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June 10, 2012

Key to weight loss? Think about it

ISU scientist promotes ‘mindful’ eating

Arthur Foulkes The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — A tragic auto accident caused by icy roads cost Linda, a Terre Haute mother, the most precious thing in her world: a young daughter.

Before the accident, Linda had undergone weight reduction surgery allowing her to lose 100 pounds.

After the accident, the stress and sorrow of the tragedy caused Linda to start eating for “comfort.”

And the weight started coming back.

“It was just a very stressful time,” said Linda, who did not want to give her last name.

Eventually, Linda met Jean Kristeller — and soon after is when Linda’s life began to change.

Kristeller, clinical psychologist and senior research scientist at Indiana State University, researches and teaches what is called mindfulness eating — an approach to food that can help people lose and keep off weight without a radical diet or dramatic changes in the foods they eat.

Kristeller helps clients such as Linda understand how to eat smarter and healthier.

The ISU professor is featured in the second part of a four-part Home Box Office series, “The Weight of the Nation,” a look at the nation’s obesity problem. The HBO documentary featuring Kristeller and Elissa Epel, one of the chief investigators in the study at the University of California in San Francisco, is available online at theweightofthenation.hbo.com.

Being “mindful” about eating, Kristeller said, is simply stopping and deliberately thinking about what you are going to eat and why. It’s checking with your body’s signals, such as feeling hungry or feeling full. It’s also making conscious decisions about what, when and how much to eat.

“A lot of eating patterns are automatic,” Kristeller said in a recent interview at the ISU Psychology Clinic. “We actually make hundreds of decisions a day about eating.”

Mindful eating also focuses on the quality of food over quantity. In American culture, “more is better,” seems to determine our eating habits. Kristeller’s approach would have us put quality first.

Focusing on quantity has helped cause “a massive obesity problem” in the United States, Kristeller said. Mindful eating focuses on appreciating food, savoring it and not just wolfing it down.

In Linda’s case, eating was “automatic,” or a response to the stress of her daughter’s death and the injuries suffered by other members of her family in the crash. The mindful approach to eating helped her recognize what she was doing and then tackle the problem. She has now lost all of the extra weight she gained and is maintaining her current healthy weight.

“I sought out Dr. Kristeller’s program because it was a way to deal with the emotional eating I was dealing with,” Linda said. “I would definitely recommend it.”

Hear your body’s signals

Mindful eating involves listening to your body’s signals.

Often we eat even after we have consumed all the calories our bodies require, Kristeller said. Mindful eating allows us to slow down and recognize when we’ve had all we need. Slowing down and savoring food also allows us to maximize the pleasure we get from food.

“If you love French fries, we don’t tell you to stop eating French fries,” Kristeller said. “Just eat fewer” and enjoy them more.

“You might be surprised that if you really focused on savoring even four or five French fries, rather than gobbling down 20 or 30, you’d enjoy them and realize that this was possibly enough,” she said.

Mindful eating is also about budgeting how many calories you consume, but primarily it is about “creating a healthy relationship with eating and food,” Kristeller said.

The mindful approach to eating spills over into other areas of a person’s life. Attending a group session with Kristeller and then working with her one-on-one has helped Linda make healthy changes elsewhere.

“It’s really improved things across the board,” Linda said. “It’s carried over into other aspects of my life.”

And, unlike traditional forms of dieting, the mindful approach to eating does not force someone to give up favorite foods. Nor does it impose other habits that are so out of the ordinary that any weight loss is likely to be only temporary. Mindful eating involves learning to tune in on natural hunger and fullness cues — knowing when you’ve eaten enough.

“That’s the great thing about the skills [involved in mindful eating],” Linda said. “It’s not something that you lose just because you had a bad moment or bad day.”

Reporter Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.



Learn More

• Anyone interested in participating in the next mindfulness eating group at ISU should contact the psychology clinic at (812) 237-3317.

• Jean Kristeller — clinical psychologist and senior research scientist at Indiana State University — also hosts a free weekly “mindfulness” meditation group in room 220 of Holmstedt Hall at ISU. The weekly group, which is open to anyone, meets from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Mondays.

• She also conducts individual sessions with clients.

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