On a cold winter night, feeling somewhat full and bloated from dinner, Ritu gets out of bed to make a cup of green tea to push the food down and soothe herself. She goes into the kitchen, puts on the stove and puts the water to boil. She opens a cupboard in the kitchen to pull out a tea bag, while closing it she sneaks a glance and spots the 'chips and namkeen' kept on the other shelves. She impulsively wants to eat one, resolutely tries to ignore it, she pours the water into her cup, dips the tea bag, goes back to her room and gets into the covers.
Sipping her tea, she watches some television. A few minutes later, she finds her mind wandering back to a packet of chips she saw in the kitchen cupboard. She dismisses that thought by telling herself just how full and sick she is feeling. An hour passes, she's still watching TV and now is unable to sleep. Voices in her head remind her of the aroma and the crunch of the chips and tell her to go eat those chips. In the cold night, she gets out of bed, goes to the kitchen, opens the packet telling herself she will just eat one or two, but before she knew it she chomps off all the chips. When she comes back to bed she is feeling sick and bloated again!
Is food your answer for dealing with your desires, feelings, emotions and insomnia? Like Ritu, do you constantly find yourself eating despite the fact that you are not hungry? Are you constantly struggling with your weight and feel depressed about it, but still are not able to do anything about it? Do you constantly diet and workout and still are unable to lose weight? Then, it will be useful for you to understand that the central problem is not the excess weight itself, but the long-standing habit of over-eating. Some people are able to eat high-calorie food or a high quantity of food without gaining weight, while for some others genetic inheritance contributes substantially to the weight gaining tendency. Intake of excessive food can be understood under three different categories: biological/physiological, cultural context and learned behaviour.
The intake of food causes certain biological/physiological changes in the body. So, when we eat food, it turns into useable energy. In the human brain, the intake of food causes a biochemical change, which then signals satiation. However, gradually, over-eating delays the signal of satiation, causing one to eat more. Additionally, the brain becomes less receptive to this signal and one tends to stop eating only when one feels physically sick. Secondly, the cultural context plays a big role in over-eating. Let's be honest: in the Indian culture, life mostly revolves around food, no matter what the occasion. In good times, we celebrate with food, while in bad times we use food as a coping mechanism. Conversations about a particular menu or dish revolve in our head for days, weeks or months after an event and a positive experience tends to maximize our experience of the event.
Yet, the most detrimental of them all is over-eating as a learned behaviour. In many cases the key determinants of excessive eating and obesity appear to be family behaviour patterns. Some studies suggest that over feeding in childhood may predispose children to weight problems in adulthood. Thus, over-eating is also a learned behaviour that is initiated in childhood. In some families, obesity in many or all family members occurs due to a high-calorie diet or an overemphasis on food. In such families, a fat baby is seen as a healthy baby. So, even if obesity is not genetically hereditary, we blame 'being fat' on genetics, even though the obesity may be due to generations of over-eating as a learned behaviour. In many other families, eating is a habitual source of alleviating distress or celebration of an event. In such cases, one is not able to distinguish between internal signals of hunger and any other signals because all signals are responded to by consumption of food. Eating becomes synonymous with dealing with boredom, stress, anxiety, worry, depressed states, traumatic events, angry feelings and all sorts of celebrations. We are also encouraged to consume food while shopping, watching movies, at parties or even just sitting at home. Eventually, even if the brain signals to the body that it is full, the body does not understand this and continues to eat, sometimes to the extent of feeling sick. Some of you may relate to the feeling of 'needing' a cup of green tea after a meal, because you are physically sick.
Gradually, eating ⟩ over-eating ⟩ weight gain ⟩ depression becomes a vicious cycle because eventually, one feeds the depression as well. In some cases, depression about over-eating leads to Bulimia (induced vomiting) as well. Over-eating is an illness. Therapy can help you break this pattern. It can help you identify and develop coping skills to curb and change your impulses associated with eating.
