Do you know what grazing is? And how can this habit harm your health?

Grazing (grazing, in free translation from English) is the name also given to this act of consuming food throughout the day, the famous “pinching”.

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The term is still little studied in Brazil and its definition was recently updated: it is nothing more than the ingestion of small amounts of food in a repetitive and unplanned way, without being a response to the stimulus of hunger.

It is also characterized by the loss of control over what is consumed, but it is different from bingeing (which has more to do with consuming a large amount of food at once).

“I always look for something sweet at these times, it could be candy, candy, gum...it brings that feeling of momentary relief”, says biomedical doctor Silvia Pompeu. Like the majority of the population – who isolated themselves at the height of Covid-19 – she also noticed that this habit of “pinching” became more intense.

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“To this day, every time I get really stressed, I stop everything and look for something sweet to eat. It’s usually chocolate, because it makes me feel better, even if for a short time”, says Silvia.

In general, grazing It is associated with the time of day when we look for some “pleasure”, relaxation or relief in food, to compensate for some situation. Who never? 🤫

Identifying this behavior can help prevent…

…other disorders associated with psychological and eating problems, including binge eating.

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Psychologist Marília Consolini Teodoro de Paiva, PhD in psychology, developed a screening tool through research 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 for a clinical evaluation to make the diagnosis.

How did the research work?

The study was divided into several studies, starting with a review of dietary controls and associated behaviors – obesity is correlated with eating disorders.

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Afterwards, the group reviewed the grazing and how it manifested itself in the general population.

To obtain Brazilian data, the psychologist investigated and evaluated the manifestation of this behavior in a sample of 823 people – 542 of whom were considered normal weight and 281 were overweight or obese.

Participants received a questiononline journal, which was adapted from an original methodology developed in Portugal and which was validated for the population of Brazil.

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12 items were evaluated that identify behavior divided into two subscales:

o grazing repetitive (which is not as harmful because it is associated with the lowest level of disordered eating)
o grazing compulsive, which actually harms health because it is more associated with lack of control.

Who has never stopped work in the middle of the afternoon to eat a treat and relieve stress? But be careful: a bad habit can be harmful to your health. Image: Unsplash

Emotional regulation

The results show that the grazing works as an emotional regulation mechanism – it is practiced in search of relief from other symptoms (such as depression, stress and anxiety), with stress appearing as a mediator in the manifestation of this behavior.

“This explains the correlation with symptoms of stress and anxiety, associated with higher weight levels. We cannot say that stress causes grazing, but it has high relevance in interfering with this behavior”, says the researcher.

The study also shows that the grazing compulsive appeared more significantly in the sample of people with obesity.

Furthermore, the results corroborate international studies and confirm that the grazing compulsive is more associated with mental disorders, especially anxiety, depression, and stress.

The psychologist emphasizes, however, that the tool does not diagnose the grazing, it just signals the problem.

“Based on the results of this questionDepending on the conclusion, the person is referred for 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 go into the issue of diagnosis”, he explained.

Eating multiple times is not always harmful behavior

“The identification of the grazing It has more to do with the level of loss of control with that action than with the number of times the person 'picked' some food. I may have 'nipped' five times a day, but with total control. At the same time, I may have done this fewer times, with a loss of control from the first time”, explains Marília.

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.