The Pleasure Trap of Food: Or Why Saying No Doesn't Work

[Carol Ebert]

Having just watched the Webinar How the Brain Blocks Weight Loss by Susan Pierce Thompson, PhD and author of Bright line Eating: The Science of Living Happy, Thin and Free, it is clear to me now that all the diets in the world are not going to help our quest to regain our health when we have eaten our way into disease. In fact, I know you know this - DIETS DON'T WORK! And so the rise in obesity continues.Here are some startling facts to consider gleaned from a study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

• Obesity is a global pandemic - not just in the U.S.
• 700,000 million people are overweight
• 108,000 million children are overweight
• Since 1980, obesity has doubled in 73 countries around the world

So what is the real cause of obesity that we are not addressing? It's called food addiction. When we eat highly processed foods that are laden with sugar it affects the addiction center of the brain and causes the brain to release feel good hormones. Food Addiction Research Education >> How does food addiction affect the brain?

And that makes you want more of what you just ate. And since about 75% of all processed foods have sugar in them, and we over-consume processed foods most of the time, we become addicted to those foods and to the good feelings we derive from our brains when we eat them.So what do the diets tell us to do? Just say NO to those foods. Easier said than done. This is how your brain blocks weight loss when you try to use WILLPOWER.

Willpower (or self-control) is a measurable brain function located in the pre-frontal cortex of the brain. Glucose is our body's fuel for energy and the brain requires it for thinking, learning and memory. When you exert your willpower to follow a diet of no sugar and processed foods, this action uses a considerable amount of glucose, leaving your brain in a state of alert trying to get back to normal blood sugar levels.This drop in blood sugar will normally leave you feeling cranky, moody and more prone to driving to the local bakery to get a sugar fix. The Psychology of Willpower: Training the Brain for Better Decisions You have over-taxed the willpower center of your brain, drained it of the glucose it needs to function properly, leaving you unable to do the following:

Resist the temptation to eat more junk foods

Make sensible decisions about eating healthy So all the willpower in the world is not going to help you lose weight. So what is a body to do? Here are some tips to rewire your thinking.

Step 1: Create a habit of eating healthy foods so it becomes automatic and without thought

Stop letting your prefrontal cortex make a decision when your low blood sugar is causing cravings. Switch your food focus to the basal ganglia where habits are formed. A Critical Review of Habit Learning and the Basal Ganglia

That means eating will become automatic based on those habits and won't require any other invading thought that might want you to eat junk food instead.

My personal example of a healthy snack when I get a sugar craving is sliced apples and cashews. I now am so "addicted" to that food that it has become an automatic response which replaces my previous addiction to a snicker bar. So creating healthy habits that are an automatic response can work!

Step 2: Remove temptations by creating an environment that supports healthy eating

Since the Standard American Diet is unhealthy and leads to food addiction, dispose of all the junk food from your house and restock with whole, natural, organic, grass fed, free range, farm-to-table foods so you won't be tempted. Just like a recovering alcoholic is at risk by going into a bar, stay away from food locations that don't support your healthy eating efforts. And that includes staying away from all the junk food that is peddled in the break room at work!

Step 3: Plan your meals and snacks ahead

Don't get caught off guard and try to make healthy decisions when you are hungry. Your willpower is non-existent at that time. Prepare for the week by scheduling a day (like Sunday afternoon) for food shopping, menu planning and cutting up food for the week. Also pick another day in mid-week to do the same thing. Prepare lunches and snacks at home that you can take to work so you won't be sabotaged when you get there.

These are solid solutions to retrain your brain into eating for health and life. For more details, please check out this youtube video.

Please share how you are retraining your brain to manage today's eating challenges.

[Carol Ebert, MSN, RN]

In Western societies, with the constant supply of pre-made, high carbohydrate food, obesity is a natural outcome. The car culture and labor saving devices also are strong factors.

Agree.

[Oldmahubbard]

Imagine you are on a financial budget of 1200 dollars a month. Not a generous amount, no matter how you slice it. There is zero room for any luxuries. And no matter how hard you squeeze, the last 10 days of each month will be sheer desperation.

Now imagine 1500 calories a day budget. And most of it taken by a small breakfast, and a reasonable lunch.

It is 1 pm, and you only have 500 calories left for the entire day. 9 more hours.

Is it ok to just go to bed at 6pm and hide, after having the last few precious morsels?

Either that, or succumb, and just stop living.

Few people can grasp the hunger and misery that is required to maintain a false low weight.

It takes everything you have. Everything.

You can have your low weight, or a life.

You can have your low weight, or your career.

You can have the low weight that your cherish, or your sexuality.

I have made my decision.

[barcode120x, RN, NP]

Saying no doesn't work because all the older Filipino RNs at my work give me the glare (jokingly of course) if I don't eat our monthly (sometimes 2 times a month or more) potlucks or any of the food they offer me .

On a more serious note, I think setting goals is definitely a step that needs to be added. I've always eaten whatever simply because I lift weights 3-4 times a week. It was basically ingrained in my head that, "oh I workout hard, I can eat anything and they equalize each other," but in reality they don't. It wasn't until vary recently that I began working out with a friend who's encouraging me to lose weight. He gave me a meal plan with daily calories and macronutrients to hit and wants me to hit that weight loss number by the time our corowkers and I go on our cruise in July. 3 weeks in, I'm on track. With these goals and plans my buddy helped me form, I'm eating much healthier than I was and I am more health conscious of what I eat. Hopefully I can hold out another 3 months cuz this cardio is kickin my butt.

[Carol Ebert, MSN, RN]

Saying no doesn't work because all the older Filipino RNs at my work give me the glare (jokingly of course) if I don't eat our monthly (sometimes 2 times a month or more) potlucks or any of the food they offer me .

On a more serious note, I think setting goals is definitely a step that needs to be added. I've always eaten whatever simply because I lift weights 3-4 times a week. It was basically ingrained in my head that, "oh I workout hard, I can eat anything and they equalize each other," but in reality they don't. It wasn't until vary recently that I began working out with a friend who's encouraging me to lose weight. He gave me a meal plan with daily calories and macronutrients to hit and wants me to hit that weight loss number by the time our corowkers and I go on our cruise in July. 3 weeks in, I'm on track. With these goals and plans my buddy helped me form, I'm eating much healthier than I was and I am more health conscious of what I eat. Hopefully I can hold out another 3 months cuz this cardio is kickin my butt.

There is nothing like having a great incentive - like a cruise - to help you stay on track! Hang up a picture of the cruise ship so you see it every day as another way to remind yourself of your goal. Congrats on your progress so far.