If you stop to think regarding how your day was yesterday, you can remember a time when you interrupted what you were doing to “nibble” on a little food, be it a piece of chocolate, a cookie, a portion of nuts or even a piece of fruit. . This is a common and routine behavior, but it can indicate a health risk when it becomes repetitive and affects your control over it.
This behavior, called grazing, is still little studied in Brazil and its definition was recently updated. It is the ingestion of small amounts of food in a repetitive and unplanned way, without being a response to the hunger stimulus, with some level of loss of control. It is different from binge eating, which is characterized by the consumption of a large amount of food (such as a whole pizza at once, several snacks, etc.) in a single, non-repeating action.
In general, grazing is associated with the time of day when the person seeks some kind of relaxation or relief in food to compensate for some situation. Identifying this behavior can help prevent other disorders associated with psychological and eating problems, including compulsion.
Psychologist Marília Consolini Teodoro de Paiva, PhD in Psychology, developed a screening tool through a survey carried out at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Ribeirão Preto, in the interior of São Paulo. The study validated this instrument, which is capable of identifying problematic signs of this behavior and indicating the need for referral to a clinical evaluation so that the diagnosis can be made.
According to Teodoro de Paiva, the research was divided into several studies, starting with a review of dietary controls and associated behaviors – obesity is correlated with eating disorders. Afterwards, the group reviewed grazing and how it manifested itself in the general population.
To arrive at the Brazilian data, the psychologist investigated and evaluated the manifestation of this behavior in a sample of 823 people – 542 of them considered normal weight and 281 overweight or obese. Participants received an online questionnaire, which was adapted from an original methodology developed in Portugal and which was validated for the Brazilian population.
In all, according to the researcher, 12 items were evaluated that identify behavior divided into two subscales: repetitive grazing, which is not so harmful because it is associated with a lower level of disordered eating, and compulsive grazing, which fact harms health because it is more associated with lack of control.
emotional regulation
The results showed that compulsive grazing appeared more significantly in the sample of people with obesity. In addition, the results corroborate international studies and confirm that compulsive grazing is more associated with mental disorders, especially anxiety, depression and stress.
Another conclusion of the work is that grazing works as an emotional regulation mechanism – it is practiced in search of relief from other symptoms (such as depression, stress and anxiety), and stress appears as a mediator in the manifestation of this behavior.
“This explains the correlation with symptoms of stress and anxiety, associated with higher levels of weight. We cannot say that stress causes grazing, but it has a high relevance in interfering with this behavior”, says the researcher.
The psychologist points out, however, that the tool does not diagnose grazing, it only signals the problem. “From the result of this questionnaire, depending on the conclusion, the person is referred to a clinical evaluation to understand how this behavior manifests itself in more depth. My work stopped at defining the instrument to carry out this screening for follow-up, but it did not enter into the question of diagnosis”, explained the psychologist.
The fact of ′′ pinching ′′ several times a day does not always configure harmful behavior. “The identification of grazing has more to do with the level of loss of control with that action than with the number of times the person ‘nibbled’ some food. I may have ‘pinched’ five times a day, but with full control. At the same time, I may have done it less often, with loss of control the first time, ”he explains.
This behavior will become a problem the more it is associated with loss of control – hence the importance of having tools to identify it as soon as possible. “Grazing doesn’t even need to be treated as a problem, but a behavior that can become problematic in some cases. If I find myself unable to stop that behavior, it indicates a loss of control – and that would be an ideal time to seek expert help.” (Source: Einstein Agency)
