According to a recent report by the Spanish monthly "Vistazo," a study by the Spanish Center for the Prevention of Anorexia and Bulimia shows that uncontrolled gluttony is not caused by hunger, but rather to seek physical pleasure and psychological satisfaction.
The report states that the pursuit of delicious enjoyment or psychological reasons has led to binge eating and drinking, which has resulted in 40% of obese people in Spain today. With the popularization of refrigerators in homes and the doubling of supermarket sizes, this trend has worsened. Pedro Manuel, a psychiatrist at a hospital in Zaragoza, Spain, explained: "The trend of overeating has fostered an ancillary goal of eating, which is not for survival, but for seeking pleasure."
The report explains that typically, newborns have their first food in their mother's warm embrace. When the hunger disappears, the infant experiences great pleasure, which is associated with the mother's warm scent and the taste and texture of food left on the tip of the tongue. Thus, the connection between food and the feeling of enjoyment is permanently etched in memory.
Recently, scientists have begun new research to distinguish between hunger and appetite. Hunger is generated to ensure an individual's survival, while appetite can be defined as the desire to eat and drink until one feels satisfied. The fundamental trigger for eating disorders should be emotional factors similar to craving and pain. Because of the motivation to seek pleasure, doctors refuse to classify binge eating as an eating disorder, although they are also working to prevent it from harming human health.
Scientists hope to find the proteins responsible for people's behavior at the dining table, and significant progress has been made in this area. Researchers have found that these proteins are divided into two categories: one stimulates human appetite, and the other slows down the eating and drinking process and balances long-term fat storage.
But why do people choose to eat delicious pastries and candies instead of fruits when they want to eat? According to research, people in a state of true hunger prefer salty foods or dairy products, while in states of sadness and anxiety, they prefer sweets.
"Depression stimulates the hormonal mechanism in the brain, prompting people to overeat and drink," said Kent Berridge, a psychologist at the University of Michigan. Experiments have shown that injecting rats with large doses of corticotropin-releasing factor (related to depression) can triple their preference for sugar. In addition, corticotropin in the brain weakens a person's resistance to temptation.
Psychologists explain that foods rich in fat and sugar, such as fast food, stimulate the brain to produce pleasure substances. Therefore, pizza, drinks, chips, and hot dogs are so tempting.
The report states that when fast food and desserts become commonplace, fat in the human body increases and gradually changes the function of hormones, thereby altering the process of hunger and satisfaction.