Could You Be “Programmed” to Eat Too Much?

There is a newer interesting theory out there now that those that consistently overeat suffer from something called EFS, or external food sensitivity, which makes them feel hungry when they aren’t really hungry, upon seeing foods that look appealing . Say if you weren’t really all that hungry, but were faced with a large slice of what looked like very moist and tasty chocolate cake, you might be more inclined to eat that whole piece of cake because it looked really good if you had a high EFS, versus someone who didn’t really have a button go off every time they saw an appetizing food.

I guess you could say that all of us suffer from EFS to some degree, but there are those of us that simply give in to it more often, or the connection in our brains to eat things that look appealing is just too overwhelming for us to ignore, so we find ourselves gobbling down that aforementioned piece of delectable chocolate cake before our brains can even rationalize that we do not need it.  We feel more hungry, simply from seeing a food that looks good, rather than listening to the physiological underpinnings that create hungre in our bodies and tell us when more caloric intake is needed to function on a level that’s acceptable and efficient.

I personally think I may be somewhere higher than the middle when it comes to my sensitivity to the sight of food that I find to be appetizing looking.  I know that it’s very hard for me to resist when we go to a restaurant, or a buffet, certain foods that are really good looking, but if I just don’t see it or smell it, I don’t need it.  That makes me think I may have an issue with connecting my real hunger to my perceived hunger, as people with EFS are .

Because brain scans showed that the areas associated with hunger and the sight of something appealing, but subjects did not report being any hungrier than their counterparts, the scientists concluded that people with high food sensitivity as it relates to the sight of the food actually be a sort of addiction.  I’ve always believed that overeating is a sort of addiction, and one that can be harder to overcome than many substance abuse addictions, or even smoking, because of the pervasiveness of availability of food here in the US, and because we use food for so many social reasons and social functions.

Food is definitely what we make it.  It can be our best friend or our worst enemy.  The right foods can heal the body and make us appear healthy, thin and agile, making our bodies warriors against aging, while the wrong foods rob of us our youth and our health, and create a whole set of emotional problems and issues with self esteem of their own.  Food must definitely be used wisely, and eaten in moderation, or else we put ourselves at risk for obesity.