A Note On Taste, Hunger and Overeating

Do you overeat? 

I think most of us have, if not do frequently. We dive head first into a pile of goodies and keep stuffing them in until we, ourselves, are stuffed. It's not that we don't know what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to eat in moderation, paying special attention to healthy foods, eating the sweets and snacks only sparingly. So why is it so hard to play by those rules? 

It starts with our taste buds and the push for survival. 

Way back when our ancestors were off foraging for their food our taste buds, and the rewards system they trigger, played a large role in helping find food. Sweet foods meant we had found something safe to eat as biter foods are more likely to be poisonous, fatty foods equate to a dense form of calories and salty foods are a way of conserving fluids in our body. When we take a bite into something that has one-or more- of those taste profiles our body releases dopamine to keep us eating that food, both in the current nosh fest and so we know it's something we should eat more of in the future.

If we ate only natural, so called 'clean', foods this would not cause a problem. But we don't.

Our modern diets are filled with foods that are bulked up with these sweet, salty and fatty profiles. Meaning mainly, that food companies have found a way to basically get you addicted to their foods.

You take a bite of a cookie. The over sweetened taste, that isn't duplicated naturally in fruits and other natural foods, immediately starts a reaction in your body. Your brain releases chemicals to make you want to keep eating this new find, essentially getting you addicted so you will keep wanting to eat this food because on the basic chemical level, sweet equates to a safe and easy form of energy. So you finish your cookie, or seven, and you tell yourself that it's alright to indulge, that you will just make sure you get back to eating healthy the next time you pick up a fork. 

But later you see a commercial for cookies, or you smell something similar, or maybe even just find yourself in the same mood as you were when you ate the cookie and suddenly, you find yourself faced with an irresistible craving. Your brain is sending you signals that say 'that food was good for us! It was easy, safe energy! We need more! You hold out, knowing that stuffing full of cookies twice in a row is not a good idea. But the more you resist, the more you start to think about the taste, the smell, the texture and the more you crave it. Next thing you know, you've downed another box of cookies.  

To make matters worse, let's throw in hunger signals. 

 Our bodies have more chemicals and hormones that let us know we are done eating. True satiety comes from chemicals released deep in our gut when it has digested enough nutrients that it decides we don't need to continue eating for now. Unfortunately, it can take hours for this to happen. In order to let us know it's okay to stop eating before we explode, our body uses satiation. Satiation is a process that uses signals from your conscious self , like recognition that the bag of M&M's in front of you is over 500 calories worth and you probably should eat that all, the nutrients you are getting, the texture, taste and smell of the food and more chemicals in your brain to tell you it's time to stop. It's the perception of being full.

Those cookies you ate have little nutrition. They are sugar and processed fats. While you are eating them your body keeps wanting more because it's waiting for some sort of nutrient to send out the signal that it's going to be a meal worth digesting. Protein and healthy fat are the two big ones that send out that signal. Unfortunately, modern foods are lacking in nutrition so we sit down with the intention to eat just a little bit and end up eating an entire package because our bodies are still just waiting on nutrition.

The signal to stop eating? You're stomach is so full that if you keep eating you will be sick. 

When you eat something healthy, say a salad with grilled salmon, the tastes are less pronounced and our bodies react naturally to the salty flavors and the fattiness in the fish, and even sweet if you threw in some sort of fruit or something like a bell pepper. So it turns on the dopamine to keep you eating, but because it's not over sweet, salty or fatty your body doesn't go into over drive and get you addicted in the ways it does when you eat doped up modern foods. 

As you continue to eat your salad, your body starts to break down the protein and healthy fat and recognizes that your food has nutritional value that is going to benefit your body. So it starts to send out signals so that you slow down eating and your meal starts to lose some of it's appeal. It doesn't start tasting gross, just....boring. As you slow down eating your salad, your stomach has time to send more signals out that you are, in fact, satiated. So you stop eating and walk away feeling satisfied, not stuffed. 

Modern foods over stimulate while simultaneously lacking nutrition and failing to satiate. That dangerous combo leads to overeating and essentially, changes the way your brain works making it harder to resist the foods you know you shouldn't be eating.

So what can you do?

If you're like me and have decided you are sick of letting the standard American diet (SAD in case you forgot) control your life, but aren't sure how to break the vicious overeating cycle, maybe a change in your diet is in order. I'm not saying it's time to go on a 'diet', I'm saying it's time to take a long, hard look at what goes into your body and change your eating patterns for good. For me, that means eating Paleo, for you it may mean just cutting out any and all processed foods, including sugar/sweetener and flours.  Yes, it can be done.

 It all starts with awareness, learning the ways in which your current diet affects you is just the first step!