Grazing (human eating pattern)

Grazing is a human eating pattern characterized as "the repetitive eating of small or modest amounts of food in an unplanned manner throughout a period of time, and not in response to hunger or satiety cues".[1]

Two subtypes of grazing have been suggested: compulsive and non-compulsive. Compulsive grazing is accompanied by the feeling that the person is not able to resist going back to repetitively snack on the desired food. Non‐compulsive grazing is repetitively eating in a distracted and mindless way, without paying much attention to what is eaten.[1][2]

  1. ^ a b Conceição, E., Mitchell, J., Engel, S., Machado, P., Lancaster, K., & Wonderlich, S. (2014). What is “grazing”? Reviewing its definition, frequency, clinical characteristics, and impact on bariatric surgery outcomes, and proposing a standardized definition. Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, 10 (5), pp. 973-982.doi: 10.1016/j.soard.2014.05.025
  2. ^ Conceição, E., Utzinger, L., & Pisetsky, E. (2015). Eating Disorders and Problematic Eating Behaviours Before and After Bariatric Surgery: Characterization, Assessment and Association with Treatment Outcomes. European Eating Disorders Review, 23 (6), 417-425. doi. 10.1002/erv.2397