My body is fine: it's my mind that has an eating problem

Glinda

I have always thought that diets are a very physical way of tackling what is really a psychological problem: your mind is overruling your body and forcing it to eat for reasons other than hunger or nutritional need, sometimes to the point of eating until you actually feel physically ill.

It's a very strange situation, and yet very common, most of us do it to some degree. Meanwhile your body is desperately trying to cope with the after effects of over (or under) eating and keep you alive.

Eating well is actually a treat, you are being kind to yourself, but again your mind sees it as deprivation and instead sees all kinds of crap as a 'treat'. Crap which has nothing to offer you other than ill-health, bad skin a lumpy body and an early death. So why do we do it?

Is the answer to retrain ourselves to listen to our body about what we eat, and stop overruling it with our head? If it is, then all of the popular 'diet' programmes are on a hiding to nothing, as they are only increasing the overruling of the body by the mind. If we could get back in touch with the signals from our body as to when we are satisfied, or when we need to eat a steak versus a bowl of cereal or a piece of fruit etc. would we be healthier?

I know this is a bit naive in a world where food is processed and added to with the specific intention of confusing our natural appetite so we eat more of it than we naturally would, but maybe it's possible to avoid these types of food and get back in touch with real food and our real appetite.

What do you think?

seamus

Glinda wrote: »

What do you think?

I would say you're correct for the most part. We're somewhat bombarded with foods that are designed to stimulate chemical and hormonal outputs in our body, which in turn affect our brains and make us feel good about eating them, which causes us to eat more of them.

This can be especially true in times of stress as certain foods will stimulate endocrine outputs into the bloodstream which reduce stress levels. The same thing pretty much, that cigarettes do, which is why there's such a link between giving up smoking and gaining weight.

If you learn to control your stress by eating, then that's what you'll do.

I believe that there's an addiction component to it also. I know from personal experience, that eating high fat and high sugar foods makes you want more. Again, this is probably down to the chemical effects these foods have on you. The less you eat these foods, the less you will crave them.

I agree that dieting is, for the most part, a "mind over matter" issue and so long as you can recognise that any cravings are psychological rather than a physical issue, it can be easier to overcome them.

I don't believe that "listening to your body" is an easy thing to do, because aside from pain we have very little connection to what our body needs. We don't know that we're lacking in vitamin C until our gums start bleeding. My body doesn't tell me that it would prefer a banana over piece of chocolate. The key is overruling the subconscious desires with the conscious. Most poor eating is done without thinking.

That said however, consistent overeating causes expansion of the stomach. Meaning that the person requires more food to feel full than the average. So while said person may have consumed a complete meal, enough for anyone, they may still feel physically hungry. This is something a double-whammy for any very overweight person trying to lose weight because the first month of any diet is a combination of almost constant physical hunger and psychological desire.

The physical issue is naturally fleeting and the stomach will contract over time, but the psychogical component must be worked on for long-term success.

This is the reason why gastric band surgery works in the short-term (by reducing ones ability to eat) but fails in the long-term (because it doesn't affect the desire to eat.