What is willful overeating?
It is that rotten six year old in us coming out. FU, I am just going to sit here and eat this cherry pie all by my self. Bugger off and leave me alone.
The first time I saw this outside of my self was in a young lady, maybe 20. "I am not gonna move until this jug of wine is gone". I did not know what to make of that. I was about the same age. But that is the same thing that I feel occasionally, but with food. It starts with a bit of sugar, and a bit of boredom, indecision, depression and the available food. It is not a logical event, it just happens. The insulin goes up, and eating occurs. It always involves a sugar, the only thing that can be absorbed at 20 calories per minute, 1200 calories per hour. A couple of hours, we are ready to eat again. The sugar runs out, we get a insulin high, which drives craving for more. The cycle has begun. We get away with this behavior a few time, maybe quite a bit; it become a way of eating; binge and fast. There may be a bit of starches and fats involved in this, but it is the fructose that drive the sweetness and the desire for more. The desire is a strong primal desire, and we must resist it with a weak conscious impulse not to eat. When the food is present, our weight loss plan loses.
The ability of we humans to put away fructose, sugar mix is likely a genetic adaption from the time when fruit occurred in the fall, and was in excess for a short period of time. This fattened us up for winter when food was less available. Now we have excess of fruit and it's processed counterparts 365 days each year. There is no seasonal availability.
We must be taught at a young age to moderate the intake else we will end up with an obese population. Weight, (pun) we have an obese population. This by it's self is not enough, it is just one factor in the process. We must learn to eat regular small meals, not binge and fast life style, or one large meal each day.
Genetically, we are programed to overeat on fruits; sugar rich products are a modern extension of the fruits. A bit of fruit occasionally is not a big item, but the marketing of fruit, and processed sugar eatable products is just too much.
Perhaps we need to become militant against the purveyors of sugar and related products, there marketing, and agents. They are not the cause, but they are necessary for the problem to exist. For some people, sugar is sufficient to cause the problem, and many people think it tastes divine. That is not a concept that I can support. It is poison. With the ongoing temptation, it become torture for those of us who have sugar addiction like or similar problems. We want, that is the problem. The want is stronger than our resistance.
GREAT post. You are a wise man. :)
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed. Self-watching becomes exhausting, and sometimes my decision-making process get short-circuited by my 6-year-old brat shouting "I don't care!"
ReplyDeleteFortunately, I live alone, so I can choose to simply not have problematic foods in my house. My 6-year-old brat is too lazy (and too short-lived) to get dressed and walk to the store to get what it wants.
I, too, suspect sweetness is a major issue, but I wouldn't limit it to fructose or sugar. Artificial sweeteners definitely wet my appetite too. And each time, I somehow convice myself that artificial sweeteners cannot hurt, as they contain no carb nor calorie. I guess I should just not bring them in my house, right? Yet for some reason, that decision is proving very difficult to make.
Yes Valerie, desire arise from three different part of the mind, a primal body interface (cravings, hunger), the unconscious mind (cravings, desires, temptations) and the conscious rational part. The rational is the weakest desire strength, and the primal part is the most insistent. So when the primal has a craving, it does not go away. How long can the parent rational being resist?
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