Savor Your Way to Health: The Pleasure Hypothesis

By: Jean Johnson for Body1

This morning I actually sat down at the breakfast table and tasted my cereal. The coffee was fresh roasted here in Portland where we take our java very seriously. The almost iridescent black brew went magnificently with the clover honey I swirled over the fresh raspberries, yogurt the color of ivory, and meaty thick-pressed oats. This experience was quite a switch from my usual routine of eating whatever I’ve thrown together on the fly. I got full before I finished what my eyes had dished up. I took the time to savor, and my stomach let me know when enough was enough. There were leftovers for the fridge, and the only thing the savoring cost me was time.

Take Action

Six Steps To Savoring: Hunger spices the appetite, so shun the snacks. Make a commitment to eat only when seated at the table. While eating, turn the TV off and save the newspaper for later. Take small bites and time yourself. Notice when you are getting full and stop. You do not have to clean your plate – leftovers are a good thing. Take the trouble to eat food you really enjoy. Pay attention to the taste, texture, and aromas. Especially at dinner, raise a glass in appreciation of life’s bounty. Enjoy!

Much as I try to distance myself from the mainstream hubbub, I’m an American through and through. Thus, I am forever short on time. Still, I keep coming back to the idea of savoring the pleasures of the table. I know if I make this admirable behavior a habit, I’ll be a lot happier – and probably leaner too.

Habits, Not Diets

James Ferguson, M.D. focused his attention on sitting down and slowing down over 25 years ago when he was a young physician at Stanford University. His book, Habits Not Diets: The Secret to Lifetime Weight Control has the distinction of having been in print since that time and is currently in its fourth edition.

Ferguson uses diary pages, charts, and maps to help his readers analyze their eating patterns. His hypothesis is that we can learn new habits that will promote well-being and help normalize our weights. In particular, he draws attention to “minutes spent eating, activity while eating, and location of eating.” He also asks readers to journal how hungry they are on a scale of 0 to 4, along with their body position (walking, standing, sitting, lying down).

“Thinking of eating behaviors as learned is an optimistic way to look at the problem of being overweight,” Ferguson writes. “If you have excess pounds because of learned habits, then the solution seems obvious – you have to learn a new set of behaviors to replace the old ones.

“You have to eat in a new way. It may be necessary to pursue this re-training to the point of actually learning a new way of putting food in your mouth,” he continues, referring to his section on limiting fork loads and learning to take smaller bites. “As you establish new eating habits, the old patterns will fade away.”

The French Way of Thinking

Ferguson’s approach is not revolutionary to the average French person, according to nutritional sociologist Claude Fischler. “In France, we eat in a socially controlled and regulated way, but it’s pleasant,” he said in an interview with Salon.com. In the early 1990s, news broke that despite eating all manner of rich foods, the French have less heart disease and are thinner than Americans.

It’s not what they eat, Fischler says, but that the French practice exemplary manners when it comes to the table. They take care to be on time and they skip the snacking. Once seated, they take their time and savor food that tends to be balanced and nutritious.

Paul Rozin, Ph.D., psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, collaborated with Fischler on a cross cultural study that illuminated differences in French and American perspectives on food. “The French are more inclined to think of food as something you eat and experience,” Rozin told Salon.com. “The Americans are thinking about some sort of chemicals that are getting into your body.”

Harvard nutritional epidemiologist Eric Rimm, Ph.D. offered his observations: “There is something to eating patterns that makes a difference to overall health. It can’t just be the total calories you get at the end of the day. In France they eat with large families and social networks, which may be important to peace of mind, which has been linked to less coronary disease. Maybe there are psychological effects to the way they eat in France, too.”

Erin Toland of San Francisco agrees that savoring food is important: “I used to be a food bolter and even now, years after the fact, can gobble stuff down before I know it if I’m not paying attention,” Toland said. “Making the switch wasn’t easy, but it was so worth it. My weight is down, and I have a whole different attitude toward food and eating that has added so much pleasure to my life.”

Toland explains that at first she had to be pretty militaristic about things. “I would set a timer so I’d know if it took me two minutes to eat breakfast or if I was actually doing it and taking longer. Also I kept a record so that I could see my progress – just a little book where I tracked how I did.

“I think that’s the key to figuring out the time factor. It’s all in how big of a bite you take and if – and here’s the clincher – if you chew it up and swallow it before you put another bite in your mouth.”

Toland’s system was to keep a nickel on the table at her place so that she’d remember to limit her fork load to the size of the coin. Her other technique was to put her fork – or chopsticks that she also uses – down after every bite. “I really didn’t like doing it because it felt so contrived. But it worked, and still does. Now, I’ve gotten so I love it. Having those pauses gives me time to really appreciate my food. Also, I don’t have that awful problem of eating so fast that I wind up stuffed before I realize what I did. I have a new life today because of the work I was willing to do. If I can do it, anybody can.”

Last updated: 28-Nov-06