Bayside Dietetics
By Sarah Smith from Bayside Dietetics
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I spotted him early. Just as he left the storeroom and the wide doors were closing behind him. He was wheeling a pallet of what we were considering solid gold at that point…toilet paper. I hadn’t run out at home but yeah, we were close… thinning rolls in action on our holders with no reinforcements at the ready. So my anxiety was running high and I followed the storeman as he made his way through the store and unloaded the precious cargo.
I think we are now reflecting by laughing at our collective toilet paper scenario when social distancing became a reality but isn’t it funny that just the thought of not enough toilet paper had many of us running out to buy more than we needed. Same with rice and pasta.
A “just in case” policy to relieve our anxiety.
Now let’s play that analogy out with food. Can you think of a time that you’ve overeaten for fear that there won’t be enough food available later? I remember doing exactly that when I travelled through Thailand as a family when I was younger. We were a family who embraced the “culture” and stayed at local hostels or guest houses. So you can imagine the delight of my siblings and I when we scored 2 nights at a five star hotel in Bangkok. The hotel was so fancy that we got a buffet breakfast every morning. I still remember Dad letting us kids know that we needed to load up at the buffet as we wouldn’t be eating again until dinner. A whole day without food! Oh the pain we then went through to shove food into us at the buffet. We ate a lightning speed so that we wouldn’t notice our bellies expand along the way. The drain of energy after breakfast was incredible. But it worked. We felt sick for so long that no-one wanted lunch.
I suspect I’m not the only one with this kind of story. Few of us would be planning to skip lunch on a daily basis, but you will get the same effect if you plan to restrict lunch in any way.
“Just a small lunch” or “Salad for me today”.
The very concept of not getting enough to eat will drive you to overeat in preparation (or afterwards but that is for another day).
Let’s flip this to your children. Every time you tell them to stop eating because you think they’ve had enough, you are potentially actually teaching them to overeat. Next time they come to a meal, they are ready to be told to stop, which they will interpret as restriction. In preparation for this, they may overeat at another opportunity “just to be safe”.
Their version of the Just in Case policy to relieve anxiety.
So what you intended as a caring and supportive message for your child may actually be setting up a habit of overeating. If you regularly asking your child to stop eating consider this: Are you observing signs of them starting to overeat? Do they seem to be eating faster and larger portions?
If this message is hitting a spot for you, it means you are actively making a big effort to look after your children and that is always a wonderful thing. But let me direct your efforts in a way that will help you avoid unintended consequences. Provide your children with nourishing food choices. Put your effort into buying the foods you want them to eat and making those foods enjoyable. Then let them do the job of deciding how much to eat.
Bon appetite.
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