The Greedy Gene.

Eric_Pisch

Magpye wrote: »

I don't believe that if left to our own devices humans are natural over-eaters. Animals adapt quickly if given a regular food source and there is no reason to think humans are any different. It rather seems that the more we fight our urge to eat to satiety, the more 'disordered' (ie not eating in a natural manner) our eating habits become.

we are very different to other animals, there's a standard body / brain ratio and for the avg mammal its set at 1.0 we are in the 5 range so our brain to body size is 5 times larger than the avg mammal for our body size. Because of this size our brains consume a large amount of energy its approximately equivalent to a 20 watt light bulb even when we sleep!

http://www.aquaticape.org/eq.html

requiring so much energy our brain has developed a pleasure response (hormone release) to reward us and actively encourage us to eat high fat and high sugar foods.

I believe that given this physiological response which drives us to eat energy dense foods in an environment where we are surrounded by easily attainable processed fats and sugars its possible to over trigger the response and create excessive cravings, add in emotional issues and it can be worse

We do control what we eat but our brain may well be working against us.

poppyolivia

it took me 8 hours to eat a normal individual sized dairy milk bar the other day...my husband on the other hand can eat one in 8 seconds!

ailuro2

poppyolivia wrote: »

it took me 8 hours to eat a normal individual sized dairy milk bar the other day...my husband on the other hand can eat one in 8 seconds!

It took as long as that....a whole eight seconds!!


I love sweet food and am a fussy eater, as was my father:- even though he lived through rationing in the war he never learned to like veggies.

My nephew was exactly the same even though his older sister would eat almost anything he was very fussy.

I do think a lot of it is genetic, couple with the high energy food that surrounds us.. it is hard to resist.:o

Bronnie

poppyolivia wrote: »

it took me 8 hours to eat a normal individual sized dairy milk bar the other day...my husband on the other hand can eat one in 8 seconds!

LOL, well we know which camp you're in then!

Similarly, my daughters Thorntons chocolate with fudge bar is still sitting in the fridge since my original post on Friday, waiting for a choccy moment to strike her.

Now, over the last few days there have been numerous occasions when I've noticed it and had it been mine it would have been scoffed on an impulse several times over by now. Curious, as despite being in numerous shops and with ample opportunity, I haven't otherwise wanted to buy or eat any chocolate since Friday, in fact it's something I rarely buy for myself.

I figure that's because rationally when I think about it, I know I don't really want or need to eat chocolate but given the instantaneous opportunity my greedy impulses take over??

Vaila

my mum buys 5pack choclate bars etc and polishes of the lot in one sitting, she justifies it as being a control thing ie she HAS to eat the lot otherwise someone else will, honestly no one else in the house eats chocolate