In a few weeks I will be giving a lecture at work on the book, The End of Overeating. The book is downright fascinating and explores the psychology and physiology behind America's inability to stop overeating. As a former marketing consultant/researcher for the grocery industry, I almost feel a bit dirty reading this book, realizing that some of the work I did- while well intentioned- fed in to this epidemic of overeating. While my company specialized in many whole health marketing issues and frequently recommended such initiatives to clients, I can think of a few times where we did work for the food manufacturers making these ridiculous products.
Anyway, the book is fascinating and I am really excited to give the book lecture, but reading it is difficult. The book actually triggered my "eating disorder" and caused me to binge eat on numerous occassions after reading just a few short chapters. After I read the first chapter I had an uncontrollable urge to get a bag of Cheetos. At that time I was still on a dairy-restricted diet and hadn't had Cheetos in months, if not years. Needless to say, I had to put the book away for a while to get things back under control. Unfortunately, now that the lecture is drawing near I don't have an option but to keep reading and deal with the binge eating attacks that follow. Now that I'm finally in the "food rehab" section I am dealing with it much better, but it was a long haul getting to that part of the book.
I've been holding on to the above picture for well over a year now, waiting for the right opportunity to use it. The day my husband and I moved in to our house in December 2008 we discovered the fridge was broken and had to buy a new one. During the few days we had to wait to get it delivered we had to eat out quite a bit. I was still focused on my diet and eating a limited assortment of foods and was not consuming much sugar. My husband, not following anything close to the diet plan I was on, ordered this gargantuan sweet tea from the restaurant we were at. Had he requested this size, I would have been more disgusted on his part, but the truth of the matter is that it is the ONLY size they offer. That monster of a drink probably has more than a meals worth of calories and a weeks worth of sugar, but of course you can't find nutrition info on the drink on their website.
The sad part is that the drink pictured above is only a small part of the problem with the American diet. Giant sized portions aren't what keep us addicted, though it is what allows us to eat more once we are "hooked" on the stuff. Food manufacturers have figured out how to tap in to the addiction centers of our brain and actually create and design foods and menus to feed the addiction. Even the language used on menus creates addiction.
But I digress. More on the addiction factor later...
Let's focus on portion. It took me a long time to finally get my portion sizes under control, and, as I've shared on this blog since the beginning, it took a major health scare to force me to come to terms with the sheer quantity of food I was eating. This last week I lost that sense of perspective again as a result of reading this book and as my "eating disorder" was continually triggered by reading this book. And the more I read, the more I ate.
Last week, I can remember having a conversation in my head (with my myself, I'm special, I know) that I hadn't eaten enough for lunch and I needed to keep eating so I ate enough calories and wouldn't be hungry again until dinner. This conversation is part of my eating disorder as I have battled with the obsession of NOT being anorexic for years (more on that later). For the next three hours after that lunch I felt sick and bloated and considered purging it for relief (I didn't, not to worry). Upon returning to work I told my coworkers how sick I felt and how much I overate: chips and salsa, soup with crackers, and half a bagel with peanut butter on it. You feel sick just reading that list right?
This is part of how oversized portions have hijacked our brains in to thinking we should eat more than we need. We get so sensitized to large portions that we start to convince ourselves that we are suppose to eat that much in a single sitting every time!
Here is the best tip of the ones I have read so far in the book: you need to make yourself "disgusted" by the very thing you are craving to turn off the reward center in your brain for that item. I read this and it was like a light bulb went off. Up until recently (read: I started reading this book), I had convinced myself that any dairy product was disgusting, and consequently avoided them. I had good reasoning for thinking they were disgusting- we are the only animal on the planet that drinks another animals milk. Gross, right? Plus, it really isn't good for in that it creates excess mucous and can cause digestive problems in many people- including myself.
So as of today I am going to be disgusted by oversized portions and massive quantitites of food again. I will be satisfied and nourished by single servings of food. And, most importantly at the moment, I will be disgusted by any cheese related items, especially Cheetos as they are loaded with poisons and chemicals that cause cancer and provide no nutritional value whatsoever.
What disgusts you most about the American diet?
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