• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Diets and self-control

Humans. The only creatures in the entire animal kingdom who need willpower and spreadsheets in order to prevent eating themselves to death.

I say chuck the willpower in the bin along with artificial food. Job done.
 
Jim Lahey said:
The only creatures in the entire animal kingdom who need willpower and spreadsheets in order to prevent eating themselves to death.
Click to expand...

Actually, I've seen some pretty obese labrador dogs, so I'm not sure I agree.
 
EllieM said:
Actually, I've seen some pretty obese labrador dogs, so I'm not sure I agree.
Click to expand...
You beat me to it. In the recent TV programme "Don't Call Me Fat" there was mention of a gene, that some people lack, which means that they don't know when to stop eating. Apparently, according to the doctor on the programme, labradors also lack this gene.
 
I wonder if there's a gene for binge eating? My bingeing has nothing to do with not knowing when to stop eating. I simply get an irresistible urge to eat certain foods and when I've eaten them the urge is gone - at least until the next time.
 
"The people who are good at self control never had these battles in the first place" and "the pile of cookies has already won" - medical recognition of these ideas is long overdue.

My personal food demons almost always win, yet an immediate family member is as little as a baby bird - she simply doesn't feel tempted by food.

I'm not sure what the causal mix is but in my case it produced a person with an insatiable appetite and practically zero "willpower".
 
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/...earn-from-overweight-pets-about-human-obesity
This is a very interesting article which talks about studying obesity in pets (including labradors) as a possible way of getting insights into obesity in humans. Despite the title, the article goes on to discuss other putative contributors to obesity such as antibiotic use, food additives, sleep debt, light pollution, BPA, and processed meals with large portion sizes and ingredients that tap into our reward pathways.

Eleanor Raffan, one of the researchers who discovered the gene which contributes to some labradors getting fat suggests giving meals that are more satiating and the use of puzzle feeders which allow the dogs to exhibit their genetically driven food-seeking behaviour whilst restricting the amount of food they can obtain. The article summarises her view as ' ... we shouldn’t view obesity as some sort of moral failing in either owners or their pets'. She is then quoted as saying, "We’re so used to condemning humans who are overweight as being just greedy and weak-willed ... but, this is inaccurate: eating behaviour is susceptible to genetic drives – and dogs are an example of this ... Dogs don’t make value judgments. They eat because they’re hungry and this variability in dogs is hardwired.”
 
I think willpower is needed to control diabetes? When you are tempted by a carbohydrate meal then saying no means willpower has succeeded?
 
jpscloud said:
"The people who are good at self control never had these battles in the first place" and "the pile of cookies has already won" - medical recognition of these ideas is long overdue.
Click to expand...

Absolutely!

The more people go on about Will Power the more I wish to offer them a body swap for a day.
A month would be better, of course, but I think they would get the message in a day.
And what a sharp learning curve it would be for them. lol
 

I can see now that my earlier post might have looked a bit abrupt and unsupported!

In agreeing with Jim and adding that labs are bred by humans, I was really suggesting that selective breeding has never paid attention to appetite, and that pet foods while claiming to be healthy are often full of cereal and not what the animal has evolved to eat. Similarly feeding patterns tend to follow human feeding of more than one meal a day, and are regular routines to enable settled behaviour in the animals - also not what they evolved to do.
 
Just to add - Healthy working Labradors on not usually overweight .Does this apply to humans ?
I will go and hide now !
Carol
 
I had stopped dieting for a good three years before being diagnosed. I gained no weight and yet I made all food freely available. The less restricted I felt, the less I was bothered by food. Before that it was low fat diets all the way, like WW and calorie counting, now that needed "willpower" right up until the slowing of my metabolism stalled all weight loss and the constant hunger became too much.

I was worried going LCHF/Keto and getting rid of the processed stuff would feel like just another diet, but oddly it doesn't for me. I finally feel like I'm working with my body rather than against it, no willpower required. It helps that the constant hunger is gone, it's liberating after so many years of constant thinking about food. Basically I agree with article, I'm finding it easy because I barely have to use my self control any more.
 
Inchindown said:
I wonder if there's a gene for binge eating? My bingeing has nothing to do with not knowing when to stop eating. I simply get an irresistible urge to eat certain foods and when I've eaten them the urge is gone - at least until the next time.
Click to expand...

@Inchindown - I've literally just asked Dr Goole to search for me on "is there a gene for binge eating", and quite a lot of "stuff" came back. How robust some of those papers might be, I have no idea at this stage, but it could be worth a click around?

Apologies for drifting the thread a bit @Bogie
 
“I can resist everything except temptation” - Oscar Wilde
Our behaviours are as a result of a mixture of genetic, environmental and learned elements.
It is too late for me to do anything about the genetic component. I do know it is easier to resist food items if they remain in the supermarket rather than when they are in my fridge.
However, some people comment on my self control when I don’t eat cakes or biscuits. But they do not tempt me, I don’t need any self control. People who really like cakes don’t believe me as for them it would take great control. There is no moral virtue involved.
I think we are all different in what causes difficulty. If coffee shops had racks full of cheese I suspect I might be tempted!
 
carty said:
Just to add - Healthy working Labradors on not usually overweight .Does this apply to humans ?
I will go and hide now !
Carol
Click to expand...
I'm a working human and have at times been slim but have always sought out and binged on unhealthy foods. As a small child, when sweets were not available, I would binge on anything available. As my parents had a small holding, there was a lot of vegetable produce. I remember once causing much hilarity in the family by working my way down a row of peas and eating the lot. It was a big row of peas and I was about four.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…