How do you know to eat?

That’s a simple question that gets a lot of different answers; I know, I have asked a lot of different people. The kinds of answer I get are.

• When I am hungry
  
• It’s the time of the day
  
• It’s a physical Feeling
  
• Things need eating up
  
• Boredom – Routine
  
• When the guests arrive
  
• Expectations -  “try one of these you will like this”
  
• When it is in front of me
  
• When you can smell it – walk past the chip shop
  
• Association – such as cinema and popcorn or Nachos (convenience) shopping and Star Bucks
  
• The thought just pops in your head, the chocolate bar is calling you from the fridge
  
• “I know it is a distraction thing for me I do it to put things off” (Procrastination behaviour)
  
• Advertising prompt
  
• Celebrations and Social – Champagne/Chocolates. BBQ and Family dinner, parties, socials, cultural norms.

Some of these answers are a lot more useful then others in your weight loss, slimming journey. There are external influences and persuasion such as social situation ritual or advertising.

And then there is the difference between emotional eating and a physical need. It does not take a genius to realise, they way to go is to only eat when you have a physical need for food. Easier said then done that one, but done it can be, and is being done. Have a conversation with a Naturally Thin Person, someone who has never had a weight problem in their lives and ask them how the do this thing called ‘Eating’. More often than not, when food is thought of, it is not an emotional response, it is a response to a physical need…

How does your body do this thing call hunger, internally, how do you know when you are hungry? In a word, it’s your hormones. The "hunger" hormone is called ghrelin. It is produced in the lining of your stomach and the epsilon cells of the pancreas. Its counter part is the  hormone leptin which induces the feeling of satiation or fullness. That’s the ’I am full now thank you’ feeling. It is the hippocampus, that small area deep down on each sides of your brain, which responds to both these hormones and lets you know what your digestive system needs. The fluctuation of leptin and ghrelin hormone levels drives your physical need for food.

When you eat, it is your fat cells that do something very specific. You have two particular types of fat cells called  Adipocytes, also known as lipocytes. They come in two types, white adipose tissue (WAT) and brown adipose tissue (BAT) It is these little beautys that trigger the release of leptin into the body. reducting your motivation to eat. After hours of non-consumption, leptin levels drop significantly. Low levels of leptin cause the release of the second hormone, ghrelin, which in turn reinitiates the feeling of hunger.

Now that is a very simple control circuit, and it would work very well indeed if left alone to do so. The difficulty is our own intelligence that add all these other emotions and feelings and ‘stuff’ into the mix that makes it complicated. What you eat will never be as important as the reason you eat.

If we were only as emotionally complex as a slug then we would all have beautiful bodies, and unfortunately no way to knowingly appreciate them! Hypnotherapy is not a miracle cure; for many people it is a great way to regain Eating Control, and to take care of what ever drives you to behave as you do. Give me a call and I will give you an honest answer if Hypnotherapy would be good for you. 0208 647 7441

 

Reference sources

Malik, S; McGlone F, Bedrossian D, Dagher A (2007). Cell Metabolism 7: 400–9. PMID 18460331.
Inui A, Asakawa A, Bowers CY, et al. (2004). "Ghrelin, appetite, and gastric motility: the emerging role of the stomach as an endocrine organ". FASEB J. 18 (3): 439–56. doi:10.1096/fj.03-0641rev. PMID 15003990.

The Endocrine Society (2010, June 21). Stomach hormone ghrelin increases desire for high-calorie foods, study finds. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 8, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100621091201.htm

Lall S, Tung LY, Ohlsson C, Jansson JO, Dickson SL (2001). "Growth hormone (GH)-independent stimulation of adiposity by GH secretagogues". Biochem Biophys Res Commun 280 (1): 132–138. doi:10.1006/bbrc.2000.4065. PMID 11162489.

Richard Stone 0208 647 7441
Richard.Stone@ModernHypnotherapy.co.uk