![\"\"](\"http:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/How-Much-to-Eat-Sept-2019-300x251.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
How Much Should I Eat?\u00a0<\/strong> In a way, that’s a pretty crazy question.\u00a0 As a species, our #1 job lies in eating to continue our existence.\u00a0 So shouldn’t we have some kind of instinctual knowledge about the best amount<\/i> to eat for our continued survival?\u00a0 Observing the wild animals living in our area, I doubt they’re debating this question.\u00a0 Why does it plague us so perpetually?<\/p>\n I wonder if it only nags us so constantly because we live in a world with so much<\/i> food, so readily available.<\/p>\n Historical Perspective\u00a0<\/strong> For many millennia, food scarcity was the big issue we humans faced:\u00a0 How can I get enough to eat?\u00a0 And how can I store, preserve and protect enough to last for the next few days, weeks and into the next year?<\/p>\n Given this history, maybe it isn’t so crazy that we are now baffled by how much to eat.\u00a0 In a world of food scarcity, you ate what you could lay your hands on.\u00a0 But now we can lay our hands on endless mountains of food–and never worry about tomorrow.\u00a0 And our waistlines are showing the fruits of our fortunate abundance!<\/p>\n A Turning Point\u00a0<\/strong> So maybe we are indeed at a turning point in history.\u00a0 Since we have conquered the food scarcity problem, we need to develop new skills and habits of mind to healthfully survive in a world of unlimited food availability.\u00a0 Specifically, we need to give conscious thought to how much food we should eat since there are no longer any natural boundaries to keep us in check.<\/p>\n I recently listened to a Coffee with Dawni<\/a> podcast.\u00a0 Dawni was interviewing nutritionist Gregory Ashby<\/a> who had some helpful guidance on this point (min 8:37):<\/p>\n “Eat for your energy, not for fullness.”<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Buried in that simple statement is some serious wisdom.\u00a0 Haven’t we always eaten to get full and feel full–even stuffed and super satiated?\u00a0 What if, in our modern, sedentary, food-saturated world, it’s time to re-define the point of eating.\u00a0 Of course we still want to enjoy our food, but what if we must now focus on how much is required <\/em>to have the energy we need, rather than how much can we stuff in<\/em>?<\/p>\n Ashby suggests that eating to be 80% full is a good target.\u00a0 Going beyond that and eating until you’re stuffed “can leave you feeling groggy, tired and un-energetic.”<\/p>\n So cogitate on just this much and in the next newsletter I’ll share more about how quantity control is my Achilles heel—and some of the tips and tactics that can help if you’re struggling in this area, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How Much Should I Eat?\u00a0 In a way, that’s a pretty crazy question.\u00a0 As a species, our #1 job lies in eating to continue our existence.\u00a0 So shouldn’t we have some kind of instinctual knowledge about the best amount to eat for our continued survival?\u00a0 Observing the wild animals living in our area, I doubt … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,25,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-what-is-healthy-eating","category-the-simple-prescription-for-good-eating","category-uncategorized","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3929"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3931,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3929\/revisions\/3931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}