I have a bit of an eating problem. It’s not something that requires medical attention (yet), but it’s nonetheless an unsettling habit that deserves more attention than I currently give it. I enjoy eating just a little too much. And naturally, this leads to overeating.
The issue is not just that I love good food; I like the act of eating itself. The simple activity of putting something into my mouth, exploring the textures, allowing my tongue to play with the food, making sure that each mouthful comes into contact with every part of my tongue is a pleasure I take very seriously. Trying ethnic cuisine that I’ve never eaten before is a mini-vacation to a foreign land. Even a dish I’ve had many times in the past, when sampling the version at a different restaurant, is intensely exciting for me. I tolerate cooking only for the anticipation of eating. You may see me standing in line for an hour to try a bowl of ramen that I’ll slurp up in nine minutes. And yes, I will travel over an hour if there’s promise of a culinary delight.
Two years ago, I moved to Tokyo, where an exquisite meal is never more than a block away in any direction and where arguably all television shows are centered around food. If it’s not directly about food, then the show’s producers will find a way to slip in a scene of someone making love to a bowl of noodles, complete with every smack and slurp as though they somehow managed to attach the microphone on the inside of the actor’s mouth.
So what is one to do when surrounded by so much temptation? How can you avoid overeating when the food is so undeniably irresistible? How can you keep an insatiable appetite in check?
I’ve asked myself these questions more and more since I moved to Japan, a country where although food is so tightly entwined with all aspects of life, the people are still generally slim. How do they do it? What do they know that I don’t?
By no means have I recovered, graduated, and been awarded my chip of sobriety for finally getting a handle on overeating. It’s a work in progress. But from observing the changes in my behavior from immersing myself in this new culture, I have identified three simple habits that have helped me control my portion size and minimize overeating.
Use Smaller Plates
If you’ve ever spent a few days in Japan, you’ll have noticed that most things are smaller than in Western cultures. It may be out of necessity as land is scarce, or more likely, it’s on account of the philosophy of moderation that the Japanese tend to adopt. Plates, bowls, cups, and spoons are all smaller here. This simple change of using smaller dinnerware has helped to limit the amount of food I eat. Sure, I can just get myself a second serving — and that’s what I naturally did at first — but over time, I became comfortable with the reduced size. Also, getting up from the table and returning with a second helping effectively announced my eating problem to everyone at the table, which served as a helpful deterrent.
Aside from the plates being smaller in Japan, the food itself is sold in smaller quantities. I love that I can buy a single stalk of celery, a quarter cabbage, or just three slices of bread. The initially disappointing 110 milliliter, kiddy-cup size in which Häagen-Dazs ice cream is sold here may have granted me another five good years of eating. These factors help lower my food intake, and they also reduce waste as I can generally use up all the food before it expires.
Just buy what you need, and as a bonus, you’ll be helping to stop the cycle of overconsumption, an issue plaguing most developed nations. The smaller refrigerators in Japan help in this respect, because as you know, if there’s space, you tend to fill it. You may not be able to buy a single stalk of celery where you are, but perhaps you could find a shopping partner with whom you could split your groceries.
Also, avoid eating straight from the bag, jar, box, or carton. Serve your snacks onto small plates instead.
Over time, using smaller dinnerware has helped me control my portion size, to the point that I have adjusted some of my recipes to yield less. In conjunction with the next two methods that are quicker to implement, smaller plates serve as the tangible and persistent element in the overall strategy to eat less for the long term.
Eat More Slowly
For most of my life, I ate until I was full. I ate until it no longer felt comfortable to eat more. And then minutes after the meal, the sensation of fullness would swell to bloatedness accompanied by lethargy or even reach the point of nausea.
Perhaps it comes from an animal instinct to eat as much as possible when food is available, for the uncertainty of when the next kill would be. Maybe it comes from having a sibling with whom I felt I had to compete for food while growing up. Or perhaps it’s the anxiety of not wanting to feel later the vulnerability of hunger, the fear of not being able to satisfy a primitive need.
Sometimes this desire to eat burns so brightly inside that I barely acknowledge others at the table until I’ve snuffed out the blaze down to the embers with the first few mouthfuls. With an appetite this overwhelming, it’s not easy to pace myself. What I found to be helpful, however, is to spend more time chewing.
Mastication promotes the balancing of hormones to suppress appetite. And it doesn’t detract from the enjoyment of eating. While I spend more time chewing, I can savor each mouthful rather than thinking about spooning in the next one.
Sometimes, I think I must be the worst dinner guest. When I’m hit with the trifecta of hunger, the anticipation of a delectable dish, and finally, the aroma of the food once served — and this happens almost daily — there isn’t a draw as enticing as the seduction by the meal in front of me. There is only me and the food. The sprinter and his finish line. The conductor and her music. My attention is so laser-focused on my dinner that everything else fades into the background. I need to remind myself to snap out of it, put down the fork once in a while, come up for air, and acknowledge my tablemates. Engaging in conversation and chewing more are the two most effective ways for me to avoid the embarrassment of exposing my Cookie Monster alter ego.
Taking more time to ingest gives your stomach more time to digest and allows your brain to catch up on telling your body that it’s getting full. This process takes about 15 to 20 minutes. When I catch myself scarfing down a bucatini all’amatriciana, I remind myself to switch my attention away from my plate and toward chewing and my dear tablemates.
Stop Eating at 80%
腹八分目に医者いらず (hara hachi-bunme ni isha irazu) is Japanese for “80% full keeps the doctor away.”
There’s a point while I’m eating when I feel I could have a bit more, but if I stopped there, I could still carry on with the rest of the day. It’s a state where I’m comfortable, and the craving has subsided, but I don’t yet feel full. I try to look for this point, especially when I’m eating my comfort food, a heaping plate of Japanese curry rice.
Instead of having a sensation of fullness devolve into discomfort and regret, I try to stop eating when I’m 80% full and have my appetite mature to a feeling of satisfied contentment.
Stop eating when you’re 80% full, and let your brain catch up. If you’ve eaten a balanced meal with enough proteins, then in 20 minutes, you’ll feel sufficiently full. To keep you from reaching for dessert, now might be a good time to bring back some distractions you hopefully kept away from the dinner table while eating. For me, when there’s still daylight left after dinner, I like to take a walk around the neighborhood with my family.
So here’s your new 80/20 rule: Stop eating at 80% and wait 20 minutes.
I’ve been overeating for as long as I can remember, and its effects are becoming more apparent as I get older. Although moving to Japan has opened the doors to so much good food, it has been a daily test of my resolve to resist overeating. Fortunately for me, the culture here has mechanisms in place to manage food intake:
- Use smaller plates. Gradually cook less.
- Eat slowly. Focus more on chewing and conversation.
- Follow the 80/20 rule. Stop eating at 80% and wait 20 minutes.
If you’ve been trying to lose weight and have been focusing on what you’re eating but haven’t seen the results you want, try switching your focus to how you’re eating instead. I still have days when I allow myself to indulge and break my own rules, but by following these three habits as best I can, I now eat significantly less than I used to.
People who eat too much too quickly tend to hold their breath while eating. You should see whether you do the same. Proper breathing (through your nose) while eating slows down your eating, but it’s something people often don’t pay attention to.