What do you think about my new theory on weight gain?

I think it’s plausible. However, I do think our body craves the bad stuff in bad foods because of pleasure patterns formed in our brains – a sugar high begets more sugar highs rather than dealing on figuring out vegetables.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir I think that too. I think it is complex. If the body craves the high you describe, and we eat more garbage, we still deprive our bodies of the nutrients we need. It’s a cycle of sabotage of sorts.

Yes I believe that is of the factors @JLeslie.

Makes a lot of sense to me. When I eat real high-fiber food (not the “fiber added BS”) and food that’s closest to their natural state, I do feel full longer and more satisfied. Eating a lot of prepackaged food sometimes feels like they balloon up in my stomach to mimic the full feeling, but I’m hungry sooner.

I thought the same thing, I don’t know if it’s a fact, but I guess I just assumed that’s what was happening. Like when I don’t eat fruit or vegetables for an extended amount of time, and my body seems to crave them.

I know I am a sugar-aholic at times, I do think sugar is highly addictive.
If I get used to having something for ‘dessert’ it is noticeable when I do not.
I also think we DO crave certain nutrients and that may contribute to eating too much at times

‘They’ say that if you leave a toddler to their own devices they WILL choose an overall balanced diet.

Coloma is taking her bowl of cabbage and pistachio nuts to her TV room now LOL

It was just at this point in reading the thread that she happily remembered the plums and cherries in the fridge

I think it’s pretty easy to stretch out a stomach and so that space wants to feel full. My antique dinner plates are 9.5” in diameter versus the everyday Target brand set that is 12”. Mom’s vintage restaurant wear dishes are the same- 9” dinner plates, soup/cereal bowls that appear puny and teensy seeming coffee mugs. Juice glasses hold 4–6oz instead of 16oz like our modern Anchor Hocking ones.

What I believe is food has been pitched to a post WWll society in a way they can feel reassured hunger will never be part of their lives. Heaven forbid if a small child says they’re hungry in public to where the parents are given dirty looks.

I remember when I was young, never, ever to ask the hostess for food, but to wait until it was offered. I teach my kids to do the same. My mom raised me right… however, nowadays, my daughter’s friends come up to me at any time and say, rather demandingly, “I’m hungry.”

The plate information was very interesting!! It’s like our culture, generally, no longer processes the concept of inaccessible food.

I agree with you in that there is massive amounts of data that shows how a crucial mineral….Selenium that we need for our immune systems is woefully devoid in our commercial food process because of the constant farming pressure of farmland. Selenium occurs naturally when land is allowed to “rest” and natural plants can grow and decay and replenish the soil, Selenium is easily removed from the soil by over farming and is a trace element in many of our foods where years ago it was plentiful. I can only imagine a similar scenario exists for other essential mineral our bodies need to have optimum health,

If that were the only factor than people who live on vitamins should have no problem. I had a cousin who didn’t like to eat and was skinny as heck. The doctors gave her a series of vitamin shots to help increase her appetite. So that would suggest that more vitamins can also make you hungrier.
I agree that this may be a factor but our bodies are so complexed in how we individually act that its difficult to point a finger at only one thing.
Like my cousin. It was difficult to make her eat more than anything that would equal one meal a day. She didn’t even enjoy junk food. She was undernurished, and yet she had a ton of energy. More than most kids. You wouldn’t know that she was anemic except for the fact that she was really skinny and small. (She wasn’t anorexic. She just thought all food tasted bad. She was only 8.)
But my point was that her body should’ve been creating cravings that would be difficult for her to resist. After a while of being on vitamin shots, her appetite did increase and even though she still didn’t like many foods she was getting too hungry to resist eating.

I agree. When I am eating food with the nutrients I need, I feel satisfied with far less. Sugar, especially, makes me crave more and more. So I start with limiting my sugar intake.

I just watched the first half of Food Inc. Even our fruits and vegetables have less nutrients now. Sigh….

Pomegranates were bigger, more juicy, and way more flavorful before they became ‘in vogue’ superfruits. Since they were discovered by the big marketing giants, the only ones that hit the shelves are tiny, bitter and shriveled. >:-( I want my delicious Pommies back!

Your theory holds water. However it is just one part of the problem.

I would say the main problem is we have millions of years of evolution behind us that make us hungry. As soon as you eat a big meal your body gets sleepy, as if to say “ok, time to get some sleep and turn this food to fat, who knows when we will eat again”. 200.000 years ago, those who are fat now would have been healthy, and all these fussy eaters would be dead.

Another problem is what you mention, we just don’t get the nutrition in our food. I read a story recently about a man who was stranded on a life-raft for several months, all he had was some drinking water that was onboard and the fish he could catch. After several months of eating nothing but fish, he was starting to die. The fish had all the nutrients he needed, but he did not eat those parts. However, once his body started getting worried, it tricked his mind in to eating other parts. The man claims that after a month or so, he would pull fish out of the water and go directly for it’s eyes and guts, leaving all the meat. He says the meat did not even look nice to him anymore, that the only appealing part was the eyeballs and guts. So yea, the body will force you to eat strange things if it is not getting all the nutrients it needs.

I think we need to realize as a species, that we all need shelter, we all need food and water, and we all need healthcare. I would argue that we should take the profit out of these things, and make it universally free for all the species. As long as people can make money by cheating us out of healthcare of good food, they will, because they are not us, and so they dont care.

Wow…the fish guts and eyes, just woke up over here, having my 1st cup of coffee. Hardly a Folgers moment.
Nothing like waking up to fish guts in your cup. :-/