So, really, why do we overeat? Because we know that the top reason people gain on fat (and ultimately become obese) is overeating?
But, what exactly makes us overeat? It’s the palatability of the foods around us! We know that when surrounded by highly-palatable foods we end up eating on average 44 percent more calories than we’d normally eat if the foods weren’t manipulated to be highly desirable. *
In the developed, industrialized world we are surrounded by foods that are designed with the main purpose to taste better and to be highly addictive. They act on certain parts of the brain to make you (and me) like the food more and desire it more.
What are these foods?
Well, pretty much all highly processed foods – foods in a box, fast food restaurant foods, bakery items, etc. – you know, the foods that only appeared on our tables with the onset of the Industrial Revolution about 140 years ago.. and their presence intensified about 80 years ago with the onset of another revolution – the Fast Food revolution.
What are the qualities of these highly-palatable, addictive foods? Any of the following or a combination of them:*
- Sweetness
- Saltiness
- Fats in the food
- Savory (umami)
- Starchiness
How do we control overeating then?
Easy in theory, but it appears, very difficult in reality for most people. The solution is: LESS PROCESSED FOOD.
This means when you go to the grocery store you shop from what’s available in the periphery of the store – whole food ingredients, like fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy, eggs, AND bypass the middle of the store where all the boxed “foods” are. These are the ones that human hand has touched.. And, it hasn’t touched them to make them taste worse. It has manipulated them to taste far better and make your brain like them more and eat more of them.
And, that’s not the whole answer either..
You will have to apply conscious effort in learning to enjoy the taste of simple food! And, don’t get me wrong. I don’t think that you (or I for that matter) will go 100 percent to wholesome food. No! We live in the underutilized world and we are humans, too.
My personal theory and solution is the 10k 80-20 rule. I wrote expensively about it in my MoreSugarFor.Me blog, but in simple terms it say this: Ask yourself if the food that you have before you right this moment was also available to humans 10 thousand years ago. And, if it wasn’t (like doughnut for example) only afford yourself such food in 20 percent of the time, but eat wholesome foods that were available 10 K years ago in 80 percent of the time.
This is it. Now you know why when you watch movies from the beginning of the century you hardly see any overweight actors – there was far less processed, and taste perception-augmented food back then..
Your turn now. What do you think is the problem with obesity. Do you think it’s overeating, and in your opinion why do we overeat?
* We know this because the work of people like Stephan Guyenet and others.