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Healthy Eating Attitudes Foster Healthy Eating Behaviors
What follows is a list of behaviors and attitudes that attempt to define
a person with "healthy" eating habits. Keep in mind that this is not a definition of healthy
eating from a nutritional perspective. It is best to consult with a nutritionist about what to eat.
Rather, the following is a description of healthy eating behaviors and attitudes. My hope is that
someday a healthy pattern of behavior and thinking about food will be the "norm."
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HEALTHY EATING INCLUDES:
- 1) Eating when hungry and stopping when full
- 2) Feeling comfortable eating a wide variety of foods
- 3) Being able to enjoy fatty foods without guilt or anxiety
- 4) Eating driven by internal cues, not external circumstances
(Such as time of day or the company you keep)
- 5) Eating in order to celebrate or be social
- 6) Not allowing "shoulds" to determine what and how much you eat
- 7) Eating solely for pleasure
- 8) Eating because you are happy, sad, bored, or just because it feels good
- 9) Looking forward to eating out without fear or guilt
- 10) Eating more now because it tastes wonderfully fresh
- 11) Trusting your body to make up for mistakes in eating
- 12) Not allowing food or weight issues to become your only focus in life
- 13) Leaving uneaten food on your plate
- 14) Overeating on special occasions with guilt-free minimal weight gain
- 15) On occasion, overeating to cope with stress with minimal weight gain
- 16) A reduction or increase in appetite when under stress
- 17) Eating just because the food is there and it smells good
- 18) Improving health habits if your weight falls above a BMI of 29
- 19) Gaining weight and improving health habits if your BMI falls below 20
- 20) Maximizing healthy behaviors if you have a BMI of 20-29
Losing weight, then, is not the only goal here. I want people to focus on becoming
healthier, even if your weight falls in the overweight range. Why? Because the medical field
and scientific data are not clear as to whether being moderately overweight is a risk factor
in premature death. To put it another way, it may not be the extra weight that is dangerous.
Rather, research continuously points to eating and exercise habits as predictive of longevity,
not just body weight in and of itself. The most compelling evidence for this has come from
longitudinal research that has followed 32,000 men and women since 1970. Longevity rates
indicate that the fittest men and women have the lowest death rates, regardless of what they
weigh. For example, a heavyset person who exercises has a better chance of living a longer life
than an underweight person who is not fit. Most importantly, some research indicates that
weight cycling and rapid weight loss may result in physical harm and is related to an elevated
death rate (Andres, Muller & Sorkin, 1993; Ernsberger & Koletsky, 1993). Animal studies suggest
that weight cycling is predictive of certain types of cancers, such as breast and renal cancer
(Tagliaferro, Ronan, Meeker, Thompson, Scott & Scott 1996; Uhley, Pellizzon, Buison, Guo, Djuric
& Jen, 1997). So, my first hope for you is that you stop gaining. Please put away those hopes
that you will lose so many pounds in so many days. You have tried that before and it has its
limitations. Let’s reach for the goal of smoothing out your eating habits. What could be more
important than living longer?
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