About 2 thirds of the UK population are overweight or obese. This is because we eat/drink too much and don’t exercise enough. We all know this, but we still continue overeating. Why?
Off the top of my head, I can think of 3 major reasons why we eat/drink:
- Biological reasons
- Psychological reasons
- Social/cultural reasons.
Examples of the biological reasons include:
- To get the energy we need to live and be active.
- To get the raw materials we need to grow and repair our bodies after injury.
- To get all the tiny micronutrients that are essential for the chemical reactions in our body.
Examples of the psychological reasons include:
- Comfort eating – we often eat to make ourselves feel better/happier etc.
- Boredom – this can be when you are doing a monotonous job, or if you simply don’t have anything to do. So we reach for the biscuits/crisps or simply raid the fridge.
- Habit - If we have always eaten a certain thing at a certain time, then we can get into the habit of doing it even if we don’t want/need it.
- “Want” - This is when we smell/taste something and we just really want it now! eg smelling fresh bread, or seeing an advert on TV and our mouths start to water.
Examples of social/cultural reasons include:
- Humans are social animals and when we are together, we often eat/drink. This is a major bonding activity for us all.
- Every culture has a celebration/holiday where feasting is usually a major activity. Here in the UK, Christmas is the obvious example.
- Peer pressure – this is very similar to social eating/drinking, but the person feels they have to do it to “fit in”.
As you can see, I can think of many more psychological/social reasons, than biological ones. And this is a major reason why so many “diets” fail in the long term, and why so many people end up being “yo-yo” dieters. Because these diets don’t touch the psychological/social reasons that we overeat.
If you want a healthy body/diet for the rest of your life, and you want to avoid weeks/months of misery, starvation and cravings, then it is vital you deal with these psychological and social/cultural reasons you overeat.
This has nothing to do with forbidden foods, or diet sheets etc. It is to do with adapting/changing your habits and behaviours of a lifetime.
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There’s a lot of ignorance too.
Over the years people have taken onboard the fat is bad mantra. So they avoid fats, but still eat potatoes, bread, pasta, food loaded with hidden sugars like breakfast cereals and cartons of fruit juice!! – not as healthy as you may think if overdone. These carbohydrate based foods are full of energy which if not burnt off the body turns into fat reserves.