Savoring food blindfolded may help with weight loss
By Kay Judge and Maxine Barish-Wreden
Comments 
0
Published: January 13, 2009
Still looking for new ways to lose weight? Consider looking at how quickly you eat your meals and how you listen to cues from your stomach.
A recent study of about 3,300 adults in
Japan showed that people who ate their meals quickly were about twice as likely to be overweight, compared with those who savored their food.
People who ate until they felt full also had twice the risk of being overweight.
Why is this important? Sitting down to enjoy a meal has become a rare event; most of us eat on the run and eat food that we consume quickly.
When we do this, we don’t listen to how our bodies are feeling, and we ignore the signals that tell us when we’ve had enough. Hence, we are much more likely to overeat and gain weight.
In fact, there’s a new food craze that seems to have taken hold in
Europe and is spreading to the
United States. It’s eating your dinner with a blindfold on.
Restaurants such as one at the
Sheraton Hotel in
Edinburgh,
Scotland, are offering their guests a five-course meal that is eaten with a blindfold on, for $100.
Blocking out the vision seems to heighten one’s other senses, including our taste buds; diners also take smaller bites, eat more slowly and savor their food more.
And, for a bonus, eating with a blindfold is yet another trick to help you lose weight.
Studies have shown that people who eat with a blindfold on are more likely to pay attention to the satiety cues from their stomach and thus stop eating before they become overly full.
A study done in
Sweden in 2003 showed that adult subjects who ate while wearing a blindfold consumed 24 percent less food than their counterparts who could see what they were eating, and without feeling less full.
We strongly endorse the notion of sitting down when eating, and eating slowly.
The next time you plan a dinner party, try a blindfold at each plate, savor your flavors and see what kind of sensations guests describe. We bet you’ll have some great conversations.
Drs.
Kay Judge and
Maxine Barish-Wreden are medical directors of Sutter’s Downtown Integrative Medicine program in
Sacramento, Calif.
Leave a Comment
Life Photo Galleriesview all
Prev
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
Thank you for joining our conversations on newsok. We encourage your discussions but ask that you stay within the bounds of our terms and conditions. Please help us by reporting comments that violate these guidelines. To review our rules of engagement, go to Commenting and posting policy.
Log in below or sign up (it's free).