Fact Files : For the Love of Food

Sarah Markham, Accredited Practising Dietitian, A.P.D

I have been working as a dietitian for 20 years and have supported hundreds of people on their weight loss journey. Interestingly, despite our advances in understanding the metabolic and biochemical processes associated with eating and weight loss, many of our patients lose weight only to have it find them again.

The phrase ‘For the Love of Food’ comes to mind when I explore the possible reasons why there is a burgeoning epidemic of overweight and obesity in the world. Food plays a meaningful and central role in our lives from the moment we are born. As infants we learn the association between being fed, comfort and security. As we grow up, through the journey of life the role food plays becomes more complex, intertwined with our emotions. It is often a key feature of celebrations, family gatherings, wedding’s, birthday’s and funerals. It is often associated to both the happy and sad times in our lives.

As we journey through life, our food behaviour becomes a part of our automatic patterning, in essence a habit which is under the control of the unconscious mind. Unconscious behaviours exist because of some earlier point in our lives there was a good reason for them. Our unconscious mind remembers and stores the earlier lesson and lives by them to keep us safe from emotional and physical pain. For many people their unconscious mind is keeping their weight as a barrier to tackle other issues in their life, such as developing relationships or being successful in their work.

When embarking on a weight loss regimen it is our logic conscious mind which sets this in place. Usually the conscious mind can maintain this regimen and focus for between 4 – 8 weeks after which time it starts to be challenged by the unconscious food behaviours, sabotaging the efforts of the individual to change their behaviour around food. Part of these challenges surfaces as a result of the deprivation that often accompanies dieting, when the food individuals’ love is excluded from their dieting regimen. This is well demonstrated in the Minnesota Experiment undertaking during World War II, which was set up to understand the effects of starvation. A group of conscientious objectors were starved over a six month period, during which time they lost 25% of their body weight. The physical impact of this process was interesting, though the psychological outcome was fascinating. Food for these individuals became the key topic of discussion. They became involved in menu planning and the pictures of women on the walls were replaced by pictures of food. During the three month period of re-feeding the men’s appetites for food was insatiable. One year on, a number of the men had exceeded their pre study weights. This experiment highlights that food deprivation leads to preoccupation and overeating.

When assisting people in their endeavours to lose weight it is important to be mindful of their particular reasons for eating and attachments to food. The difficulties they encounter in attempting to change their food behaviours and lose weight is common and a normal part of the change process.

In summary the keys to assisting individual to achieve and maintain a healthy weight encompasses assisting them to:

• Establish a healthy eating lifestyle which encompasses guidelines in relation to food type and volume along with setting healthy boundaries around favourite / high sacrifice foods.
  
  
• Recognise the internal cues associated with physical hunger with the goal to practice to STOP eating when no longer hungry.
  
  
• Encourage mindfulness around food and eating, setting strategies to manage external triggers for overeating such as stress, social functions and the influence of other people.
  
  
• Master the savouring of food. This encompasses engaging all the senses, initially eating the food with our eyes, then smelling it to determine the various aromas, then take a small bite and let it sit on the tongue and then chew slowly and swallow. It is these first five steps that derive us pleasure for once it is swallowed the pleasure is gone.

When undertaking this mindful approach to weight management individuals have the opportunity to establish new eating patterns that embraces their love of food and the role in plays in their lives. This is a refreshing approach which brings with it fabulous results.

References

• Franklin JC, Burtrum CS, Brozek J, Keys A Observations on human behaviour in experimental semi starvation and rehabilitation Human Behaviour 1948 : 28-45
• Weight Loss for Food Lovers understanding our minds and why we sabotage our weight loss Dr George Blair-West
  

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