Compulsive eating and food addiction is a growing problem in the developed world. Delicious food is readily available at low cost, and in addition, advertisers practically pump it down your throat. Obviously you're not going to stop eating for good, but this article shows you the basics of food addiction, fasting, weight loss, and healthy eating.
Instructions
1. Few people actually want to stop eating for good as that would lead to starvation. However, many people want to learn stop eating the wrong food for the wrong reasons. Whether it's binge eating, general overeating, emotional eating, eating too much junk food, or just losing some weight, this article will give you some tips on where to start.
2. Feel real hunger by fasting. This may sound ridiculous or impossible to you if you're trapped in food addiction, but I'm going to recommend a fast to you. That's right, eat nothing and drink only water. Truly stop eating for a little while. Fasting is perfectly safe for people provided they don't overexert themselves during a prolonged fast. You don't even need to do a prolonged fast. All you have to do is fast for 2 days. After 2 days, the body has used up all its available glycogen reserves and it begins to fuel itself off its fat stores. If compulsive eating or emotional eating is your problem, fasting will let you experience what true hunger feels like. Then learn to separate this feeling of actual hunger from your emotional states or built up habits.
3. Eat healthier food. It is nearly impossible to overeat on fruit. You just can not eat too much fruit. The reason is that most fruit contains between 75% and 90% water, and that even if you fill your stomach to the brim with fruit, it will be mostly water. Contrast this with dense, fatty foods where you can pack thousands of calories into your stomach. So, if you can make fruit a large percentage of your diet, many of your eating problems will naturally take care of themselves. If you have an addiction to fast food or other forms of junk food, you might find it easier to switch to a high fruit and veggie diet after a one or two day fast.
4. Eat one meal a day. Eat as much as you want once a day. This type of eating schedule was probably common for ancient man, and is perfectly safe and healthy. This tip is similar to the fasting tip above. What they share in common, is that there are long periods of time when you're not flooding your bloodstream with calories. Extending the period of time between meals will tend to teach your body that it is OK to go longer periods without eating and actually feels better.
5. Stop getting high off of food. It feels good to eat, and food tastes good, but you can take it too far. If you're binge eating to the point where you can barely move or speak, or to the point where you fall asleep nearly comatose after a meal, you've eaten to the point where you've gotten high. When you eat a large amount of food, your body expends a great deal of energy to digest it. It redirects your blood flow to the stomach and intestines and away from your muscles and brain. This creates a feeling of lethargy, a food high. The food high doesn't even feel particularly good, it's just a feeling of laziness. Recognize that you want to feel energetic and healthy rather than immobilized and full. Stop eating before you get to this point.
6. Eat slower. Along the lines of the last step, you can prevent yourself from overeating in a given sitting by eating slower. If you eat too quickly, you will not recognize the point when it is correct to stop eating. This is because the stomach's feedback mechanism for telling the brain that it is full takes about 5 to 10 minutes to deliver its message. That means that if you're eating quickly, you have a 5 to 10 minute period when you can still keep eating without realizing that your body is already full. If you eat slower, or slow down when you're getting closer to full, you will be able to eat a more appropriate amount.
7. Stop eating to lose weight and live a longer life. While weight loss should be a secondary goal if you're struggling with a serious eating disorder, for many healthy people it is a primary goal. You can incorporate regular fasting into your diet and eating habits with great benefit. This is called the Calorie Restriction Diet. It has many variations but the key principle is that you regularly eat slightly less food than you need. Some people incorporate this into their diet by fasting one day a week, some people fast every other day, some people eat one meal per day. It is the only proven behavior that humans can use to prolong their life expectancy. Alternatively, some people go on a longer fast once a year, although the benefits of this are debatable.
