Food Hacks
I am picking up a lot of videos on my feed that suggest we can use ‘hacks’ or adaptive approaches to what we eat and how we think in order to reduce hunger and cravings.
One of my earliest realizations in this field of thought was what I called my ‘20 minute rule’ which simply put is taking 20 minutes after eating to decide if you want to eat more.
It works, there is a mechanism in the body that signals satiety and it takes about 20 minutes for that signal to reach the brain. Waiting before you decide to eat more can be enough to reduce the amount you eat and reduce the likelihood of over eating.
Like other approaches I had to losing weight and improving diet it works, in part however such approaches are not enough to sustain weight loss and a healthy diet as the fundamental problem of what we eat is not addressed.
If we eat too much carbohydrate, be it sugar, starch or highly processed foods that themselves metabolize as would sugar in our bodies, we will continue to have cravings and we will continue to eat too much.
Some people I have come across think that we can eat sugar and sugary starchy foods ‘in moderation’ and using mental hacks that we can somehow keep a lid on over eating. But I believe that this is fundamentally wrong as the body inevitably reacts to high levels of sugar be it a singular event or a repeated one. If you were any where near being in a state of ketosis by lowering carbohydrate consumption you will be knocked out of it and you will have to start again. Some suggest that this can take up to 2 weeks to recover from so you are just put back to square one.
So I would not suggest to ignore so called ‘hacks’ but we really have to focus on the causes of why we have food cravings and why we over eat. Often these are a direct result of ultra processed foods and those that contain high amounts of starch and or sugar.