Regulation of Food Intake in Obese People
WHAT IS OBESITY?
The most common eating disorder in our society is excessive eating which includes craving and compulsive eating which can quite often result in obesity (http://www.nutramed.com/zeno/addictive.htm#exorphins). Obesity is a body condition where a person's body mass index is greater than 30. Other diseases that can accompany or follow obesity include diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. Also, obese people are at a greater risk of certain kinds of cancer like breast, colon, and uterine cancer. Nori Geary, an associate professor of psychiatry at Cornell University, did a great deal of work on the physiological control of feeding behavior
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The receptors in the gastrointestinal tract manage the size and times of eating behavior while metabolic cues oversee energy consumption with respect to what the body needs. Overeating causes a greater amount of fat storage than did carbohydrate overfeeding. Studies of the appetites of obese women prove that energy intake during a high-fat lunch was much higher than during a high-carbohydrate lunch and this remained for the next 24 hours. The reason that has been hypothesized for this is that the metabolic rates of fats and carbos are different. Carbohydrates are more rapidly absorbed and contribute to the suppression of appetite. Fat storage, on the other hand, is almost without limit with a lower satiety calibre. Carbohydrate storage in the body, in the form of glycogen, is limited, and need to be constantly refilled. Obesity is a disorder that is related to a "disease" of the fat storage mechanisms and if a person is obese, there will be a presence of lipids already in the small intestine that delay the emptying of gastric fluids. These fatty acids in the stomach relax the stomach and therefore, cause the stomach to be able to adapt to a greater capacity of food. When the stomach receptors are stimulated, the gastric sensitivity is transformed to accommodate a meal while the positive sensations of enjoyment are also aroused so that this experience is repeated again. Studies have shown that people show feelings of sleepiness and
Many people are unaware of the background of eating disorders. Women are more likely than men to develop an eating disorder and they usually develop in childhood before the age of 20 (Ross-Flanigan 1). Women as well as men can develop an eating disorder; it is just more likely for a woman to develop one. Eating disorders are usually developed in adolescent or childhood years when a person is influenced the most. Also “Eating disorders are psychological conditions that involve overeating, voluntary starvation, or both. Anorexia nervosa, anorexic bulimia, and binge eating are the most well-known types of eating disorders” (Ross-Flanigan 1). Many people assume that an eating disorder is when a person staves themselves; they do not realize that it can involve overeating as well. Some eating disorders also involve purging, but not all. People with an eating disorder fear gaining weight even when they are severely underweight. They do not lack an appetite (Ross-Flanigan 1). These people are
Eating disorder is the abnormal eating behavior that would negatively impact one’s health, emotions and ability to function in important areas of life. Eating disorders include several categories: binge eating disorder, which means people eat large amount in a short period, anorexia nervosa which people eat very little, bulimia nervosa which people eat a lot and then try to rid themselves of food, pica which people eat non-food items, rumination disorder means people regurgitate food, avoidant food intake means that people have a lack of interest in food, and other specified eating disorders (ANAD). There is believed to be no single cause for eating disorders, as all the biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors contribute to this illness. Studies have shown that specific chromosomes may be associated with bulimia and anorexia (NY times). Eating disorders may also be caused by imbalance of serotonin and dopamine which explain why people who have anorexia
It has been found that eating disorders are most common in the western and industrialized culture where food is abundant. This is because these individuals attach a lot of importance to their physical appearance and are willing to do anything to get the dream figure. An eating disorder is not just watching what one eats and exercising on a daily basis but is rather an illness that causes serious disturbances in eating behaviour, such as great and harmful cutback of the consumption of food as well as feelings of serious anxiety about their body shape or mass. They would start to stop themselves to go out anywhere just so that they could work out and burn all of the calories of a meal or snack that they had scoffed earlier. Two of the most common eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. The regular description of a patient with either disease would be a youthful white female, with an upper social standing in a predictably socially competitive environment.
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.
Eating disorders can cause death but, it is more urgent to try and decrease the amount of obesity in this country because more people are dying from it. For instance the CDC reveals “every 4 minutes someone dies of stroke….high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, obesity, and diabetes are leading causes of stroke”(CDC, 2017). Obesity can cause all of these symptoms on this list other than smoking. The statistics show that more deaths are caused by obesity and it is most logical to resolve the larger problem first.
An eating disorder is an illness that involves an unhealthy feeling about the food we eat. “Eating disorders affect 5-10 millions Americans and 70 million individuals worldwide” (www.eatingdisorderinfo.org 1). They also affect many people from women, men, children, from all ages and different races. People who have eating disorders usually see themselves as being fat when they really aren’t. This usually deals with women or teenage girls mostly. They watch television, movies, read articles in magazines, and see pictures of the celebrities whom they want to be like because they have the “ideal body” that everyone wants and craves for. The media makes us all think we need those types of bodies to be happy with ourselves, be more successful
There are many different biological approaches that explain the reasons for eating disorders they all have some validity behind them to a certain extent. An eating disorder is a psychological dysfunction that causes a person to change their eating habits to eating less, or more etc.
Overeating provides an interesting parallel to addictive behaviour. Much like habitual drug users, obese individuals commonly report experiencing craving and preoccupation with food (Herman and Polivy, 2008; Jastreboff, Sinha, Lacadie, Small, Sherwin & Potenza, 2013). The influence that food relevant cues (e.g. sight, smell, taste) have on food intake has also been well documented (for review see Herman & Polivy, 2008). . It is plausible that dopaminergic conditioning occurs in individuals who habitually overeat. Attempts to establish if attentional bias for food cues is a useful predictor of obesity risk have had mixed success. However there is a growing body of research that demonstrated that obese individuals allocate greater attentional
The process of becoming obese will affect and change the brain chemistry of the brain and people could be born with predisposition in becoming obese. We all consume food and take pleasure in eating them, especially sugar, however eating excess of them cause changes. Our brain is triggered in producing dopamine when consuming sugar, dopamine is a neurotransmitter that brings pleasure feeling, and our brain associates it as a reward, becoming a habit (Rabin, 2015). As people consume more and becoming obese, the higher association of pleasure feeling from dopamine when eating creates a behavior pattern of overeating, which would be very difficult to break (Harmon, 2010). This is changing the brains chemistry by creating a neurochemical dependency
Eating disorders are severe disturbances in eating behaviors, such as eating too little or eating too much. “Anorexia nervosa affects nearly one in 200 Americans in their lives (three-quarters of them female)” (Treating anorexia nervosa). Anorexia, when translated into Greek means “without appetite” which is not true for all suffering from anorexia most people with this disorder have not lost their appetite they simply have to ignore it. People with anorexia have an intense fear of gaining weight and have convinced themselves that they are overweight even if they are the opposite of overweight. Since the way that they view themselves is in a negative light they starve themselves and put their lives at risk. “In the most severe
Both the acute and chronic psychiatric and medical consequences of eating disorders are well documented and include osteoporosis, cardiovascular, endocrine, gastrointestinal, and skeletal disorders, dental problems, nutritional deficiencies, obesity, psychiatric disorders, and substance use.
Many people today eat when their emotionally such as because the person is bored, sad, anger or even happy. Obesity can be caused by things like stress or depression and can cause a number of different health implications. For example a person that is obese is more likely to have diabetes later in life and also suffer heart problems. Over 30% of today’s population seek treatment for weight problems and this is all caused through binge eating. Binge eating is when someone eats large amount of food while feeling they can’t control how much they are eating, people who seriously binge and a very obese develop a disorder call binge eating disorder. The people with this kind of eating disorder find it difficult to lose weight and also find it difficult to control how much they are eating. Many people may need serious help for example counselling or medication or even operation to
A lifestyle drug is a drug that is not primarily the fight against a disease , but the improvement in physical fitness or general well-being used. Lifestyle Medicine designates primarily medical methods that store a certain lifestyle. The lifestyle is particularly determined by the self-understanding of a man. Medicine that is taken preventively in the first place and to improve the living conditions such as supplements for weight loss or overcome sexual dysfunction. Whatever one may think about this: The consumption of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs is an everyday reality. They are consumed, although the associated health risks are known. With a congenital heart defect the dangers of consuming, however, are even greater.
There are multiple ways to be guided to an eating disorder other than the media. “Eating behavior is a complex process controlled by the neuroendocrine system of which the Hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal-axis (HPA axis) is a major component” (News Medical). Psychological research is very important to patients who have an eating disorder. Throughout the research in the paper, researchers have come to a conclusion that some of the qualities in the brain a person has a certain level
Once you know what to eat, now you have to consume too much. One of the biggest problems with eating healthy knows when you have had enough. Not knowing when to stop can result in one developing an eating disorder. There are many types of eating disorders. The main two types of eating disorders people get from excessive eating is obesity and anorexia. Obesity is a disease of excess fat tissue in the body, or when someone eats too much. Anorexia is when someone who has a low self-esteem and often a tremendous need to control their surroundings and emotions by consuming as little food as possible. Someone who is overweight will eat because they are not happy with the way they look. Someone who suffers from anorexia starves themselves because they are unhappy with the way they look. People with these certain eating disorders should come together to help each other get through these hard times.