Disinhibition Is A Powerful Predictor Of Opportunistic Eating

In the introduction to “The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Our National Eating Disorder,” author Michael Pollan argues that many American’s in today’s contemporary society have lost touch with where their food comes from and which foods actually are nutritious. We have become an unaware society and allowed our daily simple routine of eating healthy meals to become a complex mess of fear for being unhealthy. I feel that Pollan is making an effective argument in stating his beliefs and factual knowledge on the confused relationship our nation has with food by using factual knowledge and evidence to persuade the audience that he is credible.

Psychological factors also play a large role in obesity. Many people eat in response to negative emotions such as sadness, depression and anger. These people are generally binge eaters. During a binge eating episode, a person eats large amounts of food and feel that they cannot control how much they are eating. These people have more difficulty losing weight and keeping it off than others without a binge eating problem. It is common that binge eaters suffer from low self esteem and depression.

American food culture is not like other countries in the world; the diversity in foods and ethnicity creates its uniqueness. However, Americans mindset of “what should we have for dinner” and the poor decision making about food choices created the “omnivore’s dilemma” or what Pollan, in The Omnivore’s Dilemma calls the American national eating disorder. Pollan explored more about the food that Americans consume in “an investigation of food called the industrial food chain”(Pollan, Omnivore 110). While studying the products in supermarkets, Pollan realized that supermarkets offer a large variety of foods that contain corn, an unhealthy component, in most of its products. While Pollan is compelling claiming that American’s healthy food

Ordinarily, individuals are tempted to make unhealthy choices in the environment they live in, with even candy readily available at gas stations, customers are responsible for what they buy. To be able to overcome obesity, one has to have motivation to be healthy in the

In the article, “How the Food Makers Captured Our Brains,” by Tara Parker-Pope, the author shows that if you see a food that you like you’re going to be tempted to get it even though you're not hungry or full. She wrote the story about Dr. David A. Kessler from The Food and Drug Administration. He talked about how the chocolate chip cookies were made and how everyone would eat it. He bought cookies and put them on the table he just sat there and stared at the cookies. He didn’t understand why people loved them too much.

We like everything in an instant. Individuals like fast cars, fast communication, and most of all we love fast food. Having things in life come in an instant seems great but there is a price to pay. Therefore, fast food may be convenient but it is costly. Although, fast food may save you time now, it will cost you years of your life later. Most foods that are quick and convenient are full of refined sugars, carbohydrates and other processed food. Sadly, these attributes of convenient food causes many of us to overeat. Dr. Lustig referred to individuals who eat a lot as “gourmands.” Sadly, there are a number of things that happen when we consume sugars, carbohydrate and fats. First, due to overeating an individual may have higher levels of leptin. Leptin is a protein produced by fatty tissue and believed to regulate fat storage in the body. According to Stephan Guyenet, when we become leptin resistance when our brain does not know when we are full therefore we overeat. Leptin resistance comes from a high consumption of sugar. Dr. Lustig suggest that sugar in the presence of insulin creates fat. I believe that obesity is direct effect of another underlying issue. Correspondingly, we all know the effects sugar has on our bodies, but yet we continue to consume it in high quantities. In my opinion, sugar is a drug and many people have an addiction to it. Sugars sends the same signals and high levels of dopamine to brain just as drugs. For example, I have an uncle who weighs about 900 pounds. He was not always this big, so what happened? As a child, he ate a lot of sugary foods and food that contains a lot of fat. Not only did my uncle eat unhealthy, but he was not very active. Therefore, there was a combination of factors that contributed to his massive weight gain. Obviously, his body started to become leptin resistant at some point. If you become leptin resistance and have an addiction to sugar then you

“The remainder of diet was independently associated with overweight/ obesity (b: 5.9; 95% CI: 1.3, 10.5), whereas fast food consumption was not, and the remainder of diet had stronger associations with poor total intake than did fast food consumption” (Poti, Kiyah, and Popkin). They believe that the person is responsible for their own obesity, which is partially true. They do have choice in what they decide to put into their body, but when they are hungry their mind is set to fulfill the hunger. Although, they have an option to choose what they want to eat, people are highly influenced by the advertisements they see on television. When fast food restaurants promote cheap deals for a meal, people automatically want to go contribute. Not necessarily because they want to, but because it looks good and it is being sold for a good

Maria’s family-related experiences learned during her childhood contributed to a distorted cognition of eating. Maria’s family food-related experiences are associated with her mother’s restriction of eating as a way of punishment. Use of food as a punishment increases the intake of food when the children have access to it. As consequence of this type of punishment Maria learned maladaptive attitudes and behaviors such as eating secretly and keeping food in hidden places in order to manage her hunger. Researches propose that food restrictions increase desire and intake of the food. At the same time the individual will show difficulties to self-regulate the food

In a report written by food scientist Steven Witherly, PhD ‘Why Humans Like Junk Food’ (2) the science of food addiction is explained thus.

Epidemic has become the term of choice when discussing obesity in North America, and the struggle against the disease continues since effective long-term treatment has yet to appear. Obese individuals also often face prejudice, due to a common misperception that their condition solely results from lifestyle choices. However, studies show that environment accounts only for 50-65% of occurrence (Campfield et al. 1997, Bouchard and Perusse 1993 as cited by Campfield et al. 1996), leaving much to genetic influence. Recently much attention has been directed at the OB protein, or leptin, pathway due to its apparent influence on obesity-related components. Under the current context, leptin’s most important biological role is as an indicator of appetite satiety (Campfield et al. 1996). Generally, leptin levels have been found to increase with food intake and decrease with hunger (Coll et al. 2007). In normal function, leptin circulates in the bloodstream, and appropriately, OB-R receptors have been found in the brain and peripheral tissues (Campfield et al. 1996).

Overweight individuals may learn an association between seeing food and motivation to eat. Considering that there was no significant effect of the conditioned response to chocolate milk in lean individuals, we must wonder how this may predict obesity. This study also shows it may be possible that lean individuals need more pairings or more of the stimulus to create a conditioned response similar to overweight individuals (Meyer et. al., 2014). It is difficult for extinction to occur especially in terms of food because we need it to survive but this study may help us understand better the mechanism behind obesity and overeating. It may be easier to attempt to associate healthier foods that taste similar to the unhealthy food as a way of trying to break conditioning to the unhealthy

Binge eating is the strongest predictor of purging, loss of control, and overeating. Each were associated with a higher likelihood of purging than non-pathological eating. (Goldschmidt et al., 2015) Researchers had participants trained in how to record mood, stressful events, and behavior for event contingent (completed after any eating episodes or anorexia nervosa behaviors such as binge eating and purging), interval-contingent (nightly assessments) and signal-contingent recordings (completed response to six daily semi-random prompts by investigators occurring every 2-3 hours. Participants recorded their behaviors and results showed that purging (in the absence of loss of control, and/overeating) may serve to regulate negative affect in a similar way as binge eating. Purging may simply delay the experience of a negative mood. Both loss of control and overeating appeared to be important

Over two thirds of US adults are overweight or obese22 generating an estimated health care cost of $150 billion2. Obesity is one of the major risk factors for development of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer23. Energy homeostasis relies on an intricate balance between energy intake and expenditure and disruption in this balance can result in obesity. Feeding is a complex behavior and is largely regulated by two systems. Feeding to maintain metabolic needs, or homeostatic feeding, is regulated by homeostatic feeding circuits, whereas reward-based intake of palatable food, such as foods rich in fat and sugar, is regulated by the mesolimbic DA system23,24. The two systems are not autonomous, however. Energy deficit

The first article I researched written by John S. Allen, was published by Harvard University Press on May 30, 2012, titled “The Omnivorous Mind: Our Evolving Relationship with Food”. Throughout the article, Allen seeks to provide the reader with a greater understanding of the significance of the everyday act of eating and how it pertains to human’s biological makeup and their culture. His main argument is that people, unlike other animals, eat with their minds just as much as they do with their stomachs. Our inclination to eat foods that not only taste good but also look good is what distinguishes us from other species. He argues that this has been shaped throughout the history of the human

Today, Americans debate whether eating healthy or exercising is worth the effort. According to Lisa Sherman, author of The Journal of Chinese Medicine, “Exercise may make it easier to make healthy food choices by changing parts of the brain that influence impulsive behavior. A review paper by US and Spanish authors proposes that physical activity helps to enhance 'top-down' inhibitory control in the brain, making it easier to resist unhealthy food and instead choose healthy options” (June 2012): p82. Thanks to our most popular fast food restaurants, such as, McDonalds, Wendy’s, Olive Garden etc. How could people trick their brains into declining fast food and choose a more healthier option. There are a couple of easy changes you can make that can have a profound effect on satiety – how full you feel. Research shows that using smaller crockery tends to trick our brains into believing we are eating more, a psychological phenomenon that can best be illustrated by looking at the Delboeuf optical illusion. If you put two identical portions of food on a big plate and a small plate, the portion on the bigger plate will look smaller, and vice versa: our brains can’t help but be fooled by this effect, even when we know they are the same.