Hara Hachi Bu
腹八分目
I aspire to eat slowly. I know there are numerous health and social advantages. Admittedly, I have not yet mastered this noble practice. In this article, I will highlight the benefits of Hara Hachi Bu and hopeful inspire and motivate myself and my readers to strive towards this healthy habit.
Hara Hachi Bu is the Japanese practice of mindful eating.
This Japanese phrase from the Blue Zone community of Okinawa refers to the intentional practice of eating until you are 80% full. Scientific evidence indicates this form of intentional calorie restriction may result in increased life expectancy.
Hara Hachi Bu is one of the Power 9, the nine principal traits in common among each of the Blue Zones communities. These identified populations have the highest percentage of centenarians in the world.
Mindful, Intentional Eating
Mindful eating is a form of mindfulness practice. Mindful eating can include eating with greater awareness and using all your senses. Starting from the very beginning, even when you are planning your meal, express gratitude for your access to food and even the high quality of the food you have access to. Think about where your food is sourced from and every step it took from creating the food to arriving on your plate. Be grateful to everyone that contributed to this process, and all the land, facilities and materials involved in its production. As you are preparing your food, consider the blessing in having the resource to clean your food, and the time to prepare it in the manner you choose. In many cultures and religions, blessings are said before a meal. What a wonderful opportunity to pause and ground oneself in appreciation.
On her site eatingmindfully.com, Susan Albers PhD explains that pausing at what you perceive is 80% full gives your stomach and mind time to catch up with each other. Dr. Albers recommends mindful eating practices that include eating with your non-dominant hand, sitting down while eating, and smiling when taking breaks in between bites.
I think it’s important to addd the dimension of “intentional” into our eating practice. After all, once we are independent, no one forces us to eat. We decide when, what, where and with whom we eat. Ponder that. We decide what type of food to buy and what food to prepare. We choose from menus on restaurants.
We regularly visit our local farmers market. We value choosing organic, locally grown foods that are fresh and healthy. We want to support local growers.
When selecting a restaurant, I preview the menu. I often contact them to ask what are the best (vegan) menu items to order.
Mise En Place
Mise En Place is the practice of having all of your ingredients for a recipe ready and measured out in front of you before you begin cooking. It ensures that you are ready and prepared, and helps you avoid multi-tasking. You are better able to focus on each step of the recipe when you know that you have everything in front of you and ready to use.
Plating your food
We have three different size plates. One strategy for Hara Hachi Bu is to keep your food in the center (not rim) of the large plate, or to use the smaller plate (sometimes known as the salad plate). The “Delboeuf effect” uses an optical illusion to trick your brain into thinking you have more food on a small plate than you do on a larger plate.
Using decorative dish ware and dining accessories, as well as artistically arranging your food on the plate enhances your visual enjoyment of the meal. We may do this when entertaining, but why not do it for ourselves so we can enhance our dining experience!
Strategies for practicing Hara Hachi Bu
- Choose smaller-sized plates and bowls
- Plate your food with an appropriate amount – don’t over-portion.
- When drinking wine, use smaller wine glasses and pour a smaller portion of wine (5 ounces or less)
- When you sit down to eat your food, pause and express gratitude
- Look at your food and notice the different ingredients, colors, shapes
- Pay attention to the smell of your food
- If you are eating with others, look up at them and smile
- Place an appropriate amount of food on your fork
- Place your fork down after you’ve put the food in your mouth
- Chew your food completely, paying attention to the tastes and the textures
- After you finish swallowing your food, take a full breath before you pick up your fork again
- Enjoy conversation in between taking bites of food
- When you’ve finished half of the food on your plate, take a break. Before you start eating a again, ask yourself how full you are.
- Don’t take seconds
- When you’ve eaten 80% of the food on your plate, stop eating and enjoying being present at the table
- Be willing to leave the remaining 20%
- Notice how you feel
Barriers to Hara Hachi Bu
- Mindless eating–if you are not bringing present-moment awareness to your eating experience (not just what food you are eating, but really the totality of your experience), you may not realize what you’ve eaten and/or how much you’ve eaten
- Multi-tasking
- “Family-style” eating” – putting food on the table vs. plating your meal and not taking. seconds.
- Alcohol consumption
- Not wanting to waste food
- Eating multiple “courses”, “meals” and/or “snacks” throughout the day. To truly and authentically practice HHB, you need to plate your meal so you can see all of what you are eating and then choose the 80% from there. If you keep taking multiple servings at a meal or during a party, there really is little chance that you can quantify the total of what you ate.
- Buffet-style meals
Why and when this concept is hard for me
- When I eat fast
- When I’m tired
- When the person/people I am eating with eat fast
- When I don’t want to waste food
- At restaurants
- At parties
- As a guest at someone’s house
- If I drink more than one glass of wine
I am NOT going to practice Hara Hachi Bu when…
I eat at a restaurant like Eleven Madison Park, where the meal itself is a profound experience and the cost is so high you don’t want to leave a morsel or drop!
How Prolon helps with Hara Hachi Bu
Part of my regular health practice is to use the Prolon Fasting-Mimicking nutrition intervention. For five days, I eat just what is “in the box”. The specially-formulated combination of food gives your body “just enough” to make it think that you are fasting, which has numerous health and longevity benefits without the risk of significant muscle loss. Prolon stimulates a metabolic reset and cellular rejuvenation in your body. It is also an opportunity for resetting habits and focusing on behavior change.
During the 5 days Prolon, I eat much less than I normally do. I take the opportunity to slow down and practice mindful eating. I notice my sense of hunger and get curious about it. Does it pass after a short while? Can I distract myself? What helps? Drinking water or herbal tea? I pay attention to my satiation and feeling of fullness, visualizing the gauge indicator on a gas tank. I find that after my five days of Prolon, I eat less…at least for a while.
One of my take-aways after doing Prolon is that I am ok with feeling hungry for a while. In fact, I can function quite optimally much of the time (with the exception of exercise—strenuous exercise is to be avoided on Prolon).
What changes do you want to make with your eating? Please share with me or in the comments. Bon Appetit!
