This evening, we're continuing a group read of David Kessler's The End of Overeating, started by Edward Spurlock. His latest, covering Ch. 29, is here, including links that will take readers back through previous diaries.
Meanwhile, I find myself jumping ahead a bit: Ch. 29 was complex, and Edward had to break off before reaching the topic of emotional overeating. He'll be continuing on this fascinating subject tomorrow p.m. I am especially looking forward to discussing the rat with the paperclip on its tail.
WHEE (Weight, Health, Eating and Exercise) is a community support diary for Kossacks who are currently or planning to start losing, gaining or maintaining their weight through diet and exercise or fitness. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are working on your weight or fitness, please -- join us! You can also click the WHEE tag to view all diary posts.
Meetup below the fold!
In Ch. 29, Kessler neatly reprised his theory in a sentence or two:
Chronic exposure to highly palatable foods [i.e., those unnaturally high in sugar, fat and salt] changes our brains, conditioning us to seek continued stimulation.
He started many chapters ago by giving us the skinny on suggestive research with rats; in the last chapter he explicitly described conditioned hypereating as a "stimulus-response disorder" similar to drug abuse or compulsive gambling.
Once our brains are sensitized by continued exposure to hyperpalatable foods, and we develop habits around it, Kessler suggests, we're stuck in a "spiral of wanting." (Sounds almost Buddhist, come to think of it!)
In Ch. 30, "How We Become Trapped," Kessler quotes experts from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the University of Kentucky psychology department, the University of Queensland department of psychiatry, and Scripps Research Institute on how the spiral tightens, as he outlines mental circles familiar to many of us:
- I need a lift.
- Aha. What about [a fatty, sugary, and/or salty treat]?
- Because I'm sensitized by past exposure, the thought of this triggers strong anticipation: if I just eat this, I'll feel better.
- I try not to think about it.
- Trying not to think about it strengthens the thought and the sense of anticipation.
- I give in.
- Aaah.
- The reward strengthens the sensitization and the association with feeling good.
- Now the treat is gone, and so is the momentary lift.
- I feel bad about eating that.
Return to 1.
Wanting becomes need. Efforts to resist only lead to still more frequent and elaborate thoughts, culminating in obsession.
How to get out of the rat trap? Promised in ensuing chapters.
A few words about my own efforts to break this type of cycle.
I started this on Aug. 26 with a strategy to learn how to recognize and, as much as possible, avoid foods that fit the description of hyperpalatable. Shortly after, WHEE also put me onto Herbert Wansink's Mindless Eating, which is a wonderful and entertaining manual on some of the pitfalls Kessler outlines in Ch. 29 that contribute to conditioned hypereating, including external cues and priming (taking the first bite).
(Is there anyone out there who has not read Wansink? Highly, highly recommended.)
I've lost close to 20 pounds, which does not sound like much compared with some achievements here, but considering that it involved no food diary, no starvation, and a considerable amount of social eating and drinking, I find it significant.
Recently I had to dig out a very old pair of jeans because the current ones (too tight when I first read Kessler) were sliding off my hips. I've even been told I look younger.
We're all different, and I'm probably weird, but I thank the beneficent powers of Boredom and Laziness.
What I eat at home tends to be frankly boring but wholesome -- last night, I confess that dinner consisted of a bowl of yellow split peas seasoned with only a little oil, salt and pepper, plus a tangerine for dessert. I was working on something and wanted minimal distraction. Would I serve this meal to a guest? No...but it tasted fine. As Europeans put it, "Hunger is the best cook."
Laziness: if I even had a passing thought of something hyperpalatable, there's nothing like that in the house, and who wants to drive all the way to the grocery when it's cold and dark out? Countless times I, like other WHEE participants, have been saved from a mistake by the extra effort that would be needed to make a special journey or cook something from scratch.
Eating wholesome, boring foods not only prevents immediate overeating. doing it a lot has seemed to change my attitude to commercially prepared foods, which now usually taste overseasoned. People who have gone on low-salt diets say they have the same type of experience.
If I do make a mistake, it's most often because food is so uninteresting a subject that I put off eating to the point of getting ravenous. That's when I may -- after all -- end up ducking into a Mickey D's.
Although I find Kessler's information suggestive and extemely useful, I honestly don't feel addicted to hyperpalatable food, at least not now. I can have one small serving on a social occasion and then go straight back to my boring foodways. A lot of hyperpalatable food(like at an inescapable family Thanksgiving weekend) may be more of a problem.
In my case, it would also be bad, I feel, to go back to cooking and eating in part for entertainment's sake.
I like to cook unusual regional and historical recipes, but the modern food industry did not invent hyperpalatable -- just made it cheap and ubiquitous -- and I can end up eating too much of what I cooked. Other hobbies are a better choice. So nothing like this on Dec. 25:
Christmas pudding is a steamed pudding, heavy with dried fruit and nuts, and usually made with suet. It is very dark in appearance - effectively black - as a result of the dark sugars and black treacle in most recipes, and its long cooking time. The mixture can be moistened with the juice of citrus fruits, brandy and other alcohol (some recipes call for dark beers such as mild, stout or porter). It can be eaten with hard sauce, brandy butter, rum butter, cream, lemon cream, or custard and is often sprinkled with caster sugar.
I feel somewhat vulnerable to falling back into old ways, yet not addicted. It's different from a former cigarette user I know who was unable to take one puff without becoming completely hooked all over again.
And you?
As usual, there is a silly poll included below the housekeeping!
Scheduled WHEE diaries: Please pitch in by volunteering in a comment to the tip jar! We're all very busy in the holiday season and need all the encouragement we can muster together.
December 9
Weds AM - ???
Weds PM - Edward Spurlock (Kessler, Ch. 29, part 2)
December 10
Thurs AM - ???
Thurs PM - Sychotic1
December 11
Fri AM - Ed G
Fri PM - ???
December 12
Sat AM - ???
Sat PM - Edward Spurlock (Kessler, Ch. 31)
December 13
Sun AM - ???
Sun PM - Holiday Fit Club - kismet
December 14
Monday AM - NC Dem
Monday PM - ???
December 15
Tues AM - ???
Tues PM - Clio2 (Kessler, Ch. 32)