Emotional and physical health are linked and this is known as the mind-body connection. How you think and feel will filter down to your body.

Two weeks ago, Sowetan Spirit looked at how we can learn to listen to our bodies and eat intuitively rather than emotionally.

Dietitian Kim Hofmann said by practising common sense, we can relearn how to find balance in what and how we eat.

“Our eating behaviours have been greatly affected by diet culture and our busy lifestyles and have further deteriorated during the global pandemic.

“The answer to balanced eating behaviour lies in listening to what our body wants through intuitive eating that focuses on stomach hunger rather than head hunger [or emotional eating],” said Hofmann.

This week, Sowetan Spirit asks Hofmann about the psychology of eating.

Can one train their brain to eat healthily?

You can train yourself to eat healthier, but this involves getting into a better pattern of eating for your body’s physiology, getting your taste buds to get used to different foods, and getting your brain to stop the diet mentality thoughts.

From a brain perspective it is about changing your thoughts regarding food and eating so that you can shift your habits more in line with the health of the body.

How does one do that?

• Get the pattern of eating right – taking the correct portion sizes. This normally involves eating more food during the day and having a smaller plate of food at night;
• Start making more nutritious choices without depriving yourself of foods that you love (smaller portions of the treats rather than not letting yourself have any – if you feel deprived you will overeat, binge and feel out of control);
• Start looking at what your brain is saying about your habits. Are you focusing too much on a number, are you automatically having something to eat when you are stressed or feeling out of control with life? What are your old habits that keep wanting to creep back into your life? This is the part of the journey that is the hardest and the one we need to get right to stop going on yet another “diet” and getting to ultimate health; and
• Don’t rely on willpower for this journey – we may need to tap into it from time to time, but long term it is fickle and not a reliable way to permanently change habits.

How long would it take for the brain to get in tune?

This is a difficult one as food has different meaning for different people. It generally takes a very long time, years for some people when there is a proliferation of diet mentality, eating disorders, and emotional eating.

However, just three days of doing something (or not doing something) can shift the immediate habit for most people, so we use willpower short term from time to time to help bring about bigger change. The body recovers quickly but the brain is a slow-moving processor.

We need to be patient with ourselves and when we hear the illogical food thought coming we need to analyse it and decide whether we should go with it or try something else. We need to learn not to listen to our illogical thoughts (for example, I ate bread, that is why I didn’t lose weight. I must stop eating bread) and bring logical thought to counter it (such as bread is not the culprit in weight gain/loss, where did my habits slip this week?) and correct the real problem.

We also need to let go of weight as a determinant of whether we did well. Your body will let go of weight if it needs to and when it is physiologically healthy.

All of this requires hard work and mindfulness, which in our busy lifestyles can be difficult. A quick-fix of another diet that promises you everything is more appealing to people.

As temperatures drop, are there foods we should avoid?

No, we do not need to avoid any foods. More important is to figure out how to balance the food (is there carb, protein, fat and veg on my plate?) and how much of the food we should have for it to be conducive to our journeys.

Are there any autumn or winter foods with health benefits?

Root vegetables such as potato, sweet potato, butternut, carrots; legumes such as beans, chickpeas, lentils; fruit such as apples, citrus and pears are good. These seasonal foods are all high in energy, nutrition, fibre, and are not very processed, making them perfect foods to incorporate into your meals.

What is healthy eating?

Healthy eating is about feeding your body what it needs (energy and nutrients) when it needs it, as well as eating foods that bring good energy, nutrition, water and fibre to the body.

The thing that people need to remember is that there are many healthy foods that we can choose and many of our everyday foods such as bread, pasta and potatoes are completely healthy and good to incorporate into your eating plan.

Ultimately all foods can be used in our diets as the pattern of eating is almost more important.

Pattern means eating breakfast early (you’re coming off a night’s fast, so the body needs energy when you get up; eating regularly during the day to keep blood sugar stable; eating more during the day (this is when we need the most energy because we are the most active); and eating balanced meals (meals and snacks should always contain carbs, proteins, fats and veg).

When the pattern is correct (you feed your body what it is asking for – yes this does mean that we need to know what our body is saying, so learning hunger and satiety is vital), the body works well and gets back to its healthiest state.

mashabas@sowetan.co.za