Overview:
This topic outlines the concept of eating styles which we define as the habitual eating pattern of an individual, The most common unhealthy eating styles include mindless, chaotic, and stress–eating. The strategies that can help promote a healthier eating style include mindful eating, food journaling, meal prep and planning, curating the food environment, and developing consistent eating routines.
Topic Summary:
- Eating style refers to the habitual eating behavior of an individual.
- Common problematic eating styles include mindless eating, chaotic eating, and stress/reward eating.
- For good or bad, eating style typically develops as a consequence of the food environment; populations that are less influenced by large food companies (e.g. Blue Zones) generally have healthier eating styles.
- Learning a new eating style is like learning any new skill—it takes time and practice.
- First step to improving eating behavior involves creating self awareness—mindfulness practices, such as keeping a food journal
- Long term behaviors (e.g., meal prepping and planning) take time to learn, but become easier with consistency.
- Examples of action steps to build new skills/behaviors and healthier habits include: eating a vegetable or fruit with every meal, stopping eating after dinner, or reducing eating out to once per week.
- Other tips covered in the content include keeping things simple, doing tasks immediately, setting reminders, and having a backup plan.
- Changing one’s eating style is challenging. We offer tools, including pharmacologic treatments (e.g. semaglutide) which reduces both nutritional and emotional hunger and makes it easier for patients to change their eating behavior for long enough to form a healthier eating style.
