Column Chronicles: Grazing becomes the rage in the UK

Grazing becomes the rage in the UK

Frank Cotolo
November 13, 2014

Obese people have been dealing with eating too much by using an old method for weight loss - eating less. When that doesn't work, according to a new study, they take up grazing.

Eating several small meals a day appeals to people with eating disorders more than eating fewer meals, the study revealed. Doctors, especially slim ones, say that either will work as long as calories are reduced.

"We studied women who ate five meals a day," said one researcher, "with women eating three meals a day and it really mattered what was in those meals, not how many meals were eaten. That may seem simple minded but most of the people working on this survey in the beginning weren't high school graduates. Once we staffed the researchers with college graduates, we were able to continue at a more educated level."

That is when the study began to show that if you ate a thousand calories in one meal you would be better off to spread those calories out over a few meals. This is called grazing.

The study used women of normal weight and women approaching the weight of a Ford Cavalier. The lean women were age 56 and the obese women were 29.

"The lean women were more conscious of their size," said Pima Putara, a doctor involved in the study that was sponsored by a United Kingdom university in Manchester. "However, the older, slimmer women were also fans of The Dave Clark Five, a popular musical group when these women were in their teens. The women, raised in Manchester, said they began to graze when they became Dave Clark Five fans and attribute that to staying slim."

Researchers noted that the obese women in the study had never heard of The Dave Clark Five.

"That was a significant difference," said Putara, who is thinking about changing his name to Putora.

Grazing is becoming a trend since the release of the study. It is becoming so popular that grazing-oriented restaurants are popping up in many UK cities near Manchester.

"There is one in Leeds," said a woman citizen of Manchester that has always loved grazing, "but that one won't be pumping Dave Clark Five music into the eatery. All the Manchester grazing eateries will be playing the songs that made our youth exciting and healthy."

The study has come to the attention of the surviving members of The Dave Clark Five and some of the grazing eateries have approached them to endorse the establishments by coming into them and autographing celery stalks.

Frank Cotolo can be found hosting the talk and interview programme Cotolo Chronicles. You can send him an e-mail at this address: frank@148.ca.