Hello 'Food Obsession''Food Obsession' - you could easily have scrawled those words across a banner on the highway every time I went on a restrictive diet. I mean, c'mon. How can something 'work' when it helps you develop higher levels of food preoccupation when food is the very thing you're apparently having to eat less of? No matter how you look at it - that just doesn't pass the logic test. Sorry it doesn't! Research on food preoccupationOne study found that 48% of dieters developed a food obsession. Those who live with them could confirm this. If anything, I’m amazed that it was only 48%.The above-mentioned study It also found that 44% of dieters experienced increased anxiety, 34% experienced increased irritation and 27% reported increased depression. Why am I not surprised.
Diets are the culprit not the cure
I only had to contemplate going on a diet to become totally food obsessed. My thoughts were wrapped around - what I was going to eat, how much I was going to eat and when next I could eat. Dieting is a bit like saying don't think about a pink elephant and suddenly, all you can see is a pink elephant. Dieting is that pink elephant - it makes food loom awfully large in your life. It only takes being on diet for you to suddenly start noticing the 'Dunkin Donut' billboard. Whereas previously you drove past it, your food pre-occupation makes it suddenly look as if it's developed beckoning fingers. How many times have you zealously started a new diet, only to find that you spend your whole day reading recipe books? Your food obsession grows as you salivate over every food picture. And you land up wishing the whole day away in order to make mealtimes come faster? Dreams and fantasies involving food or eating also become more frequent. There seems to be something in human nature that makes what is forbidden far more enticing. You are pre-occupied with what you can't haveIf restrictive diets advocated by ‘diet-gurus’ are so great, how come we end up craving all the things on our banned list?Have you ever noticed that when you’re on a diet that disallows carbohydrates, all you want is bread and potatoes? When I was sixteen our family went on an extended yacht trip. Although we never went short of food, by the time we got to the Seychelles we were all clamoring for crisp, crunchy food. Even vegetables that we thought we hated suddenly looked and tasted wonderful! Amazing but true! Remember the study that showed increased levels of anxiety etc...? Ironically, studies have shown that it is precisely negative states like anxiety, irritation and depression that increase the likelihood of dieters’ comfort-eating. Well that doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out! Research tells us that the main triggers for breaking diets are: • being alone (well don't diets mean we tend to go out less and to isolate ourselves more in order to avoid those food obsessions?) • craving a specific food (um... and not exactly carrots, lettuce and brocolli I'm afraid) •
food preoccupation
(well precisely!) If you're on a low carb diet , what do you crave? You go it! Carbs. • feeling hungry (especially if your cuts out major food groups and insists on long periods between eating) and •
alcohol
(which not only lessens the resolve needed to stay on something so unnatural, but is also an appetite stimulant) Other triggers are feeling fat, gaining weight, breaking a dietary rule, tension (especially pre-menstrually), having unstructured time, going home and feeling bored. That's right - you probably noticed exactly what I did...diets in themselves create the conditions most favourable for breaking them. Just one more reason to ditch diets, get rid of that food obsession and live light! Return to Homepage.
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