Diets |

10 Psychological Reasons Why Most Diets Fail

November 4, 2010 By Guest Poster

This post is republished by kind permission of Michael Parsons from Masters In Psychology

6a00d8341e628453ef00e54f131c3d8833-800wi Diets can be tough to keep up with, but maybe the problem isn’t you. There are many psychological reasons why most diets fail. Studies show that the idea of dieting sets us up for failure because it tricks the mind into thinking certain things are off-limits, thus triggering the desire for these things.

Among them milkshakes, pizza and other foods heavy in carbohydrates or sugar. When you’re trying to stay on track, remember these reasons why you’re likely to vere off course.

1. Diets deprive you. Unless you are making a complete lifestyle change, the initial stages of dieting feel like deprivation. You can’t have something, which for most of us, makes us crave that thing even more than we would if we were just allowing ourselves to eat normally. If you’re eating normal, you may have a square (or three) of chocolate. The day you decide to diet, you suddenly need an entire chocolate bar, plus a cookie. The deprivation kicks in and you end up making you crave the wrong foods and making poor choices.

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Does Switching Diets Cause Withdrawal Symptoms?

November 13, 2009 By Mark

So you’re on a particular diet and maybe having problems sticking to it, by switching from good foods to bad foods say for instance too many sweet foods which lack proper nutrition.

And you’re having a hard time keeping that balance as it should be. So does this have any effect on your mind at the same time while you are doing this.

Some recent research has found that if you switch from normal tasting foods and sweet foods, this may turn the anxiety portion of your brain on and because of this happening, you may start to over eat.

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The Fit Squad Diet

May 26, 2009 By Mark

Here is a another free weight loss resource courtesy of the Sun newspaper this is called the fit squad diet
its free so there is nothing to pay and is spread over 30 days. They have a forum for support, a BMI calculator on the front page. Here are some things they say about it.

beta.thumbalizr.com

“Food
Once you have signed in, you can enter your food preferences and we will continue to make menu suggestions for you based on your choices.

We’ve still got our library of yummy low-calorie recipes that you won’t find elsewhere – perfect for a healthy dinner party or cooking up a storm for the family and they all come with a calorie counter to keep you on track

Fitness
We’ve made it really simple to calculate how fit you are getting and how many calories you have burned when you enter how much exercise you’ve done each day – even the housework counts! To show you how well you’re doing, we’ve devised a nifty graph to instantly show how active you’ve been.

Community
We know how important support is to achieving your weight loss goal and so we’ve made the new site much more community focused. You can write a blog to tell us all how you’re getting on or email your friends with words of encouragement.”

Here is the site address if you want to sign up http://www.thesundiet.co.uk/

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20 Healthy Low Calorie Snack Ideas

March 6, 2009 By Mark

In todays hectic life we can often end up eating the wrong foods as snack’s, but hopefully this list will encourage you or 2747742480_b1ef740314[1] anyone else for that matter, who wants or needs a healthy alternative.

Fruits

Are great low calorie foods and have other health properties as well

Fruits that are less than 100 calories

1 x cup of cherries = 65 calories, health benefits are contain vitamin C, A, high in antioxidants, melatonin which helps with sleep, helps protect against heart disease and certain cancers, a lesser risk of developing diabetes, and has anti-aging properties also

1 x banana = 81 calories, not only that they have other vital minerals in such as potassium.

1 x orange = 77 calories and are a good source of vitamin C

1 x apple = 80 calories have pectin in, which is a fibre that expands in your stomach and keeps you fuller longer try eating a apple or two before a main meal and see how it keeps hunger at bay

1 x half a cup blueberries = 45 calories these have powerful antioxidant properties which may help prevent heart disease, unrinary tract infections, and may also prevent cancer

2 x plums = 60 calories these are great for stopping eye problems macular degeneration, great source of vitamin C which is a needed boost in the winter season

1 x grapefruit = 72 calories this a good fruit to eat if your concerned about getting diabetes, it lowers insulin consult, your health care professional if you are diabetic and want to eat grapefruit it can interact with certain medications

1 x tangerine = 37 calories also high in vitamin C and fibre

1 x kiwi fruit = 46 calories these are high in vitamin C E and A vitamins, and are also very high in fibre, so a great for keeping your digestion in good working order

1 x peach or nectarine = 37 calories health benefits are good for lowering cholesterol, and regenerating skin tissue and also contain many essential vitamins A B1,B2 which help keep the nervous system functioning correctly so if your feeling stressed a peach may be able to help.

1 x a half a cup of some raspberries = 41 calories, these are high in vitamin C, folate and potassium which can help with lowering blood pressure, and have high amounts of insoluble fibre, which is a benefit if you have constipation problems.

1 x half a cup of a fruit cocktail in its own juices = 60 calories the content of vitamins and minerals will be dependent on what is in the cocktail.

1 x ripe tomato or some cherry tomatoes = 33 calories health benefits are contain lypocene this is well known for keeping cancer at bay, this is because lypocene is a powerful antioxidant which protects cells from toxins from the environment eg pollutants, also contains vitamins A,C,K minerals, potassium and dietary fibre.

Vegetables

that are under a hundred calories

Contain lots of nutrition and essential vitamins and minerals

1 x cucumber = 60 calories, health benefits are high in water so will fill your stomach making you feel full, high in fibre essential for good digestive health, contains potassium for lowering blood pressure, also contains vitamin C and magnesium

1 x small sized baked potato = 80 calories potatoes are high in vitamin C, vitamin B6 as well as minerals potassium, magnesium, copper and a good source of dietary fibre which is essential for good stomach and bowel health

1 x oatmeal a full cup of = 146 calories, eat half for one snack during the day or eat on alternate days, health benefits contains fibre that mops up cholesterol which end up in the stomach, and would otherwise end up in your blood stream

Contains soluble fibre which is good for people watching there blood sugar levels, so ideal for diabetics, this is because the carbs are released slowly, making you feel fuller longer you can eat porridge at any time of the day it’s a bit of a misconception that you just have to eat it for breakfast also contains vitamins E1 B1 and 2

1 x celery sticks small ones = 20 calories these contain vitamins A B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, C, E and K minerals, are a good source of potassium a known blood pressure lowering component and a good source of fibre, have a high levels of calcium which is good for nervous system function making you feel calmer if your overly stressed.

1 x piece of whole grain bread, toasted = calories 85 health benefits are high fibre content, so leaves you feeling fuller longer, contain B vitamins, iron which helps with the movement of oxygen to blood cells, magnesium for a healthy nervous system, and folate which is of benefit for keeping red blood cells healthy, great for overall digestive health, keeps you regular, or if you maybe having constipation problems

Dairy produce

has some health benefits not all are bad

1x egg hard boiled or poached, health benefits are high in protein low in cholesterol eggs contain a lot of vitamins. In particular, B vitamins and are high in vitamin B2 riboflavin, and vitamin B12 ,D and A.

they have many necessary minerals and other’s such as phosphorus, iodine and selenium and iron and zinc are present in lesser amounts. Eggs have had a lot of bad press at times there not as bad for you as once thought

1x small portion of low fat cottage cheese = 70 calories, health benefits, is the lowest in fat as far as cheeses go. Has a very good source of protein without the worry of eating to much fat, high levels of potassium see other foods above for health benefits of potassium, and high in calcium which is essential for healthy teeth and bones.

Going through this list should help you if your stuck for ideas for snacks, you could use the above to form a sandwich box that you can take anywhere, so your not tempted to eat other foods which can be the case when your at work, crisps and chocolate fit into office draws quite well so I hear.

If you have any other ideas for snack’s, do let me know I’m always open to other one’s that might not be present in this list.

Data Source http://www.fitnessireland.ie/100snacks.php

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The Grandad Diet

January 14, 2009 By Mark

2144462091_b503558c7e[1] Please don’t be too alarmed by the title of this article, it doesn’t mean that you have to to get some chequered slippers, and a cardigan and and eat like somebody who may be a bit older than yourself. In today’s society we have become a bit brainwashed by what to eat, things change in the weight loss industry constantly and sometimes it can seem a bit overwhelming as to what not to eat.

Most of the advice revolves around eating a low-fat diet and one which is high in fibre also, but now the advice for eating in 2009 and which is of course healthy. Is to return to your Grandad’s war eating days, so don’t worry too much if you eat for breakfast egg and bacon. So so what is being recommended now is doing away with eating three meals a day, but eat those and also have snacks.

This will stop blood sugar fluctuation throughout the day, a lot of people are led to believe that snacking is not good for you, and tend to avoid it but the problem with doing this is you tend to stop yourself eating in between meals, and when it comes to eating your main meal you may eat more than the normal requirement of food.

Some people even avoid having breakfast by the time it comes to lunch time they are absolutely starving, and probably eat more than they should do at this particular time of the day also.

Keeping overall blood sugar stable is one of the most key ingredients of trying to lose weight, when your blood sugar tends to fluctuate throughout the day. You can tend to develop cravings for the wrong foods and this is where the problems can start.

Gillian Hamer who is one of the United Kingdom ‘s leading nutritionists, says that evidence shows that fat isn’t as bad as what people make it out to be, she goes on to say that that many of them are vital for processing vitamins that keep our immune system functioning correctly.

She she also says the key to this particular diet is eating the natural unprocessed foods every three to four hours which will keep blood sugar levels, more stable. And doing this will keep your weight under control better.

Patrick Holford who is the founder of the Institute for optimum nutrition in the UK, says that keeping weight under control is not about slashing calories and or fat, he says that people should avoid low-fat products, and so-called slimming products, and diets that are very high in starchy foods.

He also goes on to say that eating refined carbohydrates such as things like white bread, pasta and cereals and some snack bars, tend to elevate your sugar levels, this will cause what is known as a insulin spike in your body which tells it to store fat.

He added to this is that a lot of the so-called low-fat diets foods were made after the Second World War, and they tend to be very high in carbohydrates or sugar. And have tended to become part of the problem of being overweight and not necessarily the solution to it.

He also goes on to say that if you do you eat lots of excess calories and fatty foods, then this obviously will cause weight gain in the long-term, people are pointing the wrong finger at the wrong culprit, he says it is sugar that is more the problem rather than excess fat.

When you eat a meal that has carbohydrates in it and also combine that with some protein like say for instance a sausage or an egg, the protein will counteract the carbohydrate within the meal, this is due to the fact that protein takes longer to break down in the body that a lot of carbohydrates do, and this is where it comes into its own.

Because once you combine foods like this, it keeps blood sugar levels far more level and keep you fuller for longer so you eat less. Dr Malcolm Kendrick who is a diet guru and author of a book called the Great Cholesterol Con, says that evidence has been found that if people do eat a high-fat diet, they are far more likely, to lose weight compared to those people who don’t.

So that in itself blows don’t eat high-fat foods out of the water theory, the thing to watch with high-fat diets is too muchLDL cholesterol or saturated fats, because they are ones that will cause you to have high cholesterol levels which you don’t necessarily want.

Here is a typical example of the Grandad diet,

Breakfast

Scrambled egg, Bacon butter and some wholemeal toast. Or porridge with fruit and seeds or nuts.

11 a.m. snack

Fruit and nuts or some oatcakes and some cheese.

Lunch and or dinner options

Meat/oily fish and two veg with potato either boiled, or mashed. Beans on wholemeal toast and butter.

Pudding

Apple crumble

In summary of this the thing to do more than anything is use common sense, when you’re planning your meals and you will be fine, if you are having problems trying to lose weight than it is highly recommended to start a food diary. So you can see exactly where you are with your eating habits because sometimes even though you think you may be eating correctly. It’s not always necessarily the case.

Source www.sundayexpress.co.uk

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The Cabbage Soup Diet

November 12, 2008 By Mark

cabbage As we are all well aware it can be difficult sometimes when you’re trying to lose some weight, and things don’t seem to quite work out the way that you would like them to, I have been there many self my many times trying various different things, different diets etc. Some work some don’t but the other day I came across, a article which revolved around cabbage soup as a diet plan.

So here is what the cabbage soup diet is, this particular diet is supposed to be very good for people who would like to shed a few pounds very quickly, it also has two other names those are the Sacred Heart Hospital Diet and the Mayo Clinic Diet.

According to what experts say this is a good way to kickstart your weight-loss plan when your first starting off trying to lose some excess weight, as its name suggests what you do is eat cabbage soup for a seven-day period.

It must be said though that this particular diet is not something that, is lifelong it is only to get you started losing some initial way to start off with. Here is the basic cabbage soup recipe so you can make your own if you feel confident doing so.

You will need :

one head of cabbage

six medium onions

six green onions

six carrots

two bell peppers either green or red

three large tomatoes

five stalks of celery

four ounces of uncooked brown rice

salt and some freshly ground black pepper

The actual cabbage soup itself hardly has any calories, it is more used for its filler ability, this is useful because it will stop you from getting food cravings. And over eating so you will tend to lose weight.

Here is a rough guide to what you eat whilst being on the cabbage soup diet for seven days.

Day one

On this day you eat plenty of fruit’s which every your favourite is the only thing to do here, is exclude bananas, and there is no limit to how many times you have the cabbage soup.

Day two

This day is vegetables eat as many vegetables, that you like to supplement your cabbage soup the only things to avoid are corn, beans and peas. Make sure you eat plenty of leafy green vegetables, i.e. broccoli, brussel sprouts etc. also on this day avoid eating fruit. Also if needs be for your tea or lunch as the case may be, have a baked potato with a small knob of butter.

Day three

On this day you need to eat a mixture of fruit and vegetables, miss the jacket potato on this particular day. Don’t eat bananas also but you can eat as much fruit and vegetables as you desire.

Day four

Eat eight bananas on this particular day, supplement this with drinking plenty of skimmed milk and have as much cabbage soup as you can manage.

Day five

Add around 20 ounces of beef to your cabbage soup in order to supplement it on this particular day, also add six tomatoes and potatoes. If you do not like to eat beef then you can always use chicken if you prefer, drink plenty of water also six glasses, the more the better this washes away uric acid.

Day six

On this day you need to eat beef all day,as well as the cabbage soup, and plenty of vegetables just avoid eating potatoes.

Day seven

Brown rice can be eaten on this particular day, as well as fruit juices, to supplement your cabbage soup also.

So there you have it the cabbage diet some people do say to follow this particular diet, for a week it probably can become a bit boring for some people and they might not be able to stick at it. For seven days but realistically if you get results from it then there is no harm in trying, even though seven days can seem quite a long time. It can tend to go very quickly and it’s not like you are going to have to eat cabbage soup every day for ever.

You could probably use the following information to supplement what you are already doing, and just eat cabbage soup a couple of times a week. Sometimes experimenting with different foods is the best way, to find out what works for yourself some things work better than others for some people when others don’t.

Here is a link for the cabbage diet recipe so you can cook it for yourself

http://www.cabbagesoupdiet-s.com/the-cabbage-soup-cuisine.html

And here is the main site address http://www.cabbagesoupdiet-s.com/

Source http://www.bestsyndication.com/?q=node/19261

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Japan Goes Bananas For New Diet

October 24, 2008 By Mark

banana diet Where ever we live in the world you can’t help but notice how Japan and now perhaps China tend to be at the forefront when it comes to new trends especially technology ones.

But now something slightly different is emerging from Japan it seems there is a new diet craze that is sweeping the nation over there, which is based around bananas it isn’t sorely banana-based but more this is something that you eat.

At a particular time during the day this new diet craze for fad which ever you prefer, is called the Morning Banana Diet, things have got so bad in Japan that there is a shortage of bananas in shops that sell them. The Japanese have become so obsessed and want to be on the leading edge of the latest diet trends, the main reason it has become so popular with young women in Japan is, some woman apparently lost 26 pounds on the Morning Banana Diet.

Things have got to extremes now with bananas in supermarkets, several large ones that sell them are now running out, at 12 p.m. and others are running out at 3 p.m. in the afternoon, so if you are interested in how this particular method of dieting works. Here it is in a nutshell

The Morning Banana Diet.

Breakfast have one banana and a glass of water
Have anything you like for your lunch or dinner just as long as it’s before 8 p.m.
A having a snack at 3 p.m. is suggested
Don’t have deserts after meals
And lastly go to bed before midnight

The banana diet and its origins came about because a pharmacist whose husband was overweight, and came up with a diet plan he lost 37 pounds following this particular method, the pharmacist who came up with the concept says that it speeds up your metabolism. And as a result her husband lost the aforementioned in weight.

However though we must state some caution here because a professor in Japan Masahiko Okada who works at a school of medicine, said that you must put into question the ethics behind this particular way of dieting. He says that the body has three basic nutrients fat, protein, carbohydrate.

And says that in order to have a healthy body it is important to have a balance, of these three essential nutrients in order to have good health. He then goes on to say that if you to take this approach then you won’t need to be swayed by certain fad diets like the banana one for example.

But what exactly do you tell people who are overweight and are willing to try anything, in order to try and shed a few pounds in the quickest shortest possible time, how long it will be before this particular diet fades into a black hole is another matter.

But really sometimes is it just best to take things into your own hands and see if something like this will work for yourself, you never really know until you try. Anyway must go and buy some more bananas as you can see I am not swayed by such fad diets.

Source

http://www.digtriad.com

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Gi Diet Plan Day One

October 3, 2008 By Mark

GI Diet I did a series of posts a while back now which revolved around eating a high fibre diet so decided to do a another 7 day series of posts but this time its based on the G.I diet, you don’t have to stick to it rigidly just add or take away things that you may or may not like.

So here is day ones menu

Breakfast

Porridge oats (oatmeal )

With some fruit of your choice, mixed with water and skimmed milk this is purely a personal choice, I make mine with water and sometimes use milk but not always. I add sweetener to my porridge it just gives it that small lift . Some fat free yogurt and add some sweetener for flavour, 5 tablespoons of almonds and some more fresh fruit

Mid Morning Snack

One Apple

Lunch

Salad

Some iceburg lettuce or round lettuce leaves, a carrot sliced or grated 1/2 of a either a red, green, yellow pepper, a tomato cut into 4 quarters, a quarter of a cucumber sliced,a sliced red onion, put all this in a bowl and toss to mix it.

And add some Vinaigrette here is a basic recipe for that if you don’t have one or know how to make it. You will need two tablespoons of vinegar, one tablespoon of olive oil, half a table spoon of mustard, a small amount of salt, a small amount of black pepper,some dried herbs place all in a bowl and mix to combine. Then you will have your salad dressing you could always use low fat salad cream or mayonaise.

Mid Afternoon Snack

One Pear

Dinner/Tea

Salmon steak served with garden peas make sure you have more peas to keep the balance right and serve with a sweet potato mashed, you can cook these in the microwave or peel and boil them.

Evening Snack

One large orange

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How To Avoid a Online Diet Nightmare

August 19, 2008 By Mark

2444248841_4b8da386bb[1] It’s all too easy these days to go on line and look for something on a particular subject, such is the ability of modern search engines to be able to bring up your particular topic or subject with such great ease is astounding.

Put in a search term such as weight loss, dietary advice, nutritional advice, how to lose weight, which diet is best etc, you will have before you a plethora of search results, and you can be very easily misguided by what is being presented before you.

You have to remember that most of the sites on the Internet that are giving advice in a particular area, may not be written by somebody who is qualified in a particular area to give advice on losing weight, diet advice, and any other advice which revolves around your health.

It does pay to be extremely careful when selecting someone or a site for instance that is going to supposedly give you expert advice when it comes to dietary issues etc.

The Sunday Mail Online today reports such findings which when you read the following information, you might find quite surprising although some people may not find it surprising.

A 52-year-old mother of two took the advice of one of these on line dieting sites from a so-called nutritional therapist who told her to go on a detox diet, which involved drinking four pints of water a day and a large reduction in salt intake.

After being on this plan for a week she was taken to hospital very ill, and as a result of being on this particular plan had epileptic fits, and the end result was having permanent brain damage. She was awarded £800,000 in compensation which although it sounds a lot, it won’t give her her life back and stop her from suffering from epileptic fits.

The pitfall of this is there is a legal loophole which people use you cannot be called a registered dietitian unless you are qualified because doing so is illegal.

However you are able to say that you are a nutritional expert there is no law stating that you have to be qualified, in order to give out information to people regarding nutritional health.

So you are able to call yourself a nutritionist without any worries of being told that what you’re doing isn’t correct, or that you are not qualified to give out information regarding people’s nutritional health. Unless you actually look for a qualified nutritionist using the Nutrition Society’s registry who have to do a three-year course in order to become one, then the information you get will be less than satisfactory.

You are at the mercy of other people, so really unless you know a little bit yourself about nutrition it’s a bit like playing Russian roulette with your health. The Mail on Sunday did their own investigation and their reporter posed as a working mother, who was suffering from low energy that was the only symptom that the sites were told she had.

She told them that she was eating a diet of some cereal and a banana for breakfast, and that her lunch consisted of a sandwich or, cheese with some tomatoes and crackers. Having a biscuit in the afternoon, and had fish with some salad for her dinner, she also told them that she ate eggs and red meat once a week and didn’t have any supplements in her diet also.

So this diet would actually give her 25 percent of the amount of iron she would need in her diet in order to feel quite normal. A lack of iron in your diet can make you feel quite tired and lacking in energy. So here are the results of the sites that they chose to try in order to get some nutritional advice regarding their particular problem which she had.

The first site which was used was nature’s-nutrition.co.uk they claimed to be a team of trained nutritional practitioners which were unnamed. How this particular site works is you send in a urine sample, and also fill in a form to tell them what you have been eating. Was they able to spot the deficiency ? the answer was no. The urine test said that there was all sorts of imbalances in the body which was due to electrical appliances within the home giving off (EMR ) electro magnetic radiation.She was told to avoid dairy foods and to eat lots of fruit and vegetables. That was the nutritional advice that she got for this particular instance. The diet plan which she was given was low in protein and iron as well. They gave the site a quality score of 1/5. And said that the advice that was given by the site was nonsense and would not properly address the problem that you may be having with your energy levels regarding a lack of iron.

The next site on the list was muscle-talk.co.uk this is run by somebody called James Collier, the diagnosis is done by sending in what you eat each day, and a proposed diet plan is sent for you in order to follow.This is done by filling in a questionnaire which does sound a bit more of a professional approach in order to diagnose any deficiencies, within your particular eating habits your asked if there has been any serious illnesses within your life and if so what they were.Were they able to spot the iron deficiency ? the researchers said no they didn’t, but the advice given was to eat more read lean meat which is a good source of iron.The recommendations that were given were on a sheet with bullet points as to what to eat, the advice that was given from this particular site was indeed up to the mark and scored a quality score of 3/5. The dietary recommendations which were given were eat cereal for breakfast, eat good sensible portions of protein, and eating red meat for its iron content.

The next site which was tested was called dietaryadvice.co.uk, this is an online service which is provided by two registered dietician’s, what you get from this service is a diary to use, which you are given when you have completed 12 questions to fill in on a online form.Were they able to spot the iron deficiency ? no they were not, the dietary advice that was given from this particular site was to eat fruit rather than eating chocolate as a snack, keep your salt intake low and eat a variety of foods from different food groups, carbohydrates fiber, protein, the opinion that was gathered about this particular service. Was it was a quick glance at what you eat and a quick turnaround for your particular diet plan, this particular site got a quality rating of 2/5.

Next is mckeithinteractive this site is run by show host Gillian McKeith of you are what you eat fame, what you get from this particular service is a diet dietary service, you are asked to provide answers from 20 multiple-choice questions. Was they able to spot the iron deficiency ? the researchers said nearly.You get a 70 page in-depth preview of how health is related to your eating habits and your diet, the advice that was given to the researcher was to reduce her intake of salt and wheat, and stop consumption of dairy products and alcohol as well. The recommendations were to eat porridge, spinach soup, and a vegetarian’s stew for lunch and dinner. This particular site achieved a quality score of 2/5.

And the last site was nutriprofile, this last site was free. All the others you have to you pay for you get a unique scientific validated report, which is personalised to meet your own nutritional needs you fill in a detailed on line questionnaire form. And in return you get a 22 page document which shows you where things are lacking in. Were they able to spot the iron deficiency ? the researchers said partially.She was advised that there were deficiencies within her iron intake and contained within report was a two-page document suggesting certain supplements which could be taken in order to correct the particular issues which she had, this was a way to make you buy particular supplements which you may not have needed. This site got a quality score of 1/5.

There is a moral to this story and it quite simply is this, if you do have a particular problem with nutrition please don’t try any services or sites without getting professional guidance go and see your GP who may be able to put you in touch with someone who knows all about nutrition and diet.

It is so easy to get sucked in by marketing talk, which a lot of the time has no real basis and/or standing as regards someone’s expertise, in a particular field especially one’s such as so-called nutritionists or dietitians whom aren’t qualified to give expert advice.

There may be no way at all to validate what these people can say is true or not, and whether or not the advice they are giving to you is going to help you with your particular dietary and/or nutritional needs. I do hope by reading this that it will make you more weary in the future of trusting what other people say and can do.

Source http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/

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What Causes Food Addiction ?

March 25, 2008 By Mark

Most addictions normally have some root cause there is a possibility that some emotional trauma, could food addiction trigger it off or in some respects you could say it’s self punishment to a certain extent.

What Happens ?

So how does this all come about what is the process in our brains that makes us act this way, when you are motivated to do anything in life, there has to be a certain amount of good feeling with what you’re doing. In the human brain we have a chemical known as dopamine which is a motivational chemical this is what drives us to do things, and if there is a lack of it then not to do things.

Studies have been done on rats, that when stimulated with dopamine in their brain’s they will perform the same task over and over when given a dopamine fix, and a association that went with it. In the study done on the rats they were trained to press a switch and then given the dopamine fix.

When this happened the rats would continually press the button everytime they were given the dopamine fix until they couldn’t do it any more and were exhausted. So as we can see from this particular study when you do something that causes you to stimulate the dopamine receptors in your mind it is going to be very hard to stop this behaviour from happening.

This in a nutshell is how we become addicted to various substances, whether it be alcohol, smoking, shopping or any other addictive behavior. This is why it can be very hard to break addictive behaviour by willpower alone because this is all happening in the primitive part of your brain.

Are We Programmed This Way ?

It would seem we are some recent research that was done on people, revolved round using one particular sugary food dough-nuts, participants were shown a picture of a dough nut or a screwdriver, when they were shown a picture of the dough-nut, their brains electronic waveform activity went haywire but not when shown the screwdriver.

After the test subjects had eaten and quite a lot of dough nuts eight to be exact, their brain scans were totally different this time. When shown the same pictures again there was hardly any brain activity at all.

The test subjects were then tested after eight hour fast, to see what the results would be this time on this particular occasion to parts of the brain were stimulated, one part being limbic region which is otherwise known as the lizard brain, so it was saying here is food not only am I hungry, and making a decision between the screwdriver and the dough-nut.

The part of the brain that is called spatial reasoning decided that at the present time the dough nut, was far more important than the screwdriver was at the time. There probably wouldn’t even be any conscious thought during this process, so as we can see from this it’s very easy to understand what happens when we see food before us.

In a nutshell it’s all about needs at a certain time so if you’re walking down a dark alley your senses will be very highly attuned just in case you might think something is going to happen so on that particular scenario you’re less likely to be thinking about food.

And more what to do if someone tries to attack you. so in conclusion it’s probably best to make yourself aware and when you want to eat that sugary snack or doughnut, think consciously more do I really need to eat it or not.

And eat something in its place instead that isn’t so loaded with sugar.

Source : Daily Mail

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