Compulsive Overeating Vs Instint

Stream of consciousness....

Do I suffer from compulsive overeating or an instinct to eat in a excess food environment? Neither? Both? What is the difference? Or is this excess hunger? Or just a craving? Is there a test to see which? Does it make a difference? Do any of these actually exist or is it all in my head because I am just a low willpower fat lazy slob?

If you think the later go away now.  There is nothing for you here.

How could one separate a compulsion from an instinct? Compulsion is something which may be learned, or developed at an early age, and firmly imprinted on the brain, but can be unlearned. It resides in the automatic, emotional, or the unconscious, unaware part of the brain, first developed, not in the recall part. Instinct is something we are born with, and develops and is strengthen from there. There has always been a few fat people in most populations. As a child, I was the most grossly obese child in a school of 700. But instinct is generally across a species or a breed. Nothing here yet.

Did I make a unconscious decision to overeat at some young age? Was that part of me trying to please a parent or someone with my ability to consume as part of security, attachment, where I said in my young mind, "I can eat all of that if you want me to." Mother was good at training animals, did she train me to eat? She was a lazy trainer, if she knew an "easy" way, she would use it.

In a visualisation, Mother and an Aunt speak, saying "sprinkle a bit of sugar on their food, and they will eat every bit of it. There is also a lot of competition between myself, sister, and 3 other cousins over eating, and between my mother and those aunts of getting us kids to eat up the food. There was 5 of us, I was the youngest, and there was just 20 months between the oldest and myself. 4 of 5 have weight issues and the other one was always on a diet. Could it be that it was all a result of a parental competition that I never corrected and it is all just imprinting on to the automatic response part of the brain? Of course, this would need to be combined with a physiology to handle excess food, which apparently I have.

Perhaps the first step in the test is to leave food on the plate at every meal. No more clean plates. That has not happened in years, except for some thing that really tasted bad.

I am powerless of this compulsion, instinct, craving or what ever it is.

Step 0

In AA step Zero is put the plug in the jug. In OA, we cannot eat our addiction foods. We must first give then up. We must become willing to give them up.

Eating is driven forward in a series of addiction feed back loops. First is sugar and carbohydrates that become sugar. Insulin response is the driver that shunts glucose into fat cells and locks it there until we have been hungry for an hour or two. Then we start drawing on fat. We need good long stretches of hunger to start drawing from fat until we give up most carbohydrates, and start to burn fat, and then hunger is not frequent until we get to a reasonable weight. Once we cut the carbohydrates and start to burn fat, we can see the leptin. Now we have quit feeding the insulin feedback cycle. 

Now it is time to move onto the opioid feed back loop. This one is from the ingestion of opioids, and products that become opioids. Opioids are peptides, protein fragments, part of the digestive process. The main sources of the proteins that break into opiods and glutin and gladin, found in wheat, and casins found in dairy products.

To find out what is driving you, I suggest the Maffetone two week test, and then add back one at a time. Anything you cannot give up, you are addicted to it, that simple.

Next Dopamine and Serotonin.

Starting Food Program, Step 0

I was asked how to start a food program. This is my opinion only, I am just an opinion. It does not matter.

We are powerless over food, it will do what it will do. Many of us are/were addicted (or addiction like behavior) to specific food. Sugar, wheat, breads, bagals, cereals, corn, other starches, junk food, usually containing omega 6 oils, dairy products, cheese, nuts, chocolate, alcohol, and others. First we must identify, give up totally these foods. Make a list, get them out of your house. You need to get separated from your drug of choice. There is a non OA book on this subject if you like:  http://www.theendofovereatingbook.com/.

There is an OA pamphlet, The Dignity of Choice, that outlines numerous choices for a starting food programs. It has a reasonable outline for a low carb plan. These are simple measure systems without any knowledge or logic required.  How complex do you want to get? It also must work in your life.

I needed to know which was right and why, and being obsessive, study the shit out of it.

I personally started with Kay Sheppard. http://www.kaysheppard.com/foodplan.htm and migrated from there to the Maffetone Two week test, (a copy at http://philosophyofweightmanagement.blogspot.com/p/facts-and-beliefs.html) then through various forms of low carb, to where I am today. I personally think that low carb, real unprocessed food, in some form is the way to go. Maffetone is helpful for figuring out how much carbohydrate we need. Personally I require about 50 to 100 gm/day. On my personal food site, all those links deal with various food issues.

Along the way I learned a bit about the human body, our needs, food science, and the science and mathematics behind it. That is useful for separating out the fiction that is so common in the "diet industry". There is a lot of fiction, and political directed recommendations, misdirection, which are contributing to the obesity epidermic.

Our needs are different and our likes are different. Start with something you can do, and go from there. A food log is necessary, to record what you eat, how much and when, your hunger status, and for what. You may need somewhere to figure out calories and carbs at.

The first steps (remove the poisons)  should be to get all the sugars, sugar substitutions, ground grains, specially wheat, and an other troubling food out of your diet. All added Omega 6 oils should go. All transfats, partly hydrogenated oils, oxygenated fats,  (deep fryer foods), branched chained amino acids, (soy protein, corn fed beef), and fructose rich fruits (grapes, raisins, dates, figs).

Here are some other sights with similar concepts. The details vary.
http://www.archevore.com/get-started/
http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?s=So+What’s+the+Healthiest+Way+to+Eat+“Safe+Starches

Overwhelmed?. Relax. You have the remainder of your life to perfect the plan. Perseverance and one day at a time thinking may help. I personally planed to eat about three times a day for the remainder of my life anway. What, how much and when are just details that do not need to be decided until just before. All we can do is continue doing what we are doing now until we have time to study the problem and make a decision. Make small changes as you can fit them into your life. Try, real, unprocessed food to start with.

Any comments or concerns, please respond in the comments section.