Controlling Gluttony May Be Easier Without Restricting Tasty Foods

The craving for food is a normal part of the human experience; studies show that more than 90% of people have it. (Actually, who are the unicorns that never had wishes?)

But the way we deal with cravings can vary greatly. Some people eat what they want and don’t worry about it, while others feel dominated by gluttony and end up compulsively eating their favorite foods.

When someone surrenders to a desire, they often blame it on a lack of self-control. But cravings are caused by a complex interplay of neurons in the brain’s reward center. Appetite hormones, behavioral conditioning, and easy access to tasty, pleasurable foods reinforce the gluttony cycle.

The potency of desire can be fueled by the senses, like the smell of fresh bread when we pass a bakery, in addition to situations and emotions. After a stressful day at work, for example, we can seek comfort by driving past a fast-food window.

Good times can also trigger cravings, like popcorn or chocolate at the movies. And studies show that so-called “hyperpalatable” foods, which offer a tempting combination of fat, sugar, salt and carbohydrates, can interfere with brain signals so that we continue to crave them even when we’re full.

So what is the solution for people struggling with gluttony?

It turns out that many people handle craving the wrong way, trying to restrict, avoid, and distract themselves from tempting foods. They skip dessert when everyone else is eating, walk away when a colleague brings candy to the office, and try to ignore their craving for ice cream in the freezer.

But studies increasingly show that constant restraint and attempts at distraction can actually backfire for people struggling with cravings and binge eating.

Now, scientists are studying surprising new strategies for dealing with gluttony based on brain science. This includes accepting that cravings for food are normal and inevitable, using mindfulness techniques to recognize them, being more aware of your cravings, and waiting for them to pass rather than trying to ignore them.

“It’s about understanding that these kinds of cravings are a natural part of being a person; we’re built that way,” said Evan Forman, a professor of psychology at Drexel University in Philadelphia and director of the Center for Weight, Food, and Weight Science. University Lifestyle. “You don’t have to make cravings go away, but you don’t have to eat because of them either. It’s accepting them instead of pushing them away or repressing them.”

Diet can make gluttony worse

One of the first studies to show a link between food restriction and gluttony was carried out in the 1940s by diet researcher Ancel Keys. In what is often called the “hunger study,” Keys asked 36 men who ate about 3,500 calories a day to reduce their food intake to about 1,600 calories a day. (By today’s standards, that calorie count is just another diet.) The restriction triggered a remarkable psychological shift in the men, who became preoccupied with food.

“They’ve stopped doing anything but lying in bed and talking and thinking about food,” said Traci Mann, who directs the health and nutrition lab at the University of Minnesota.

She notes that the men even planned food-related careers, like opening a grocery store or restaurant, and became preoccupied with food long after the study ended. “These are men from the 1940s who probably never cooked a meal in their entire lives,” Mann noted. “And they started cutting out newspaper recipes.”

More recently, Mann and his colleagues used a tempting box of chocolates to study the effect of dietary restriction.

The survey included 142 chocolate lovers, half of whom were instructed to eat their regular diet, while the other half followed a restricted diet. In a seemingly cruel detail, everyone in the study was given a box of chocolates and instructed not to eat until after the ten-day study. To ensure that all participants were consistently tempted by the chocolate, they had to open the box daily to find specific instructions.

After ten days, everyone was invited to send in a picture of their box of chocolate. Dieters stole significantly more chocolate than those not counting calories.

acceptance x distraction

At Drexel University, Forman conducted a similar study, but this time with clear boxes of chocolates that participants were required to carry at all times for two days.

The researchers added a detail, advising some participants to ignore their desires while instructing another group to perceive and accept their desires as normal. A control group received no counseling.

At the end of the study, about 30% of participants in the control group had eaten the candy compared to 9% of people in the group instructed to ignore cravings. But among the participants taught to recognize and accept desires, no one ate the chocolate.

In 2019, Forman published follow-up results from a larger, randomized, controlled study of 190 people, which found that participants who practiced acceptance and mindfulness strategies were twice as likely to maintain their 10% weight loss after three years. years compared to those who focused on resisting temptation and repressing thoughts of food.

“Surprisingly, there was a huge benefit to people’s quality of life that was quite unexpected,” Forman said. “It also benefited their well-being and emotional state.”

How to deal with your desires

Try these acceptance and mindfulness techniques to focus on food cravings.

Practice the “surf of desire”,

Cravings are ephemeral, and some research suggests they peak within approximately five minutes. “Desire surfing” means “going with” your thoughts, feelings and desires rather than acting against them. It is a successful strategy often used to treat addictive substance use. Follow these four steps.

• Identify your desire. Use the phrase “I feel like eating…” and fill in the blank.
• Notice how you feel when you crave food. Do you feel it in your stomach? Are you distracted? Anxious? Do you feel the need to move or keep going to the kitchen?
• Be open. Don’t try to suppress or get rid of your desire. Accept the experience.
• Pay attention to what happens next. Watch desire as it arises, grows, descends, and diminishes. Observe the intensity of a desire. “I’m craving fries. It started out as 5, but now it’s 7.”

“Our desires inevitably wax and wane, just like the waves in the ocean,” said Forman. “Trying to fight this wave is never going to work. It doesn’t work if you want the craving to go away. You’re accepting that it’s there, and even that it should be there, and you coexist –surf- with it.”

Ask: How little is enough?

There’s nothing wrong with eating a food you crave, unless it becomes an issue for you. The Doctor. Judson Brewer, an associate professor in the School of Public Health at Brown University who created a mindfulness app called Eat Right Now, told the story of a patient who habitually ate a bag of chips while watching to a favorite TV show with her daughter.

Instead of discouraging her from eating the fries, Brewer advised her to pay attention to each potato she ate and to see how many potatoes it took to make her feel full. Just a few weeks later, the woman reported that she had slowly reduced her habit, and now her desire was satisfied after the second chip.

Find a bigger and better offer

Another strategy for dealing with a craving is to focus on what a food tastes like and how it makes you feel, and then replace a problem food with a higher quality one that satisfies the same cravings. Brewer calls it “finding a bigger and better offer.”

Brewer said he used to be “addicted” to gummy bears. To overcome the craving, he began to focus on what it actually tasted like and noticed that it was sweet in an unhealthy way. He sought out better food to satisfy his craving and chose blueberries, which he found gave him even more pleasure than sweet.

“Repressing yourself is not the best way,” Brewer said. “We don’t want to live an austere life without enjoying tasty food.”