DIETING--Buddhist "Mindfulness" Help Stop Binge-Eating

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Smart Advice: Scheduling to Stop Binges

How To Prevent Binge Eating

"Prevent future binges by putting yourself on a snack schedule so you never get too hungry. Set an alarm... for 10:30 A.M. and 3 P.M. (or midway between your usual mealtimes) and have a nutritious, filling 100-calorie snack, like ½ cup of lowfat cottage cheese with ¼ cup of grapes, 1/3 cup dried apricot halves or a handful of baked tortilla chips with 1/2 cup salsa... It will help you become more aware of when and why you nosh, so you can become a savvier, healthier snacker." - Lucy Danziger, SELF / Yahoo! Health


How To Stop Binge Eating

People with weight problems could start keeping track of their calorie intake. However that is only one part of the equation. Women could keep themselves busy making more ways to eat healthier by choosing less fatty foods or substituting low-cal fruits to brownies, but most could only do so insouciantly for a while until they realize they have the other problem. - the problem of quantity-eating overtaking quality-eating - in other words - binge-eating.

You can eat a lot (I mean a lot) of veggies and get fat. In fact whatever you eat in excess will earn you more weight, so the real problem with this is the reason behind excessive eating or binge-eating - or emotional eating.

Over at Queensland - Australia (Griffith University), women psychologist Michelle Hanisch and Angela Morgan said that women who indulge in binge-eating are mostly in fact "high-achievers and perfectionist". They are the ones who usually feel "they [do not] measure up to self-imposed standards or [they think they are] not in control of situations, [so] they indulged in secretive eating binges." Ms. Hanisch adds that these women turn to "Binge eating [as] largely a distraction - a temporary escape from events and emotions..." She then suggests that "instead, women need to learn how to react [disappointing events] in a different way." - And their solution: the psychologically effective Buddhist "Mindfulness".

Under the "Mindfulness" teaching program, women learn to "understand and deal with the emotions that trigger their binges... providing [them] freedom from negative thoughts and emotions" hence freedom from - binges. The technique's proponents also explain that "[the participants learn that thoughts and emotions don't have any power over us as they are just passing phenomena and aren't permanent." And like meditation, "[Mindfulness] could help people live more in the moment, develop a healthy acceptance of self and become aware of potentially destructive habitual responses [as binge-eating]."

As proof of the method's effectiveness, Ms. Morgan elated that "women who have been through the program report less dissatisfaction with their bodies, increased self-esteem and improved personal relationships."


Source: "Buddhist Philosophy Helps Women Tackle Eating Disorders." 14 Jan 2007. News-Medical.Net Women's Health News. Retrieved 14 Jan. 2007. http://www.news-medical.net/?id=21402

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