“The rise of vast portions - particularly in fast-food restaurants - means that if we eat only the calories we need, we should often stop at half of something; or even a quarter. And no one - child or adult - seems to like the feeling of the glass- - or plate - half empty.”
Source: First Bite: How We Learn to Eat
“Being able to regulate the amount of food we eat according to our needs is perhaps the single most important skill when it comes to eating, and the one that we leat often master.”
Source: First Bite: How We Learn to Eat
“Very little of the eating that happens in the modern world is as simple as: feel hungry, eat food. The great challenge for most people is learning how to recognise when we have had enough.”
Source: First Bite: How We Learn to Eat
“If food is a fuel, we should feel that the tank is emptiest when the longest time has elapsed since it was filled - usually in the morning.”
Source: First Bite: How We Learn to Eat
“Hunger - this mechanism that we suppose to be so basic - turns out to be one of the more intricate bodily impulses.”
Source: First Bite: How We Learn to Eat
“If you can cancel a child’s hunger during those first three years - from conception to toddlerdom -you create possibilities that stretch decades into the future. If not, the consequences can last for generations.”
Source: First Bite: How We Learn to Eat
“One of the reasons hunger is so hard to pin down is that it is a negative concept, an absence.”
Source: First Bite: How We Learn to Eat
“Hara hachi bu is a Confucian principle, popular in Japan since medieval times, that you should eat until you are only eight-tenths full. This principle has since been given backing by nutrition scientists who note that when we eat there is a time delay between the body receiving the food and the brain registering that we are full. When the urge comes to have a second helping, it’s worth waiting twenty minutes, and the feeling may pass.”
Source: First Bite: How We Learn to Eat
“One of the commonest ways our eating goes wrong is that we consistently choose foods that offer immediate satiation in the belly rather than longer lasting satiety.”
Source: First Bite: How We Learn to Eat
“Soup leaves us full because we believe it will.”
Source: First Bite: How We Learn to Eat