There are three subtypes of mindless eating that college students generally face, which include mindless overeating, mindless undereating, and mindless chaotic eating. Each of these types brings unique challenges. It is important for every eater to identify his or her particular type of mindless eating. This will be helpful in knowing what aspects of behavior need the individual's full attention and awareness. It's also possible to have a combination of all three types of mindless eating.
Bingeing can be a part of mindless eating. It's an extreme version of unaware eating. Bingeing involves eating large quantities of food in a very short period of time. It's an amount of food that is larger than most people would eat in a similar amount of time or under similar circumstances. The food is sometimes eaten rapidly, to the point of feeling uncomfortable, and is accompanied by some distress - embarrassment, guilt, or self-disgust.
When people are compulsively eating, they tend not to be present physically or emotionally. They are in an "unaware" state. They may be trapped by guilty thoughts or they are in an emotional void. Eating numbs them out and provides a momentary escape from a painful feeling, experience, or thought.
A binge detaches them from their body and they are barely aware of what they are putting into their mouth. They don't really taste or enjoy the food as they swallow it. A binge is a way of completely zoning out from feelings. So, one of the antidotes to bingeing and mindless eating is to stay "aware" and present while eating.
Sometimes people have what they "perceive" to be a binge versus an actual binge. The person may feel as if he or she overate but in actuality they did not eat more than a typical person would have consumed. Years of dieting and food rules have warped their perception of what a binge is. Almost anything feels out of control. For example, for someone on a low carb diet, eating a few pieces of bread may feel like a mindless binge. Yet, it isn't out of range with what a mindful eater would eat.
Sometimes dieters and people struggling with mindless undereating say they are "overly aware" of what they eat. They stress out about every calorie and sweat about each bite. How can this be mindless eating? Hypervigilance is different from being aware because awareness is a nonjudgmental stance.
It's kind of like the difference between watching someone and stalking them. The hypervigilant dieter is often very attentive to the calories and food but has turned his or her back to other important aspects of hunger, like taste, enjoying food, and feeling full.
Chaotic mindless eating often affects awareness in two ways. The first kind is the type we already discussed with mindless overeating. As one is overeating, the person is not paying attention, ignores or misinterprets their body's innate natural cues about how to eat.
Purging also lowers awareness. The purging that accompanies chaotic eating often functions as a way of reducing the awareness of anxiety. For example, when a person perceives that they have overeaten, they may feel anxious. They may not know how to reduce their worry in healthy ways. They get stuck ruminating about how many calories they just consumed. The purging distracts from the anxiety. Purging is a very unhealthy way of dealing with the emotions.
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12182010
1. Potatoes and pumkins are very healthy foods if prepared properly
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