Produce More Food OR Simply Eat Less?

A lot of experts suggest that by the year 2050 the earth’s population will reach 9 billion and with the current method of food production we might have problem feeding everyone.  In addition to that, food prices might also sky rocket which means many people might not be able to afford food to feed their families.  Reading about the 2015 Milan Universal Exposition and their theme, I noticed that the main focus is on the production of food.  How can we produce more food, better food, using less energy and that is great.  What surprises me is that no one has looked at the other side.  The fact that we eat a lot more food that we really need.  That is one of the main reasons why we are so overweight and so unhealthy in the first place.   The unfortunate fact is that today, people in the developed countries, use food not just to nourish their bodies.  They eat because of emotional reasons. They eat because they are bored. They are eating because it makes them feel good and they eat for pure entertainment. I know many people don’t want to hear this but the truth is the only reason anyone should be eating is to provide nourishment to their body and the way your body tells you it needs nourishment is through hunger.  Every time you eat without being hungry, whatever food you eat, it is harmful to the body because is beyond what the body needs.   When was the last time you checked if you were truly hungry before you ate?  If you are like most people in the western world, almost never.  As a matter of fact, most people don’t even know what true hunger is.  They mistake cravings or habitual hunger as true hunger.  What is even sadder is that most diets and nutritionists don’t teach people to pay attention to their hunger but instead to count calories, points or measure their food.  As a matter of fact many people in the nutrition field consider letting your body go hungry as a bad thing.  Let me give you an undisputed fact that I would defend against any nutritionist or PhD.  Letting your body go hungry before eating, is the best thing you can do for your body and your health.  The only reason I can think of, as to why not too many people promote the idea of eating out of hunger is because you can’t sell anything.  Think about it.  If people started to eat only when hungry, or at least most of the time, people will end up eating a lot less food.   That is not good for most businesses, so no one is interested in promoting the idea.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying we should not be getting any enjoyment from food, or that we should never over eat.  Of course not.  I believe in the 80/20 rule.  At least 80% of the times we should be eating out of hunger and the rest of the time, relax about it.  The human body can tolerate over eating every so often. What it can’t tolerate is overeating all the time.  As far as getting pleasure out of food, I can tell you first hand, that you will get a lot more pleasure from eating when you eating when you are truly hungry than you would if you ate without being hungry. 

By the way, eating only when hungry is not a new thing.  There was a time when people used to eat out of hunger and at those times people were eating only once or twice per day.  Because of massive marketing efforts people are being persuaded into thinking that they need more food than they actually need.  I believe we need to reteach people to eat the way our ancestors used to eat, out of hunger.  Imagine how much less food our society would consume if people started eating only when hungry 80% of the time?  Would that make a difference in the ability of our planet so sustain a larger population?  I think so.

Also another great benefit of eating only when hungry is that we will end up losing weight as a society and improve our healthy significantly, not to mention all the money we would save on medications we wouldn’t have to take due to our improved health and the money we would save on all the extra food we won’t have to buy!  I have clients that tell me that after they went through my weight loss program and learned how to eat out of hunger most of their meals, their budget on food went down by over $100 per week.  That is like getting a $100 raise per week.

The bottom line is that we need to find other ways to entertain ourselves, and to deal with stress other than food.  If we continue to use food as entertainment or like a drug there are two likely outcomes.  With the human population going up, we might reach a point that the earth cannot provide enough food for everyone and then we will be in big trouble or we will eat ourselves to death.  Either way it does not end well, so we need to make some changes in the way we eat.  It’s good for us and it’s good for the planet.

I do realize that the fact that no one makes money when people don’t consume, there is no great push to educate the public on the benefits of eating only when hungry, and so I have taken up that task of educating the public on the benefits of eating out of hunger.  Through my Live Your Way Thin Facebook page, through articles, lectures, my YouTube channel and my online weight loss program Live Thin Stay Thin, I am trying to spread this very important message.  For those of you who think learning to eating most of your meals out of hunger will be hard, I have news for you.  It is not as hard as you might think and you will find yourself getting even more enjoyment out of eating and I am talking from personal experience.  So next time you go to eat, ask yourself, “Am I Truly Hungry?”