Our Relationship with Food

Sometime between the late 60's and now, our view of food seems to have gone from seeing it as a simple necessity and source of enjoyment, to a mindless acceptance of the large volumes of food and never ending snacks that are easily and cheaply available to us. We have lost the ability to understand how little food we really need to meet the demands of our increasingly sedentary lives.

The problem is how we self-regulate when someone else determines the portion size. This is very evident in restaurants, however even in our home environment we are often served volumes of food that aren't needed.

Along with this, is the fact we eat to point of fullness and not just to satisfaction. I heard an interesting fact as I reviewed a lecture on food addiction. The signal for satiety for a thin person takes 10 minutes to hit the brain, whereas it may take up to 25 minutes for an overweight person to receive that satiety signal - in the meantime, way too much food has been consumed.

Asking people to simply use will power to control both types and volumes of food is difficult, because the dopamine (pleasure brain neuro peptide) centre truly 'wants' that food, and we know food is addictive. However, there are simple things we can try, and likely the best one is to eat off a smaller plate. This is especially important at supper. At the end of the day we are emotionally depleted and it is incredibly easy to sit and finish everything off a larger plate and then follow that with some sort of dessert. Possibly even more important is to slow down our eating to allow the satiety signal to hit. One has to be very mindful of the speed at which we eat and make a conscious effort to slow down. This may mean putting down the fork and spoon between each bite. (I've occasionally asked people to eat with chopsticks to force them to slow down).

The conscious effort to decrease volumes begins well before the meal. Before you go into the restaurant, you must be firm in your mind how much (how little?) you are going to eat. Just because the plate you receive is full, does not mean you have to eat it all. Try leaving some on the plate! Just because you 'paid' for it, doesn't mean you have to consume it all, because it certainly isn't making you healthier and likely will sabotage your weight loss efforts.

People struggle because they are fighting an area of the brain that dictates pleasure (addictive) responses to food...overcoming this is not easy. People who are addicted to alcohol and are now trying to totally stop this drug are told to carry sugary foods, and if the desire for alcohol becomes severe, they are told to have sugar! Same area of the brain, same addictive property whether food, alcohol, cocaine, etc.

Thus...no guilt! Please, never have guilt about food. It is all about developing habits and tricks to help you resist both the types of food we need to avoid (sugars and starches), and the volumes. We don't need a 12 inch sub ever. 6 inches is more than enough.

Just never give up trying to change your habits. It can and will happen. Don't get discouraged and never ever give up trying to change.

Dr. Doug