Our obsession with food

Today's "modern society" is obsessed with food, weight and size. Many of us spend our waking hours fussing about what to eat, when to eat, how much to eat, have I put on weight, have I lost weight, do I look thinner than the girl over there... And so it goes on.  We are constantly comparing ourselves and depriving ourselves of this or that so as not to put on an ounce.  But at the same time, our lives revolve around food; business lunches, after work drinks - with snacks, dinner with friends, BBQs on the weekend...

So here's a new question to add to your long list:

Is obsessing about my weight/ shape making me fat?

It could well be.

We all know people who seem to stay slim "whatever".  It doesn't seem to matter what they eat, or what they do, they just stay "infuriatingly thin" while the rest of us pummel the treadmill, spin our way through our evenings and stoically refuse to go anywhere near the chocolate isle in the supermarket.

So how do they do it?

Of course there are cases of hyperthyroidism (among other diseases) - a serious illness which has a side effect of making people thin - but believe me you really don't want this as it comes with a whole host of problems and you need medication for life.

Well Cornell Food and Brand Lab seem to have found the answer.  They surveyed 122 adults who had a healthy BMI and who stated that they didn't follow strict diets.  The researchers compared them to another group that consisted of volunteers who were struggling to maintain or lose weight.

What they found was that the people who dieted regularly, thought about food frequently and were extremely conscious of what they ate.

However, the researchers found that the naturally thin group:

• Hardly every dieted
• More than 1 in 10 never weigh themselves
• Almost half of the group exercised at least 5 times a week
• One tenth were vegetarian
• One fifth said they didn't drink alcohol
• More than half ate fruit and vegetables for breakfast with more than a third saying they ate eggs for breakfast
• One fifth said they snack on nuts during the day
• 61% said that chicken was their favorite meat
• 65% ate vegetables everyday for dinner
• Almost 40% did not consume soft drinks, but 33% of those that did said they preferred the diet option

The survey found that 74% rarely dieted and of those, 48% didn't diet at all.  They also found that the majority of naturally thin people were more than 41 years of age and 80% were women.

Dr. Brian Wansink, director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab and author of Slim by Design, said:

"We wanted to see what health behaviors differed between those struggling to lose or maintain weight and the mindlessly slim.  We wanted to find the small or simple behaviors that might have a big impact."

Dr. Wansink found that the strategies followed by naturally thin people differed from typical weight loss advice.  He found that naturally thin people cooked at home and ate higher quality foods, and that listening to their inner cues was very important to staying thin, they also didn't feel as guilty about over eating as the other group did.

Maybe, just maybe, if we relax and stop obsessing over food, weight and shape, and actually listen to our bodies and nourish them with healthy foods, and take regular exercise, we might just become a naturally healthy weight without even trying.

What have you got to lose?

I can help you improve your health.  If you would like to make an appointment with me either in person or via Skype, just send me an email to lucycarr@socialnutrition.com