We are usually aware of the fact that we are hungry when we "gut guts", which are just stomach contractions. For many people, this is a great incentive to eat, but it is not, physiologically, the most significant indicator of hunger.
More important is the blood glucose level. Most of the food you eat is converted to glucose, much of which is converted by the liver into fat for later use. When glucose levels are low, the liver signals to the hypothalamus (specifically, the lateral hypothalamus) that the levels are low. The hypothalamus then triggers the habits that you have acquired related to the search for food and its consumption. But what if you have trouble eating? Next, in this online Psychology article, we will talk about the eating disorders of anorexia, bulimia and obesity.
Index
- How hunger is satisfied
- Why we eat what we eat
- Bulimia and anorexia
- Bulimia, anorexia, and society
- The obesity
- How to stop being obese
How hunger is satisfied.
The feeling that it is time to stop eating is called satiety. Again, the main indicators may be a distended stomach and intestines, that feeling of being full and even bloated that we all know after a Christmas dinner.
There are also certain hormones that are released When food begins to move from the stomach to the intestines that signal to the hypothalamus (this time to the ventromedial hypothalamus) that it is time to stop eating. And of course there is a hormone released by the fat cells themselves called leptin, which reduces appetite via the hypothalamus.
We are sure that you have all heard about one person who has a better metabolism than another. Some seem to burn calories as fast as they eat them, while others gain weight just by looking at food. This is called the baseline hypothesis. This suggests that each one has a certain metabolic reference value, a certain weight around the that we are engaged, that is determined by our metabolism, or the rate at which you burn calories. Different people have different set points, and it is believed that these set points can change depending on various factors, including eating patterns and exercise.
Why we eat what we eat.
Appetite is not, of course, an entirely physiological process. First of all, cultural and even individual preferences learned and eating habits can make a difference. For example, some of us eat regular meals and rarely consume "snacks", while others only snack during the day. Every culture has its collection of foods that are preferred and those that are avoided. Many people like roast beef; others prefer raw squid; others even prefer to eat vegetables ...
Our culture and education also provide us with various beliefs and attitudes about food and food in general, and our personal memories can also influence our behaviors food. Some of us have grown up with the idea that we should never waste food, for example, and many of us have a particular attachment to what is sometimes called "comfort foods".
Eating is a social thing in the human being and can give one a sense of love and belonging. It has been suggested that for some people, food is a substitute for the love they crave. Also, some foods (for example, chocolate and ice cream) seem to reduce anxiety and stress for many of us.
One of the most powerful learning experiences for both humans and animals has been called taste aversionIf we feel sick soon after eating something, we can develop an instant dislike for that food for the rest of our lives. Children often say they are "allergic" to one food or another when this happens.
Bulimia and anorexia.
As with many of the important things like eating, humans have developed various eating disorders.
The bulimia
One is called bulimia nervosa, and consists of a pattern of "binges" and "purges", that is, periods of even extreme overeating followed by periods of vomiting or use of laxatives.
Bulimics are often obsessed with maintain or reduce your weight. They tend to suffer from depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and poor impulse control. They tend to come from families with emotional problems, such as depression, as well as families with obesity problems.
The anorexia
The anorexia nervosa is another eating disorder that ranges from unhealthy diet to starvation. The general rule is that a person is seriously underweight if they are 15% below their ideal weight. People with anorexia often vomit or use laxatives, as do bulimics. They have an intense fear of being fat and are obsessed with being thin.
They often have a distorted body image, which means that when they look in the mirror, they tend to see someone overweight, when others see them as walking skeletons. Anorexic people sometimes come from very competitive and demanding families, and are often perfectionists with a great need to control all aspects of their lives.
Bulimia, anorexia and society.
Physiologically, anorexia has been linked to abnormal levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which is involved in the regulation of intake. Twin research suggests that there may be a genetic aspect to anorexia as well.
Most anorexic and bulimic people they are young women, including between 1 and 4% of high school and university girls. It seems that there are physiological aspects of female adolescence contributing to the problem, but we can see that 10% of adolescents with anorexia are boys. Although much of these disorders are probably social: In our society, beauty standards tend to emphasize thinness, and women in particular tend to be judged on the basis of their beauty, sometimes to the exclusion of everything the rest. Certainly, if you look at many magazines for young women, or advertisements directed at them, you might think that beauty is everything, and that fat is the kiss of death for self-esteem.
It is interesting to note that, while the average woman is 1.62m tall and weighs about 64kg, the measurements of an average model are 1.75m and a weight of 50kg. If Barbie, that childhood ideal of feminine beauty, were life-size, her measurements would be 36-18-33.
It is interesting that cultures with beauty standards that have more respect for the personality of women or others traits, and cultures that appreciate heavier women, have far fewer problems with bulimia or anorexy.
The obesity.
Despite all the suffering that anorexia and bulimia are responsible for, there is another eating disorder that causes even more: obesity. In general, someone who weighs 35% above her ideal weight is considered obese. Following that rule, 21% of Americans are obese. Europeans and others with thinner populations shouldn't gloat too much about this fact, however this trend is truly global.
Causes of obesity
The main causes of obesity are the following:
- Due to diseasesPhysiologically, obesity is strongly associated with diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and some cancers. In fact, obesity is associated with the same percentage of cancer deaths (30%) as smoking.
- Due to depressionPsychologically, the toll is also high, and obesity is associated with depression.
- Due to genetics: Between 40 and 70% of the variation in body weight appears to be genetic. Our ancestors who passed on these genes to us did not get fat, mainly because they did not they had as much food available as we did, and because they had to work hard and walk harder to do it.
- Due to eating patterns: learning is also an important factor, including eating patterns in childhood and a sedentary lifestyle. Our culture is of no help, in which our food and snack industry spends millions of dollars each year encouraging us (including children) to eat greasy and sugary foods. Often times the same companies make millions of dollars selling us weight loss products and programs.
Sociologically, obese people face a considerable discrimination, from child teasing to denial of employment in adults. And unlike other types of discrimination, this is actually considered the fault of the fat person.
How to stop being obese.
Most people try to cope with obesity through diet. In fact, 80% of women dietas well as 25% of men. 50% of girls under 18 do it too. Unfortunately, although diets work in the short term and in small amounts, they often fail in the long term for people who are truly obese.
Dieting becomes even more difficult because of the way the setpoint works: when you diet, your body thinks you are. hungry and readjusts your metabolism to be more efficient so you need less food to support your body and it makes it even harder to lose weight. Although you need to eat more than you burn to gain weight, once you are obese you don't need to eat a lot at all.
Diet and exercise is, of course, the only hopeBut the failure rate is so great (95%) that doctors often focus on treating the diseases that result from obesity, rather than fighting obesity itself. It may be interesting that strength training helps: muscles use more calories even at rest than other tissues. There is also some hope for future medical research, including research on the effects of leptin and possible genetic interventions.
If you liked this Psychology-Online article about eating disorders: anorexia, bulimia and obesity, you may also be interested in this other one about I have a fat complex: what do I do.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Eating disorders: anorexia, bulimia and obesity, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical psychology.
