Why do humans have a preference to over eat or over indulge and not just be satisfied with what is needed to sustain their life and health?
In: Biology
Lack of nutrition in modern diet > searching nutrition > over eating
Over exercising intensively > hunger > over eating
Dropping calories too low > increased hunger
Tricking the body with sweeteners > insulin release > searching for food to use insulin > over eating
Ultra processed foods > consumed 50% faster over natural whole foods > brain doesn’t register fullness > over eating
Lack of fibre, proteins, healthy fats in foods that are pure or almost full carb > nothing to slow digestion / slow absorption or offer satiation > over eating
We all have a little monkey brain inside of us that is used to having to hunt, forage and compete for food in order to not starve to death. The few thousand years where we’ve had relative abundance doesn’t reprogram hundreds of thousands of years of fearing the daily threat or starvation; we are programmed to eat what we can when we can because tomorrow’s hunt might not work out in our favor.
It’s not just humans that have a tendency to overeat. Fat dogs and cats exist, as well as animals like raccoons. The mechanisms that tell you to stop eating (by sensing how physically full the stomach is, blood sugar levels, timing of when you eat, setpoint weight, etc) haven’t adapted to the very recent trends of modern food (food has a lot of sugar and is more convenient than ever).
Human physiology evolved when food was scarce and where eating as much as possible was evolutionarily favored.
Why do you think overindulgence is limited to just food?
According to multiple sources from health & science websites, it takes on average about 20 to 30 minutes for the human body to signal to the brain that it is full. So, to answer your question, it’s not so much a conscious “preference” that we make to overindulge. It’s simply just that every single person that has ever existed throughout humanity’s history who’s had access to food has “overindulged” for most of their lives, without even realizing it. I personally purposely “overindulge” all the time probably because I smoke a lot of weed, but I truly do love food though. Food is life.
Sources:
https://www.mdanderson.org/publications/focused-on-health/What-happens-when-you-overeat.h23Z1592202.html#:~:text=“It%20takes%20about%2020%20minutes,research%20dietitian%20at%20MD%20Anderson.
https://www.webmd.com/obesity/features/slow-down-you-eat-too-fast
https://www.livescience.com/health/food-diet/does-it-really-take-20-minutes-to-realize-youre-full
https://theappetitedoctor.co.uk/2019/02/05/does-it-really-take-20-minutes-for-your-brain-to-know-youre-full/
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/how-to-tell-when-you-are-full
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