Why do you eat?

As a child I found meal times a waste of time and still have a little of this memory. If I am busy, I am happy to go until late afternoon until I eat, but if I have had a drink and am relaxed, well, I can eat everything in the fridge. If I am stressed, as before Christmas I can eat for England, but now we are back to normal, I am just eating two ordinary meals again. I avoid breakfast as it makes me hungry all morning and do not buy any 'nice' snacks, only exotic fruit. It really is all in the mind I think.

I can remember as a child, being totally uninterested in food, to the extent of feeling quite nauseous at the the thought.
I wonder when it all changed so Dr

Oops! So drastically..

I've always loved food, both the virtuous & the naughty, especially when sharing it with others. Unfortunately my tummy no longer agrees and gives me the awful reflux ? .

I don't have a healthy relationship with food. I wouldn't describe it as living to eat though. I associate food with emotions - good and bad. Meals are about eating to live, and then there's all the other things I can eat for emotional reasons.

MinniesMum try drinking ginger tea about 1-2 hours after you’ve eaten.

I too remember as a child feeling sick whenever I sat down to a meal. My mum ended up taking me to the doc as she was so worried about me (I was skin & bone as a child). I can recall being laughed at when I stated that I didn’t like food. That has changed over the years, but I can still (lucky for me) resist over eating on the whole. I never have understood DH who can be full from a main course, but still have room for pudding. He claims he has an extra pudding stomach, which my son agrees.

NonnaW. It's as if you are talking about my childhood. I was stick thin and dreaded mealtimes. I scraped my food into a heap over to one side of my plate so it would look like I'd ate the empty part.

Me too. I hardly ever got sweets, but they didn't interest me either.

I have always loved food and enjoyed eating and savouring it. I am still constantly trying out new recipes, new foods, but this does not mean that I stuff myself with food.

As a child I had a huge appetite and was never too full to eat more, but I somehow always remained stick thin. This changed with puberty and I soon learned that eating without control meant putting on weight and vanity overrode appetite and I learned to prefer quality to quantity.

Except for a period after the menopause, where weight gain was hormonal, I have always kept my weight within the approved BMI range.

I’m not sure if I have an unhealthy relationship with food per se but I most definitely have a shockingly unhealthy relationship with sugar. No matter how hard I try I don’t seem to be able to control my appetite for sweet things whether that’s cake, puddings or chocolate, I’ll even eat Haribo sweets if there’s nothing else around!

Every so often I manage to cut out all unnecessary extra sugar, it takes a huge effort of will but I feel and look so much better for it. Sadly I’m back on the sugar after an emotionally draining period and feeling awful. I’m not one for making resolutions normally but something has to be done. It’s almost an addiction.

baubles I’m reading Robert Lustig’s (he of ‘Sugar : the Bitter Truth’ fame)new book ‘The hacking of the American Mind’ in which he explores the idea that pleasure and happiness are not the same thing, and the science behind it.
He explains until WW2, sugar was used as a condiment but since then, food manufacturers have exploited our natural liking for sweet things to the point where we are now consuming it for reward & pleasure. Our neural pathway response to sugar is via dopamine, the same as our response to some drugs, alcohol, gambling, internet use(!) and other addictive behaviours.
I’m only halfway through the book so don’t know if he offers any suggestions for overcoming these things!

baubles this might help boost your will power Excess sugar link to Alzheimer’s

It’s generally accepted that research has provided a link between type 2 diabetes and increased risk of dementia. This study seems to take it one step further.

Why do I eat? Because i am hard wired to, otherwise I would die.

Given my age I feel it incumbent in me to take as much pleasure in life as possible.

So I enjoy the whole process of food preparation and eating.
It is to me a gift just like a good book or play, gardening or experience like holiday etc.

I don’t have as many years left as I have lived so I try to ensure that everything is lived to the full. Why shouldn’t I?

whitewave I deduce that you walk in that sweet spot where you glory in all the sensations food can bring, but balance it so you do not suffer the misery of excess weight.

jane I found Robert Lustig's first book mind blowing. I know it talks a lot about the chemical interactions, but it was like putting together a jigsaw and then seeing the light when it was finished.

I wish there was a way to share the information in an easier to understand way because it is life changing. I sound over dramatic, but I really feel people like Robert Lustig are just not being heard. And to think it was a British scientist who discovered the truth 40 years ago. I'm glad Lustig acknowledges the work of the Professor Yudkin after what he went through.

I will get a copy of Lustig's new book - thank you.

Thanks janea and OldMeg for the reading suggestions, I’ll look at them both.

wilma I find RL’s American-colloquial style a bit irritating but I agree the science is mind-blowing. I read John Yudkin’s book in the early 70’s and am so glad his work is now being recognised.

whitewave in Lustig’s book he distinguishes between pleasure & contentment. Contentment is what you experience through the things you mention, cooking and eating a meal, gardening, walking, being moved by beautiful art or music. Contentment leads to happiness.
Pleasure in the other hand is the relatively short lived satisfaction that you get from eating a box of chocolates, gambling, sex, for example, and for which your desire can change from ‘want’ to ‘need’, the point at which you can’t control it any longer and unhealthy outcomes such as addiction are the result.

Good heavens! I always have to watch my weight! But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t find pleasure in the gift of a meal well grown, picked and prepared.

Please note I use the word pleasure because that is exactly what it is.

I simply do not agree with the suggestion that pleasure leads to addiction. It smacks of a puritanical jusdgement which I reject.

We take pleasure is sex because we are, like eating hard wired to do so.

Gambling and a box of chocolates are not good examples imo.

The biochemical differences between pleasure and contentment are explained in the book ww.
He defines pleasure in a more narrow way than you would use it in conversation.

I only eat to live as I have to cope with several food intolerances.

I am with Whitewave on this. I do get fed up with authors who give common words with well-understood meanings, some arcane meaning to suit their purposes.

I think authors writing for the popular market do this deliberately to engender publicity and discussion because everyone gives the redefined word its common meaning when they see the publicity puff and protests, thus drawing attention to the book.

I eat because I am bored, tired, unhappy, cold, frustrated lonely. the list goes on and on.
I try to fill my life with challenges and interests and 2018 will be better.
Happy New Year to everyone! Particularly to those spending it alone.

Same for me rascal

Have you read any of Robert Lustig’s books, Monica?