You might surmise that eating is a conscious choice, but a recent publication from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that we may have little control over our eating habits. Study authors, Deborah A. Cohen, MD, MPH, and Thomas A. Farley, MD, MPH, discuss how overeating may be influenced by our environment. They describe why overeating should be viewed as an automatic response and not necessarily a conscious choice. Curbing the obesity epidemic might be more successful if we take a close look at the dynamics that surround eating.
The authors propose that by limiting food advertising, making pre-packaged foods less available to the public, reducing the amount of snack foods from vendors in schools and workplaces, and by limiting portions, we may find our “best hope for controlling the obesity epidemic.
When you look at automatic behaviors in general, the following points are made:
Humans are programmed for survival – if you put food in front of us we will eat.
We perceive features of our environment without even being aware. One example involved a study showing that when French music is played in a wine store, more French wine is sold. When German music is played, more German wine is sold. The concept is called priming, and the results can be profound, such as when we are primed to eat large portions and foods that are unhealthy.
People are not usually aware of how much they are eating. Surveys show that those who eat large portions have no conception that they’ve eaten more than someone who has eaten a normal sized meal.
Attempts at controlling our eating habits are found to be effective, but only short term. You can refuse to eat certain foods, but when you try to continue it becomes more difficult. Studies have shown that refusing food when others are eating is actually fatiguing. In one study, three groups of people were observed; one group ate cookies, one could only eat radishes, and one group was instructed not to eat. Afterwards, the group was given an unsolvable puzzle. The group who ate the cookies showed the greatest amount of perseverance. They quit after 21 minutes but the group who had no food gave up after only eight minutes. The conclusion is that refusing food takes a lot of mental effort.
We have a limited capacity for awareness. What we see and what we perceive on an unconscious level occurs at a rate of 11 million bits per second. Conscious processing occurs at a rate of only 40-60 bits per second. Routines are given low priority in our processing system, allowing our unconscious perceptions to remain dominant.
Past studies have supported the fact that eating should indeed be viewed as an automatic behavior.
Perhaps we can stop blaming ourselves for being overweight. It is easy to blame the obesity epidemic on a lack of personal responsibility, but perhaps the authors are right on target when they suggest that we should view eating as an automatic behavior. It certainly makes sense. We have come to accept most anything that is presented with a smile and it’s not always been to our advantage.
Mr. Box, I've got your number now. You've been priming me.
Ref: http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2008/jan/07_0046.htm ◦
Interesting thoughts. But I hope studies such as these are not interpreted as carte blanche for folks to simply continue unhealthy habits, now with an excuse that it's just an automatic behavior. Rather, I hope this gets interpreted to mean that if you want to change your eating habits, you have to change your environment, to remove those priming cues that lead to unhealthy choices. The same probably applies to smoking, no?
ReplyDeleteHi Doctor David,
ReplyDeleteActually, I too hope that will not happen. I think people are frustrated with their attempts and it's hard for them to consciously know what the pitfalls might be when they're bombarded with subliminal messages about eating. This study also pointed out that the mere sight of food will cause people to eat, even if the food doesn't taste good. Food preferences seem to predominate in the presence of others eating the same food. Yes, I agree that this would certainly apply to smoking as well as many other situations. We really are influenced by environmental stimuli. If you give a lot of attention to something, people react. It's why we buy all that food in grocery stores that is placed on special display for instance.
People know they are overweight - they admit it, but providing nutritional education just hasn't worked. The suggestion here is that we need to reshape the focus and hope for better results.
Thanks for your thoughts, as always.
I liked both comments ..... I think the word is WELL POWER ....
ReplyDeleteand feeling good about your self
Interesting blog post... And yes, if there is food in front of me i DO eat... :-/
ReplyDeleteRoad apples! All You Can Eat restaurants and advertisement campaigns that tell you you have a need to be FULL...as well as whatever subliminal methods are employed by unscrupulous television executives still cannot be allowed to assault our personal sovereignty. W has been selling our current need to invade...are we to buy into this too just because we have a tendency to react rather than be proactive and take resposibility for our own behavior?
ReplyDeleteYes, most all of my readers lean toward personal responsibility - but it isn't working! Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteIt has been said by many experts that the instinct for survival is what drives overeating behaviour in today’s society and that it’s triggered by the abundance and availability of food. They say this is because we’re evolved to thrive in situations only where food is scarce. This is partly true, but we’ve also evolved to thrive in situations where food is plentiful. A compulsive drive to eat ourselves to death when food is available doesn’t fit the survival picture at all. It’s unlikely that all situations haven’t been covered in our survival drive and that our brains will just give up or go haywire as soon as our environment changes. We have survived and become the dominant species because of our ability to change and adapt to fit our environment (mixed with our ability to change and adapt our environment to fit us!) Besides, if it were true that we are programmed to eat and continue eating past the point of what is healthy for us, all human beings and animals would overeat in times of plenty and they don’t. The only time animals overeat is when they get sudden access to food after it has been restricted or controlled or if they have lived through a period where they’ve had to survive without enough food being available.
ReplyDeleteWhat does this tell you eh?
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