Mindful practices may help improve your dietary choices (and your health)
The 2016 Food and Health Survey commissioned by the International Food Information Council (IFIC) found that 64 percent of respondents have not heard of the practice of “mindful eating,” though 53 percent are interested in learning about it. Given that 80 percent indicated that they, at least sometimes, stop eating when they have had enough but not too much – which is already a basic tenet of mindful eating – and that almost half (46 percent) indicated they eat at the same time each day, whether or not they are hungry, mindful eating may prove useful for some Americans.
A 2011 Harvard Health Letter, published by Harvard Medical School, documented mindful eating techniques (which are based on the Buddhist concept of mindfulness), as well as “a small yet growing body of research [suggesting] that a slower, more thoughtful way of eating could help with weight problems and maybe steer some people away from processed food and other less-healthful choices.”
Here are a few suggestions from the Health Letter:
- Set a kitchen timer for 20 minutes, and take the time to eat a normal-sized meal.
- Take small bites and chew well.
- Before opening the refrigerator or cabinet, ask yourself, “Am I really hungry?”
For the full list of suggestions, as well as more information on the origins of mindful eating and the research behind it, visit http://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/mindful-eating.
For key findings from the IFIC survey, as well as the link to the full results, visit http://www.foodinsight.org/new-year-trends-2017-sustainability-functional-foods-coffee-healthy-protein-pasta-whole-grains.
Less mindful beverage consumption
While many Americans indicate they want to practice healthy eating, recently released data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that when it comes to healthy beverage consumption, the country has room for improvement.
The findings – based on results of the 2011-2014 U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey – indicate that consumption of sugary beverages declined substantially in the U.S. from 2000 to 2010, but that decline stalled after 2010, “well above the recommended limit,” according to the Washington Post.
“The amount of sugar that children in particular consume is still astounding,” Rachel Johnson, a professor of nutrition at the University of Vermont and a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association, told the Post. “We recommend that children drink soda once a week or less. We’re seeing that two-thirds drink it on a daily basis.”
Several factors may be to blame for continued over-consumption of sugary beverages. Some researchers believe that in turning away from sodas, Americans have turned to other sweetened beverages, such as teas, flavored waters, and energy drinks. Another theory is that the initial sharp decline in sugary-beverage consumption was due largely to Americans who were more receptive to changing their behaviors, such as upper-income individuals. “People with higher levels of education and income have made dramatic changes to their diets overall in recent years,” said Walter Willett, M.D., Dr. P.H., a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Many people with lower levels of education and income have seen no improvement.”
The new findings show disparities between different ethnic groups and age groups, but are cause for concern for the whole country. “Sugary drinks have been linked to obesity in children and adults,” the Post article states. “It also contributes to heart disease, type II diabetes and some obesity-related cancers, all of which have reached epidemic proportions in the United States.”
To read the Washington Post article documenting the findings, visit https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/01/26/americans-were-making-a-lot-of-progress-cutting-back-on-sugary-drinks-now-thats-stopped/?utm_term=.aec6d1e5eecb&wpisrc=nl_wonk&wpmm=1.
To view the CDC’s findings, visit https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/new_nhanes.htm.
To view the Dietary Guidelines for 2015-2020 from the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion – which includes a section on added sugars, such as those found in sweetened beverages – visit https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/. (Go to Chapter 2: “Shifts Needed to Align With Healthy Eating Patterns,” to view the section on added sugars.)
Dietary legislation
Meanwhile, France is continuing its own battle on unhealthy beverages. In January, the federal government enacted a new law prohibiting restaurants from offering free refills of soda and other sugary drinks. The law aims to limit risks of obesity and diabetes, particularly among young people in France. It also falls in line with recommendations from the World Health Organization, which issued a report in 2016 urging governments around the world to tax sugary drinks such as soda.
A New York Times article documenting the free refill ban notes that “France has been at the forefront of tackling [obesity], along with countries like Japan, where a national law requires companies and local governments to measure the waistlines of people between the ages of 40 and 74, and to encourage them to exercise.”
The law has divided support among French residents, just as comparable laws in certain U.S. cities and states have received sharp criticism. (Among them was New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s 2012 proposed ban on the sale of large sugary drinks in restaurants – a plan which eventually failed.)
That said, France’s share of obese adults was 15.3 percent in 2014, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the corresponding number in the United States is 36.5 percent.
For the New York Times article, visit https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/world/europe/france-soda-refill-ban.html?emc=edit_ne_20170127&nl=evening-briefing&nlid=75760160&te=1.
For the CDC’s data on adult obesity, visit https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html, and for the Eurostat statistics on adult obesity, visit http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/7700898/3-20102016-BP-EN.pdf/c26b037b-d5f3-4c05-89c1-00bf0b98d646.
For the World Health Organization’s full report, “Fiscal Policies for Diet and Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases,” visit http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/250131/1/9789241511247-eng.pdf?ua=1.
For the full text of the France ban on free refills, visit https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000033922943&dateTexte=&categorieLien=id. (Fair warning: The law is in French.)