I’m not hungry, and no I won’t keep shoveling food in if I feel comfortably full. To me, it also says, I’m going to leave something for later. It’s like leaving a little hunger so you know you will have room to enjoy, really enjoy, the next time you sit down for a meal. 

So, what to do about this?

First, being able to recognize this effect makes it so much easier to negotiate with the impulse to eat. It shifts the story we tell ourselves away from one of lack of control and failure, to one where you simply recognize how your body and senses work, which has a way more empowering and encouraging theme to it. That helped me be more logical about my eating too, which is really important to making good decisions.

These senses also offer the opportunity to use your senses to finding pleasure. We need pleasure!. Use mindful eating strategies to savor it! It's ok to just eat food for the mere pleasure of it- it is how much and what else you choose to eat that really makes the difference. Extract more pleasure from each bite of the foods you love and don’t forget to look for the pleasure that comes from not being stuffed and from being nourished too. 

Try reducing unnecessary exposure to sights and smells of food. Rearrange your environment, so you see those fruits and vegetables more and the chips and cookies less.  Don’t leave them in plain sight. Put them in the cupboard and put ready to eat fruits and vegetables on the counter or in the front of your fridge in clear containers. 

The influence of senses is always worse when you combine this with the forbidden food effect, hunger pangs or low energy signals. 

So stop telling yourself you can’t have food. That’s just not accurate because realistically no one is going to stop you. You can pick that food up and put it in your mouth. (watch this Jimmy Fallon about someone who wishes they could hire someone to do this) You don’t want everything those foods give you so you tell yourself you can’t. What you should tell yourself is what those foods give you, the good and the bad, and then own your decision whether to eat it or not.

Re-visit the other episodes on ways to manage hunger pangs and low energy signals, and over time you will indeed become an eating ninja! You will feel empowered and satisfied. It’s time to enjoy these wonderful appetites in a nourishing way!

Double dopamine podcast link