Excessive food consumption or without a physiological motivator, can affect the proper functioning of the body.
The period that our brain takes to feel full is approximately 20 minutes, Lcda. Wanda González, nutritionist, dietician and exercise physiologist. Photo: Journal of Medicine and Public Health. Fabiola Plaza.
Whenever we are going to eat or feed ourselves, we must understand and know the stimuli, or reasons why ´we have hunger´, taking into account that glucose is our source of energy, and that it comes from los foods in different concentrations, we must know where the need o hunger.
Asking ourselves the question of whether it is an impulse due to social or emotional stimuli or stress factors; or if naturally our body is asking for food due to lack of it. Likewise, care must be taken with which foods satisfy these needs.
“Because when we consume foods high in sugar, fat, alcohol, caffeine, what they generate is to exacerbate symptoms of anxiety, stress, without guaranteeing satiety,” says the attorney. Wanda Gonzalez, nutritionist, dietician and exercise physiologist. We must bear in mind that intestinal integrity has a direct role in feelings, due to the relationship that our intestine has with the brain, improving or worsening moods.
So it is that our eating habits impact, positively or negatively, the different treatments that a person like patient with a specific disease; since each of the treatments needs a correlation with the foodchoosing a diet that does not affect that operation.
We tend to overeat or overfeed ourselves, without understanding why, doing a poor choice of foodgenerating different health problems or disorders that may have repercussions on laboratories, treatments, weight gain or difficulty to lose weight.
It is important to keep in mind that, in the body, digestion begins from the moment we give the first bite of food and at that very moment the body begins to secrete the necessary hormones so that our brain turns from the feeling of satiety.
“The period it takes for our brain to feel full is approximately 20 minutes, but it is vital that at the time of eating we focus on this, since external factors can affect the process preventing us from feeling full,” says the nutritionist, González.
To understand this we must know what it is. hunger physiological and what is it hunger emotional, being aware of the benefits we get from each of the food that we ingest.
This occurs gradually, is regulated by the organs and digestive systemand occurs when we have an empty stomach, this organ by necessity secretes a gastric hormone called ghrelin, responsible for sending the message to the hypothalamus communicating the need for food.
Another physiological reaction, faced with the need to food it happens when we spend a prolonged period without eating food, having episodes of hypoglycemia or low blood sugar; without the need to have a diagnosis of this disease or diabetes as such, this happens because we present a glucose deficit with symptoms such as:
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dizziness
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Headache
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sweating
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Blurry vision
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Weakness
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Irritability
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ravenous hunger
When we identify that we need to feed or eat, with “hunger physiological, we satiate ourselves with the food that we have available, you don’t feel guilty or remorseful, you just feel the satisfaction that you’re eating food that’s right,” says the specialist.
This is a sudden hunger, which is not caused by a process stimulated by hormones, but by emotions, situations/cravings, stress factors and in many cases generates overeating since food becomes an object of desire, and they eat impulsively or by binge eating, without being aware that they are eating.
“After eating these foods, it can be accompanied by feelings of guilt, of abandoning eating habits. feeding adequate, sometimes we justify ourselves by saying ‘it’s Friday’, ‘I earned it’, ‘I deserve it’, ‘the day was very strong’, ‘they don’t diet on weekends’, ‘I’m going to feel better’ , ´tomorrow I return´, these are the red flags that the food we are consuming is not recommended for our health”, confirms the Lcda. Wanda.
The specialist invites people who want to make changes in eating habits, they must be permanent, improving their lifestyle, applied gradually, integrating these habits into the standard diet; It is not good to make changes in eating habits due to emotional stimuli, or take it as if it were a diet driven by short-term goals.
It should be taken into account that within the habits applied to the normal diet of people, there are times when the nutritionist also emphasizes that “culturally everything is celebrated with food, so it is important to know these foods and being able to identify the quantities, incorporating exercise into the daily routine, without any remorse, or feeling of failure”.
The dietitian emphasizes the need to eat, detailing the process, that is, avoiding eating, while watching television, while working, or for short periods, focusing on the foodin chewing properly the number of times necessary, and in the need we have, without distractions or blame.
“It is relevant that we know that this process takes a period, sometimes we sit down to eat and maybe we eat the food in five minutes, sometimes we don’t chew well, or we eat while working, watching movies, concentrating on the cell phone, on the tablet, on the computer, affecting the process of regulating satiety,” he recommends.
As human beings, we must be clear that before carrying out any feeding process, no matter how small, we must establish certain basic questions to avoid undereating or even overeating.
Questions like:
Am I going to eat because I feel sad, because I am very stressed?
Am I sure I want to eat this amount?
How long ago did I last eat?
What nutritional contribution will what I am going to eat have?
Am I failing to comply with any point of the diet recommended by my specialist?
How might this affect my health?
Do I have enough time to eat or am I going to eat in a hurry?
We must keep in mind that eating habits must be done through partial and short-term patterns and modifications “we can identify, what is the first thing I am going to do? I am going to increase the consumption of water, that will be my goal this week, next week I’m going down the food fried or sweets, and little by little we establish short-term goals that in the end will help us make this eating habit part of our lifestyle, see it as a process, and understand that within this pattern, we we are going to eat the pizza, the sweets, and it will happen because they are accessible, and we are not going to punish ourselves with that, we simply return to the next meal”, concludes the nutritionist.
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