Craving for Food - or listening to what our bodies tell us

A recent U.S. government study found that the number of obese American adults now outweighs the number of those who are merely overweight. While many factors contribute to excessive weight gain — from diet and cultural changes to decreased physical activity — there's still a prevalent attitude that obesity is the fat person's fault.

The researchers Andrew Calder, Luca Passamonti and James Rowe were trying to determine why some people are more likely to overeat. What they found was, “people who appear to be more sensitive to food signals have different wiring in their brains,” said obesity expert Marc-Andre Cornier, M.D., a University of Colorado endocrinologist who was not associated with the trial.

Wow! This is interesting! Some people have different wiring in their brains!

In the study a large group of people were brought together. Those with a high food sensitivity rating didn't report being any hungrier than those with a normal rating. However after being shown images of food from unappetising through to highly calorific, the higher the food sensitivity rating, the hungrier the test subjects became. So, researchers concluded that the images triggered feelings of hunger in susceptible people.

Such differences in wiring help explain why some people eat even if they aren’t hungry. An external cue, like the sight of tempting food, triggers a desire for a reward. “We don't think it’s overstating matters to say that chronic overeating could … be considered an ‘addiction’ for food,” said Calder.


Editors Note: There are many more factors in the increase of “obesity” than just merely over-eating. Everyone and this includes even the more knowledgable and intelligent (?) experts in the fields of food, nutrition and body metabolism, still seem to be of the opinion that being fat is the person’s fault and they should cut down on food.

This is archaic in today’s world. With so much research being undertaken, and so many papers being discussed and published in highly reputable medical journals and on the internet, each and every finding comes back to the point that if people overeat then they’ll get fat. This is far too simple.

I may be naive but I have seen with my own eyes what happens when some plump and cuddly people are hospitalised and put onto intensive drips to counter (remove) fluid retention over a very short period of time. I have seen them shrink from those pleasing curves and become smaller and wrinkled versions of themselves within weeks. The fact that a number of those people were also suffering from other diseases such as cancer, heart conditions and diabetes didn’t seem to worry the doctors who were more concerned at getting them “thin” than caring for their bodies. No sooner had these people returned home and even with a strictly "regimented diet" which was monitored severely, they began to pile weight back on. Why? Because they were drinking too much water! Most of these people were told to cue down their water and fluid intake. What happened? You’ve guessed it, they became much sicker. And throughout all this, they believed their doctors. They believed their doctors knew what was best.

And I speak from personal family experience here. In my case it was my mother who went through this "treatment" to rid herself of weight! But the fact of the matter is that she (and many many plus-sizers) do NOT eat a lot of food; they DON'T eat fatty or sugar loaded food. Their meal sizes are smaller than the norm. So many of them eat sparingly and do not snack in between meals.

BUT, in my family my mother was seen to be "overweight" or "obese"; her mother was a big and tall woman. Her grandmother had been a big woman. Her daughter is a big woman. Her granddaughter is a big woman. And her great granddaughters are tall, solid, beautifully shaped and feminine.

Genes aren’t the problem, the experts scream at us. It’s your willpower, or as I often say, it may be our “won’t-power” at times. But the body does crave things occasionally. And I mean occasionally. When that “occasional craving” starts to have the effect of wanting to be satisfied daily and constantly, then there is a problem. But with intelligent perseverance this can be overcome. We don’t have to be subjected to “behaviour manipulation”, we can do it on our own (sometimes with a little help from our friends), but don’t treat us like imbeciles. We’re not stupid. Our bodies know what they need and if we refuse them, then they will turn against us.

And this is what happens when we diet, and diet, and diet. The body says, “you’re doing crazy things to me, now let’s see what I can do to you”. And it reacts. Badly. It tells us we’ve done badly by it, and it increases in size and heaviness each and every time after a diet, which of course hasn’t worked. Our bodies have been made to go without, and they are in battle with our minds.

Diets don’t work. Don’t be misled into thinking otherwise. Diet’s won’t work, because our bodies, and our minds, are not made for going without to such an extent. They’re made to work on the right fuel, at the right time, in the right quantities.