| The eating binge is something that’s well
known to most of us – especially
those of us who are struggling
to lose weight. In extreme cases,
binge eating is even a disorder
– people seem to lose control
of their eating, concentrating
on a single food group and consuming
literally thousands of calories
in a very short period of time.
Afterward, the result is a feeling
of guilt, or that you have ‘blown
it’ – and, of course, the intake
of that many calories at a time
is disastrous to weight loss.
However, many experts have commented
that dieting or restricting food
intake can actually trigger binging
for those who have that tendency
already. It’s almost as though
the restriction of food makes
us feel so deprived that we respond
by binging, and the guild that
follows a binge can derail the
diet for an even longer time that
necessary. Many of us would give
anything to be able to control
the impulse to binge – eliminating
it altogether would be ideal,
in fact. In this way, we would
really be able to control food
intake and lose weight. Most people
look upon binging as a ‘problem’
behavior – an expression of some
sort of distress, or even a type
of neurotic behavior to be cured.
After all, this type of eating
is extreme – during a binge, people
consume many times their ideal
calorie intake for the day, and
there seems no way to avoid weight
gain if this becomes a habit.
However, there is also evidence
that indicates binging may just
be a fact of life for all humans,
a leftover from the way in which
we obtained our food early on
in human development. Think about
it. Before agriculture came on
the scene and regulated the food
supply throughout the year, humans
spent many millennia as hunters
and gatherers. In fact, we should
all remember that this pre-civilized,
hunting and gathering existence
went on for much longer than civilization
had. Humans have practiced agriculture
for little more than six thousand
years, but humans (or advanced
pre-humans) have been around for
about 35 thousand years. So for
the vast majority of human history,
we were hunters and gatherers,
and in that state, believe it
or not, binging was a really good
idea. Think about it. This was
before refrigeration or any other
organized means of food preservation.
People moved around constantly,
and sometimes food was plentiful,
while other times it was scarce.
When food was scarce, there was
no way to get more. Humans just
had to do without, or survive
on very little. That meant that
when a hunt was successful, or
when the early humans stumbled
upon a grove or fruit trees, binging
was the most reasonable, well-adapted
response. The food was there at
that moment, and who knew when
it would be there again? So the
early humans would have eaten
as much of it as was humanly possible
– in short, they binged. They
had to. It had to keep them going
until the next lucky find. Our
bodily drives are stronger and
more primitive than what our minds
tell us. So, while we might know,
intellectually, that binging is
not a good idea and that we should
eat a pre-approved number of calories
per day, the urge to binge is
still as strong in us as it was
in early humans. The difference,
of course, is that our food environment
is not self-limiting – there are
no natural restrictions. We have
access to almost all types of
food at all times, unlike early
humans. So, though our environment
doesn’t necessitate binging, the
behavioral drive is still strong.
That also explains why dieting
can bring on a binge. A diet is
like a period of scarcity or famine
– biologically, this makes us
want to binge, to make up for
it, as soon as food becomes available.
And the more you restrict your
eating, the stronger your impulse
to binge will be, because for
early humans (physiologically
identical to us) that was good
survival behavior. That’s why
the behavior is so hard to overcome
– at one point, it was not just
acceptable – it was necessary
to human survival. For more great
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