The case has been made, and the verdict is guilty. We all eat too much!
Gluttony in the first degree—also guilty of emotional eating, creating digestive disturbance, accessory to snacking, and accomplice to disease.
That’s us: Homo sapiens in the twenty-first century—preoccupied with food and appetite, we often (or routinely) eat unhealthily, use food to quash stress, negative emotions, and unhappiness; eat mindlessly and when we’re not that hungry, and suffer displeasure with our bodies and habits. However, great results are attainable and predictable when we understand how our body and brain work, and how nature helps and hurts us.
I want every person to feel good about themselves. Everyone has many likable qualities, notable accomplishments, affections, and positive feelings. Yet we often let obsessions or preoccupations about eating or body image “eat” at the sense of self-worth. Our priority should be to feel positive about ourselves, whatever any person’s and food challenges happen to be.
No more self-flagellation about willpower. None of us has sufficient willpower, and besides, willpower is not what reduces and manages weight. Though I consider myself a very disciplined, careful, and well-organized person, I am self-indulgent, hedonistic, preoccupied with appetite and body, and tempted internally by conflicts and impulses about what I “deserve” versus the habits it takes to get the results that are ultimately more satisfying. Despite this lifelong battle, I am happy, enjoy good food regularly, accept my body and my limitations, and I am now 102 pounds lighter!
I want to share the solutions I’ve found that made that possible as well as the propelling forces we’ve all faced in a struggle against gluttony!
We all have genetic precursors, physiological responses, environmental pressures, and habits. These factors seem to collude to defeat and sabotage our efforts to be satisfied, disciplined, and healthy. I don’t profess to have a cure-all answer or sure-fire solution for every person, but I do have a systematic and successful weight control regimen based on practicality and success and I will share how I personally lost 102 pounds and also helped many others lose weight and solve other related problems along the way— without deprivation or suffering.
The varying factors that contribute to overeating and inappropriate eating may seem to stack the deck against weight control and body/mind health, as well as self-image and confidence. For different individuals and at different times, some of these factors may drive appetite and behavior, and they may combine and shift.
We all have plenty of demands, responsibilities, environmental stressors, and our own individual proclivities in emotional and biological orientation and coping mechanisms. Even the most regulated and disciplined people become overwhelmed and vulnerable, and most of us are lacking in adequate self-regulation and effective dietary and self-care habits.
Stress, anxiety, and other negative emotions make us pressured to find relief. And what is more convenient (and often justified) than eating? We all need to eat. Though food may serve as an escape, its general necessity and social validation may hide its secondary value as a palliative for overwhelming feelings.
Overeating is a culturally accepted form of self-medication. A physiological reality underlies the self-medicating effect of eating. “Comfort” foods (sugar, carbohydrates, and calorie-dense foods) flood the bloodstream quickly and supply the brain with “feel good” neurotransmitters. Food does not bear the stigma of drugs or alcohol; we all eat. And most observers don’t know what or how much we consume regularly. Therefore, food is a safe release valve and can be absorbed in the routine of what we ordinarily do. The habit of poor eating creeps up surreptitiously and gradually.
Intricate and delicate biological mechanisms signal and regulate our brain, endocrine system, and organs in order to supply and control the flow of nutrients to our cells. These mechanisms release and store energy and promote the growth and health of cells as well as excrete waste and toxins. A fundamental part of this process is the management of blood sugar.
Our blood sugar level and concentration (glycemia) is a measure of the amount of glucose in our blood . Unregulated blood sugar levels lead to many serious health issues, especially diabetes. If we eat too much food with sugar (and carbohydrates that the body converts to sugar), we can develop insulin resistance , meaning the cells in your muscles, fat, and liver cannot easily absorb the glucose from your blood. The pancreas then makes more insulin to help glucose enter the cells. Over time, the body does not respond as well to the insulin, and our blood sugar rises to unhealthy levels. Swings in our blood sugar can invoke desperate hunger pangs and extreme fluctuations in energy. Eating food with high sugar content gives a quick spike in blood sugar, energy, and satiety, only to quickly rebound in a rollercoaster drop in the aforementioned.
Our body management of blood sugar is intimately tied to how we feel—our energy, appetite, satiety, concentration, and mood. Low blood sugar makes misery; high blood sugar results in disease.
If blood sugar could talk, it might say:
“I respond to what you regul’ate.” “If we go steady, I’ll be faithful and help you.” “When you overload me, you’ll feel bad later.” “We can be intimate without being too sweet.” “I don’t like feast or famine.”
Consider the example of building and sustaining a fire: Since paper ignites easily, lighting it will quickly yield a substantial flame. However, it burns quickly and is unlikely able to ignite other fuel for a lasting flame. Kindling wood is typically used to start a controlled fire; it is pretty easily ignited and twigs tend to burn longer than paper. However, unless it burns long enough to ignite logs, the fire will extinguish. Heavier logs will sustain fire the longest, but it’s more difficult to get them to ignite. So a combination of easily ignited material with longer-burning wood is needed to build and sustain a fire.
Sweets, such as confections, ice cream, soda, etc., are like paper fuel—they give a quick burst of energy, but rapidly fizzle out, plummeting blood sugar levels. Carbohydrates—bread, pasta, chips, rice, and many ingredients in processed foods—are like kindling. They burn longer than paper (e.g., the concentrated sugar example), but soon expire their energy, returning blood sugar to much lower levels.
The logs of nutrition are good quality protein and fat, along with slower metabolizing carbohydrates found in vegetables, legumes, and some fruits (whole). These should be the dietary mainstay for consistent energy and controlling and regulating healthy blood sugar levels that moderate appetite and food consumption.
When asked why he robbed banks, notorious criminal Willie Sutton said, “Because that’s where the money is.” Similarly, all too often, we eat simply because food is there . This parsimonious explanation underlies a lot of unnecessary consumption.
Our body responds to cues from our surroundings as well as internal metabolic affairs. When food is nearby and perhaps accompanied by the aromas, presentation, or sight of people eating, our senses are aroused; we may be cued to eat with appeal that transcends or replaces the actual level hunger we may feel.
Opportunities to eat are plentiful for most living in the US. Though many people have trouble affording increasing prices, cheap food (usually processed food with dense calories) is available at low cost. The rituals of serving food and eating together typically accompany social events and get-togethers. Food is everywhere, and temptation precedes and follows its appeal.
A major factor in overeating is the effect that foods have on our biochemistry, which is reflected in appetite, blood chemistry, motivation, and compulsion. Strangely, we tend to become strongly attracted (and sometimes addicted) to foods we eat habitually. We tend to crave and gravitate toward foods that make us feel good—not necessarily healthy foods. The body and brain develop and exercise intuitive knowledge and motivation. But the sneaky reality for many people, is that their food preferences and cravings, formed in response to the body’s satiety from foods it wants, paradoxically cause unwanted and unhealthy reactions.
Sugar cravings are an easily understood example, but many other surreptitious processes by which people crave and eat foods make their bodies react poorly. Many of these foods may be “nutritious,” but become toxic through overconsumption for some individuals. Many nutritious foods (eggs, whole grains, dairy, etc.) fall into these categories for sensitive individuals. Eating them produces biochemical cravings for more of them with diminishing satiety.
Beyond this peculiar (for many) systemic response, the food industry has grown into a monolith of refined processing, concealing unhealthy amounts of sugar, salt, fat, and additives beneath the manufacture of tasty foods that are marketed to manipulate and attract our already vulnerable and preconditioned appetites and behaviors. This perverted economic evolution warps our biological roots, resulting in poor diet, addictive eating, and rampant dissociation between the brain and gut centers of satiety and control.
The food we eat often causes and compels us to overeat more of the same.
Mindless eating is a common pastime while watching TV or during social activities. We graze on empty calories (such as snacks and processed foods) without limit, not noticing how much is consumed. We often eat just because “it’s time to eat.” We overeat out of habit or to fill the void from a lack of other satisfactions.
Eating beyond reasonable necessity can train our internal system to ignore when we are full. Boredom, habit, frustration, and stress can catapult eating to the point where “food coma” is the signal to stop (for the time being).
Lack of sleep is correlated with overeating and weight gain. Rushing around through activities, ignoring proper hydration, rest periods, and eating sufficiently throughout the day (to steady blood sugar levels) easily result in getting home to a safe space and overdoing the intake. Some people capitulate to bouts of being “hangry” (angry and hungry) and choose food in abundance to calm down and self-soothe (sometimes even to mollify aggression). Fatigue can also dull the self-regulation cues that signal enough .
Lack of exercise, irregular exercise, or too much exercise can lull or jolt the body and brain into misleading connection with true nutritional and volume needs. Being sedentary facilitates obtaining stimulation through the tongue and stomach.
In many cultures, food is a paramount tradition with rituals and imperatives. Food accompanies family gatherings where eating a lot is expected.
In my family of origin, “fressing” (Yiddish for eating without restraint) was modeled and taught. My father counseled me on how to “never let buffet restaurants make a profit on our family!” Amplifying our human evolution to eat voluminously, because food was typically scarcer, cultures have evolved to celebrate with food, preserve identity and tradition, and demonstrate material providence. In such traditions, eating a lot is a way of expressing appreciation and respect. Nonetheless, we learned to overdo it.
To underscore my own ethnic indoctrination in eating excessively, I excerpt from a satire I wrote in my book, Confessions of a Maverick Mind :
“ . . . father was a temperate man, imbued with the talent and experience of endurance eating. (Undoubtedly the family lineage contained adept hunters and gatherers; however, evolution produced interesting variants of this behavior in contemporary New York City.) The dentist was a master at the buffet table, blithely passing the initial salads, indifferently appraising the appetizers, jousting judiciously with the Jell-O, haggling half-heartedly with potatoes or pasta, engaging numerous entreés, and always reserving room for dessert. Through years of festive celebrations, Nayeev studied his father’s techniques until he too could take whatever was dished out, slicing through the gauntlet of caloric opposition. Endurance eating was a manly sport of quiet and thrifty determination, requiring steadfast practice at resplendent feasts and mealtime leftovers alike.”
Some medications are known for producing weight gain. Among these in particular are drugs for depression, anxiety, and psychosis. Such drugs exert powerful effects on neurotransmitters and hormones. Though they may relieve disturbing (and sometimes dangerous symptoms), their side effects notoriously include metabolic changes—increased appetite and weight.
Marijuana is known for inducing the munchies. Coming down from a high can make people eat indiscriminately. Alcohol tends to dull the senses (a significant attraction), but this includes a blunted sensitivity to and awareness of food intake.
The cause-and-effect trade-offs on overeating must be “weighed” against the benefits such chemical substances offer. On balance, the warping of appetite and metabolic regulation are excellent reasons to develop a lifestyle of caring for our mental and physical health without relying upon psychopharmacology or recreational intoxicants to manage ourselves and feel good.
The influences and combinations of emotional eating, food addictions, the blood sugar rollercoaster, and faulty self-care habits don’t take long to fasten us to overeating patterns, weight gain, and reduced health. But it doesn’t have to be this way! We can counter these influences, spar more successfully with nature, and achieve better results.
Notwithstanding the numerous genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that can undermine eating habits and weight control, changes almost anyone can make will improve health, self-control, and confidence. A core underpinning of defeating overeating is what I call gastromodulation : the self-regulation of appetite, satiety, and metabolic balance.
From decades of experience as a neuropsychologist dealing with brain function, and having my own struggles with food and weight, I designed a practical multimodal program for success. Following these discoveries and applying them to a workable pattern I dropped 102 pounds without deprivation or suffering!
Controlling blood sugar correlates with the self-regulation of appetite, satiety, and metabolic balance. While there is no substitute for healthy eating, emotional regulation, and self-control, their development may be assisted by some newer medications gaining popularity. Innovations in the management of diabetes have led to a newer genre of medicines that lower blood sugar (the family of glucagon agonists ). A variety of these drugs, whose active agents are GLP-1, GLP-2, and/or GIP, are generically known as semaglutide and tirzepatide.
These medications mimic hormones naturally produced in the small intestine. They stimulate insulin secretion (which then allows cells to take up glucose) and inhibit glucagon secretion (which prevents more glucose from going into the bloodstream) to lower blood sugar levels. They also signal the liver to make less sugar.
The GLP-1, GLP-2, and GIP interactions work to encourage insulin production and sensitivity to insulin, thereby improving blood sugar balance. Some studies have shown GIP to moderate dyslipidemia and affect triglycerides and cholesterol (LDL—low-density lipoprotein and HDL—high-density lipoprotein). Increasing research evidence suggests that GIP lowers the risk of cardiac events. This augments the overall health benefits of modulating blood sugar and reducing weight.
These medicines provide an interesting and beneficial side effect. By slowing down digestive transit time, they reduce appetite and create a feeling of fullness with much less food. However, common side effects include nausea, diarrhea, constipation, and severe stomach cramps.
Along with dietary and habit changes, these medications can facilitate gastromodulation, but knowledge, effort, strategic planning, and lifestyle adjustments are still necessary. In the effort to reform eating, these medications are like “pedal assists” to electric bicycles. The rider can boost acceleration and ease resistance in a controlled manner by supplying battery power to the bicycle. This is helpful in climbing hills, and generally reduces the stress and resistance associated with gravity’s effect in cycling. It doesn’t substitute for or replace the work, but it makes exercise smoother, more pleasurable, and more likely.
Similarly, a medically supervised regimen to manage blood sugar and reduce appetite can be helpful for those who are good candidates. However, we are still faced with the challenge of managing our emotions, habits, attitudes, and diets.
Toward this end, I offer solutions.
This weight control program is a solid plan for controlling and losing weight that emphasizes sensible life and brain balance, prioritizes becoming friends with your brain and body, and developing a healthier (and less compulsive) relationship with food and eating.
Training your brain with EEG neurofeedback will improve your overall brain health and make you mentally stronger, more durable, more flexible, and more resilient. It has proven effective for a vast majority of people. Along with relieving anxiety, depression, trauma, and other negative emotions, neurofeedback reduces stress and improves sleep—two major factors in controlling appetite and weight.
Neurofeedback increases calmness and patience and modulates appetite and satiety by making your brain more aware of your body. Mindless eating goes hand in hand with dissociation between emotions and physiological satiety. Eating yourself into self-loathing or “food stupor” is less likely when your brain is in tune with your body awareness. This “in tune” harmony is facilitated through neurofeedback.
Voice Technology (the most advanced application of Thought Field Therapy) eliminates negative emotions, stress, intrusive thinking, shame and fear of failure, and other problems in minutes. The technique is also instrumental in correcting self-sabotage that interferes with motivation and successful behavior change. I do this with my patients by phone, so they have constant and immediate access to my assistance when needed. I also teach patients self-help techniques.
In a joking way, I call this my version of CBT—corpulent behavior therapy! Seriously, I don’t find reframing or changing thoughts to be effective for emotional or behavior change. To observe, evaluate, and adjust responses through structured alterations in line with principles and schedules of reinforcement and extinction is far more effective.
I help patients use statistically reliable methods of probability, frequency, intensity, and duration (also outlined in my book, Life Control: Take Charge and Get Ahead ) to end addictions and reduce unwanted behaviors while building adaptive ones.
My journey has led me to discover and include many tips, tricks, and hacks to stabilize blood sugar and appetite, and work around the temptations and traps that derail functional eating, such as:
Physical movement is crucial to facilitate faster metabolism, reduce stress, improve circulation, sleep better, and achieve improved well-being. Many people have mobility limits, physical impairments, or injuries that limit exercise. Though quite important, exercise plays less of a role in weight reduction than proper eating and metabolism balance. Moving just a bit more on a regular basis (within one’s physical limits) helps tremendously. Increase movement and/or exercise by 10 percent every two weeks. If you can walk ten blocks, stretch it to eleven. Aim for what is known as JND (just noticeable difference) in effort and tolerance. You’ll be surprised to feel how your tolerance, mobility, and fitness improve, little by little.
As you strive to befriend your mind and body, include and integrate social relationships. We all need to practice tolerance, acceptance, and forgiveness of others and ourselves. Those around us share similar challenges and struggles. They may not say so, just as we may withhold our own embarrassments, anxiety, and inhibitions over self-control and body image. If you make yourself proximal, communicative, and emotionally available, you will increasingly notice that others value and accept you, just as they want validation, reassurance, and acceptance. Showing our availability, vulnerability, and imperfections will reveal how much more okay we are than what we may suspect. This also gives others implicit permission to share their struggles with us. Everyone is up against nature, internally and externally. Why not share the struggle?
Bear in mind that lasting behavior change usually requires time and gradual adjustment. This is true for our body, our habits, and our self-concept. It’s understandable to be eager to attain quick results; this is important for confidence and motivation.
I encourage every person to look with hope and positive expectations at the bigger picture and embark on a self-control and reinvention journey with planning and patience. After all, you do plan on living a long time, right?
If you will try even a few of my recommendations, I promise that you will feel better physically and emotionally, and you will become more in control of your eating and relationship with food.
— Mark Steinberg, PhD
