The Cause of Obesity

“I feel euphoric when I eat foods that have a lot of calories.” That awareness is the beginning of solving the mystery behind the cause of obesity. The mystery is in your mind and psyche.

Ask yourself these questions to shed light on why certain food makes you feel euphoric:

• Was this a food I ate for comfort as a child?
• Was I offered food as a child when I was unhappy to ‘feel’ better?
• Are there wonderful memories of happy times connected with eating this food?
• Are there people that I associate with the food?
• Was food the focal point for family gatherings?
• Do I eat the same things over and over, because they make me feel good, and remind me of happier times?

There is a chemical affect that the food is giving you. Certain foods cause your brain to secrete endorphins (“happy juice”) that make you feel euphoric. Chocolate is one of them. You can also create extra endorphins by doing other things, like exercising, getting hugs, making love, playing with animals, engaging in a hobby, stimulating conversation, etc. None of these are fattening!

Research on body types reveals Sweet Crunchy foods are appealing to more people than Crunchy Pungent foods. And if you check the majority of processed food, crunchy or otherwise you will note there is a plethora of sweetners in the majority of products—Corn syrup, Glucose, Glucose syrup, Sucrose, Dextrose, Maltose are the most frequently used, as well as artificial sweetners—aspartame, saccharine, acesulfame k and sorbitol.
Armed with the research that Sweet Crunchy foods are appealing to more people than pungent foods, food manufacturers have teams of psychologists and researchers to create food that is esthetically enticing. For example: The red juice from beef is not the natural blood of cattle. The majority of blood is drained from the meat during processing and is replaced with red dyed water. Why? Because the actual color of beef is considered an unappealing blue/gray color. Look at the veins in the back of your hand or pulse point. It appears to be blue, which is the same effect with beef. Red dye is toxic, however, meat processors are compelled to use the red dye to satisfy consumers’ preference to have beef appear ‘blood red.’ Red dye in meat is seldom used in other countries.

McDonald’s spent considerable time and money researching the content of their French fry ‘mixture’—they are not whole cut potatoes. McDonald’s French fries are made from mashed potatoes extruded through a press. By using the pre-cooked potatoes many additives are used to create the flavor the majority of people’s taste buds like. Research on body types indicates Sweet Crunchy foods are appealing to more people than Crunchy Pungent foods. And if you check the majority of processed food, crunchy or otherwise you will note there is a plethora of sweetners in the majority of products—Corn syrup, Glucose, Glucose syrup, Sucrose, Dextrose, Maltose are the most frequently used, as well as artificial sweetners—aspartame, saccharine, acesulfame k and sorbitol.

Thus, eating high calorie foods begins at 6 months when solid baby foods with sweetners are introduced. The child soon learns sweet high calorie foods satisfy hunger feelings and a feeling of comfort.

Fortunately, humans are born with the most important effective food management tool—a hypothalamus, which helps to regulate the amount of food required for maintaining optimum health and weight. The main function of the hypothalamus is homeostasis, or maintaining the body’s status quo. Factors such as blood pressure, body temperature, fluid and electrolyte balance, and body weight are held to a precise value called the set-point. Although this set-point can migrate over time, from day to day it is remarkably fixed.

Unfortunately, well-meaning parent(s) encourage children to ‘override’ this homeostasis mechanism, by insisting, threatening, bribery, begging, number of tries, if you eat one bite, “You can have dessert (something sweet),” to eat everything on their plate. Thus, by age 5 or 6 the hypothalamus is rendered inoperative and the child is no longer listening to their body signals regarding the appropriate intake of food.

You can retrain your mind and psyche to create a hypothalamus driven eating habit by knowing your blood and body type. Each blood type is better fueled by certain foods. And each body type has a unique like or dislike to certain textures and tastes. Deepak Chopra, MD author of “Perfect Health: Complete Mind/Body Guide” identifies three body types: The thin, restless Vata; enterprising, efficient Pitta; tranquil, steady Kapha; or any combination of these three. These body types become the basis for a specific Ayurvedic food plan for optimum health, stress reduction, neuromuscular integration, exercise and daily routines. The result is a total plan, tailor-made for each individual, to reestablish the body’s essential balance with nature; to strengthen the mind body connection; and to use the power of quantum healing to transcend the ordinary limitations of disease and aging—in short, for achieving Perfect health.

Coupled with “Eat Right for Your Type” by Peter D’Adamo there is a clear, simple food plan for each blood type that anyone can follow. For example there is a direct connection between stress, autoimmune disorders and red meat in the Type B system. I can attest to this research. Long before “Eat Right for Your Type” was published, I discovered red meat caused me to feel stressful due to pain in my stomach and nerve endings. It felt like my stomach lining and nerve endings had been scraped until they were raw. I discovered this pain was prevalent after eating red meat, thus, I stopped eating red meat and the pain in my stomach and nerve endings ceased. Many years later without knowing my blood type, I read “Eat Right for Your Type” and wondered if my blood type was B. After checking my blood type, I was not surprised to discover my blood type is B positive.

The process of changing your eating habits might seem insurmountable. However, consider the end result and the effort is worth any falsely perceived difficulty.

Dorothy M. Neddermeyer, PhD, specializes in family issues, including sexual abuse, incest and physical abuse prevention and recovery, life coach/consultant, lecturer, workshop facilitator and author. http://www.drdorothy.net

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