News Taffy

Time for a confession. Though hardly anyone will believe me, I often have trouble with overeating. Nearly every meal, I don’t experience that feeling of fullness after eating a reasonable portion. Serve one of my favorite dishes and I really go overboard. Since I can no longer eat all I want and still maintain my desired weight, I have learned portion control. I have been concerned by my body’s lack of an appropriate response to food, so I did a little research. I think this is a big problem in the U.S. and is a major factor in obesity.

There are three types of hunger signals. Hunger is the growling sensation that tells you to eat. It is controlled by the hypothalamus, blood sugar levels and how empty your stomach is at the time. Fullness is the feeling of satisfaction after eating. Nerves in your stomach signal the brain that it is full, there is an increase in blood sugar and activity in the hypothalamus. Appetite is the danger button. It is the desire for food linked to sight, smell and the thought of food. Appetite can override hunger and fullness.

Appetite is what gets us in trouble. Think about how often you eat something just because it looks and smells so good. Or you are watching the Food Network and the next thing you know, you have a dish of ice cream. The hunger signals work well in infants and young children but as we grow up, we learn to ignore them. The other problem is not recognizing when you’ve had enough to eat.

There are many reasons the fullness button doesn’t work well for adults. Food is everywhere it doesn’t need to be first of all. Then people have a tendency to skip meals making them hungrier at the next meal time so they overeat. We distract ourselves as we eat with TV or the computer and we eat too fast. The brain needs at least 20 minutes to receive the signal that the body has had enough. Stress and other emotions cause us to turn to food for comfort. We have become too accustomed to large portion sizes and the “clean your plate” mentality.

So how can we get the hunger buttons working again? Try keeping a food diary for a couple of weeks. You should write down everything you eat, when you eat and rate your hunger on the following scale. You may notice certain patterns over time such as eating when you are bored or because you always have a snack at a certain time regardless of your hunger.

Scale of Hunger
1 - starving, weak, dizzy
2 - very hungry, cranky, low energy
3 - stomach growling
4 - starting to feel hungry
5 - neither hungry nor full
6 - pleasantly full
7 - little uncomfortable
8 - stuffed
9 - stomach hurts
10 - so full you are sick

To relearn to eat naturally, try to eat when your hunger level is at 3 or 4. Eat slowly to allow your brain time to process the signals the stomach sends and stop eating when you reach 5 or 6. You can relearn what satisfied means and how to recognize it. When you find yourself reaching for food, especially between meals, stop to think if you are really hungry or whether it is your appetite speaking. Also, don’t be afraid to indulge once in awhile. Trying to rigidly control everything you put in your mouth leaves you frustrated and leads to failure.

I’m going to follow this plan to see if I can relearn to recognize when I’m full. It won’t be easy nor will it be quick. I’ve noticed that my kids‘ hunger signals work perfectly well and I hope always will.

Until next week,
Lisa