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Pleasure, Food, Eating, & Obesity
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- Category: Food and Weight
"Pleasure eating triggers body’s reward system and may stimulate overeating." This finding is in a new study that, caught my eye and my imagination this morning after pleasurable tea party in my garden.
We need to appreciate this phenomena if we want to eat well and avoid obesity. Otherwise we'll get used to those rewards, seek them out and, most likely, misinterpret feelings that cue us to eat.
According to the study, if you eat something, like a scone or an ice-cream cone because the taste is appealing while your body does not need calories for fuel, your body emits chemical reward signals.
That means that you teach your body to reward you for unnecessary eating and eventually, for overeating. For you who follow my writings, you know I talk about kindness, self care, tenderness toward self as vital aspects of eating disorder recovery. The Palmiero Monteleone, MD, of the University of Naples SUN in Italy study shows us that giving ourselves genuine self care and pleasure is practical. We need to ignite reward systems within us in response to healthy pleasurable activities based on kindness, love and caring.
This morning I had a wonderful surprise. Two little girls who were my best friends 13 years ago and moved away, were in town today and wanted to see me. What a treat to see them as young women. We had tea and scones in my garden this morning, played catch up, shared memories and spent a lot of time beaming at one another.
When they left I had a tray in the kitchen holding a partially filled tea pot, empty cups, empty plates and one untouched cranberry orange scone. These scones are delectable.
I looked the appealing scone knowing that it would still be a taste delight. I thought about eating it. Here are my considerations:
- Eat for pleasure? No. If I ate for the pleasure of the scone the sensations would affect my feelings. I would lose some of the glow of happiness that came from being with these precious girls.
- Eat rather than waste? Nonsense. My body is not a trash bin. The scone either goes in the trash or in me. I don't save money, food or the planet by eating what I don't need.
- Eat because I'm hungry? No. I'm not hungry. I will be soon, but that will be for energy needs. I'll wait and have a nourishing lunch to fuel me for the afternoon. A scone won't do that. I don't need this scone.
I discarded the scone along with the crumbs and napkins as I cleaned up after our garden tea. I felt a pleasant feeling of pleasure washing the cups as I continued to think and feel about the girls.
The call to eat that scone for pleasure vanished. It was almost, now that I've read about the study, as if an inner reward system was ready to rise up within me when I ate that scone. But when that reward flooded up all else would drown. I would not have smiled and played with the images of those faces I love while I washed up the cups.
So..... we have to evaluate our situation in the moment, and we have to know when we need fuel. Recognizing hunger is part of the challenge. Recognizing our need for fuel is another. Now we know we deal with the challenge of recognizing how eating for temporary pleasure is followed by a chemical reward and that reward may block out pleasure and joy we want to linger with.
- When do you eat for pleasure?
- When does pleasurable eating not related to hunger take you away from valuable experiences?
- When do you believe the desire for that chemical reward has anything to do with physical hunger?
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Comments
Eating the sugary substances takes me to a pleasurable place that lowers feelings of stress, depression, anxiety, anger, etc., (whatever feeling is present). If I want something, and hold off eating it because I am trying to be "good", I find myself thinking about it until I give in.
What is it about walking away or not giving in causes me such distress? And how do I get thru this? I truly feel compelled to eat sugary substances. I was never like this before my period of extreme food restriction the past two years. Help!! I am not happy with how I feel physically and the scales are really not being good to me. Again, how do I pass by these substances? I could keep them out of the house, but my girls deserve a little treat now and then. They get so tired of eating "healthy" all the time (as they call my cooking).
Any suggestions?
I wonder, if you fed yourself well every day for one month, would that sugar craving fall by the wayside?
You ask, "How do I pass by these substances?" Well, how does a dehydrated herd of cattle pass by the river?
The answer to both questions is the same.
It sure is hard to figure out what normal eating is sometimes. Since I am slowly trying to transition from meal plan to intuitive eating (with supervision) and sometimes when I ask myself, "am I still hungry" I am quick to think "it seems like I had enough" or "that should have been enough" or "what if I eat more and it's too much" and I end up skimping. I think I am letting my ED is do tricky little restricting things in the name of intuitive eating .Not so good when I'm trying to maintain what I've worked so hard to gain.
Some signals indicate a desire for the chemical reward that comes from pleasure eating with no energy needs involved. And some signals may indicate a desperate craving for sugar as an attempt to rescue a dying body.
If you keep up with the exercises in Healing Your Hungry Heart you will create an internal environment for yourself where you do recognize the differences.
Eating mindfully. Today I took my breakfast into a quiet room away from where my daughter was playing. I didn't rush, I appreciated the healthy meal I had prepared. I wanted to start my day off on the right foot. I lit a candle next to my bed (yes, I was in my bedroom eating - but just for today to get to a quiet place)....I only ate half my breakfast because I was full. I felt wasteful but I threw it out anyway. Then I filled several pages of my journal with thoughtful contemplation.
Be gentle with yourself. Give yourself gifts of kindness. This is a sensitive time. Do your best to give yourself many PAMS (pause a minute exercises from Healing Your Hungry Heart), journal when your emotions rise (any emotion).
What you are experiencing is the first part of going through the door you have opened. Stay aware and alert with kind self care exercises always at the ready.
Your recovery work right now is to drop the ruminations over the cookies and be kind to yourself.
Soothe yourself. Bring understanding to the situation that brought you to the cookie. Think about what might have been a more useful choice.
Then, figure out how to make that choice available to you so when you need it, it's right there.
That's how you build a supportive recovery environment for yourself.
It's like discovering a bench on a walking trail. You come upon it just as your legs are aching and you yearn for comfort. There it is. Someone placed a bench under a shade tree just in the right spot for you.
Let the someone be you. Place what you need in just the right spots for your life.