Taste vs. Stomach Cues

Every so often I reread "Appetite Awareness Workbook" by Linda Craighead. I suspect that book, more than any other, helped me stop bingeing and purging, but also learn to prefer feeling comfortably full rather than stuffed when I stop eating. I previously had read in 'Weigh Down Workshop' and 'ThinWithin' that the flavor of food diminishes as we become satisfied. So the authors of those 2 books suggest that diminished taste is a good signal to tell us stop eating. However Linda Craighead says:

"Taste, or rather anticipated taste, is not a good signal to use when deciding when to eat ... Taste is also not a good signal to decide when to stop eating. Most foods still taste good at the moderate fullness point. If you rely on the taste as your signal to stop, you will eat until the food no longer tastes good, or until the food is gone ... Since taste is a very powerful and natural signal, it is better to respect that signal and work with it rather than try to trick it ... Use taste as one of the signals you use to decide what type of food you are going to eat; doing so protects you from developing feelings of deprivation ... Balance the power of the anticipated taste with accurate predictions about how that food is going to make you feel once it gets past your mouth."

Linda Craighead also explains why relying on stomach cues, rather than taste, to decide when to start eating and when to stop eating, prevents inner struggles and/or feelings of deprivation. She says:

"When you listen more to your stomach and less to your mouth, you will find it easier to stop after moderate amounts of food. Your mouth is focused on taste, so you may end up feeling deprived is you don't eat as much as you want. Your stomach signal is based on fullness, not taste. Your stomach signal is the secret to eating less without feeling too deprived. You don't debate the issue or try to justify eating more. By using stomach signals, you take the decision to stop eaitng out of the psychological realm. If you focus on getting psychologically satisfied, anything less feels negative. When your goal is just to get food, you can feel good about stopping at moderate fullness."

Relying on stomach cues vs. taste or psychological 'satisfaction' simplifies for me the entire eating decision process. If I don't feel satisfied when I feel comfortably full, I can choose another food the next time I feel hungry and eat. If I enjoy how a food tastes, but feel comfortably full while I'm still enjoying that taste, I can always have that food the next time I feel hungry.