Psychology and Physiology of Eating - Essay Example

Describe the psychology and physiology of eating Have you ever noticed how much time we spent in eating and drinking We have to eat at least three times per day and we devote great amount of our time to think and decide what exactly we want to consume. What about the total amount of time it takes us to prepare the food. Logue (2004) states that he used a stopwatch on a random day just to estimate how much time he spent thinking about or consuming food. The result was four and a half hours. It might seem that people are obsessed with food, however as living beings our behaviour inevitably consists of obtaining and devouring food and liquids. We have noticed that there are people who overconsume chocolate for example. Most importantly we have to find out and understand what causes such behaviours to occur. What is the connection between psychology and eating Logue (2004) says that "psychology is the science of behavior, and therefore the analytical method" (p.2) should be used to identify its processes. Psychology is the science of "how and why organisms do what they do (Logue, 2004, p.3)." Exploring the psychology of eating we can figure out why we eat what we eat, why people go on diet, or why they are overweight Women's attitude towards food is highly intriguing, because weight is the center of so many of their problems. Without the scientific orientation it will be impossible to determine the causes of human behaviour and of eating in particular. Through observation Logue reached to the conclusion that eating habits are influenced by our social and cultural surrounding. Eating can be manipulated through different aspects of our lives - geographical location, cultural traits - like family gatherings, or what kind of herbs are used in the meals. Logue (2004) continues that thanks to the study of psychology of eating we can detect that tastes people have, why they like some foods more than other and how certain goods affect our behaviour. Ogden (2003) seeks to integrate psychological knowledge within the insights of sociology and medicine and explores in her book eating related attitudes. Furthermore Ogden (2003) details the nature of a healthy diet, the overweight concerns and the causes and treatment of obesity and wide range of eating disorders. All of us remember the earliest experiences with eating and drinking as young kids. We were not allowed to eat sweet and unhealthy foods and are forced to consume fresh fruits and vegetables. We were all angry and sad, however we learnt that certain foods were good for the health and others were not. Odgen (2003) claims that the eating habits that we establish as children guide us through our adult eating habits. She continues that on psychologically unconscious level we associate eating and drinking with the family atmosphere, when parents paid much attention on us during the meal time. Odgen (2003) posits that we learned to connect eating of large portions with prolonged family dinners and this has left us with emotional, nurturing moments. As little kids we all keep memories of cookies and milk and cartoons and associate them with pleasant moments in our early psychological development. Humphries (1927) notes that dies tend to destroy the relationship between people and food. This is so because the consumption of good or bad food acts as deterrent for eating it and encourages guilty feelings in us. From psychological point of view, if you eat food which makes you feel guilty, the nutritions' qualities disappear, because you suppress them to be transmitted by the food through your psychological attitude (Humphries, 1927). Nowadays we are surrounded with TV commercials and billboards which preach us what is the best quality of the food. The media makes us believe and controls the food we consume. They take us the right to choose want we really need as nutritions and how to achieve a good relationship with the food. Over the course of our lifetime, each of us gradually establishes a relationship with the foods he regularly devours. Humphries (1927) determines that it strongly depends on our early eating habits whether the relationship will be a friendly one. If we have a pleasant relationship with food we will receive the total amount of nourishing elements in a delicious way. Otherwise, the unpleasant thoughts about food create conflicts between us and the food and we feel unhappy and anxious. These feelings complicate the process of eating and very often cause eating disorders (Humphries, 1927). Humphries (1927) proposes several advices to avoid the eating disorders and to keep a good relationship with the food. We never have to eat if we are tired, this hinders the nutrients to directly enter our body. We have to avoid eating if we are unset or worried - this creates psychological barrier in us. Eat anything but sparingly, if you feel hungry. Here Humphries (1927) objects on the well-known myth about the three meals per days. He argues that people have to eat as many times per day as they feel hungry, because the organism adjusts to the quantities of food taken and decides for itself how much is the healthy portion per day. Another valuable piece of advice for parents is that they should not force their children to eat whatever food they serve and should leave the child to get plenty of rest and not scold them during meal time. Psychology of eating is important sociological concept that includes both the appropriate psychological phases of eating and how to interpret and apply them so as to obtain maximum pleasure and health from the food we daily consume. Human eating behaviour evolved over the millennia and proved to be beneficial for our health and much of what we eat can determine whether we will outlive our ancestors. Since the eating habits develop when we are newborns we have to teach our children how to establish correct relationship with the food. We have to teach them to value the food because we are depended on its nutrients. Gershon (1999) depicts eating as the action of taking solid foods in order to nourish oneself usually through devouring it in the mouth. He divides eating into the following processes: insertion in the mouth, then mastication, then swallowing and finally digestion. Guyton and Hall (2000) define eating as the proper action of consuming and ingestion, whereby food enters into our body and is digested. They emphasize that the most important process of eating is to extract nutrients from the food. Afterwards, the digestion is followed by absorption - the process in which the nutrients from the food are passed into the blood stream. In order for us to understand the preparations of eating, it is of high importance to realize that eating and digestion both require that our body optimizes the blood flow to the digestive organs (Guyton and Hall, 2000). This will supply the organs with the necessary oxygen and energy, so as to absorb the nutrients. Human blood flow to the digestive system is controlled by the autonomic nervous system (Gershon, 1999). That is the reason why proper eating and digestion require our body to be fully relaxed and not tensed. This will allow the blood to be transported from the muscles into the digestive system. Gershon (1999) elaborates that as a consequence of evolution our body can not properly engage in eating if the nervous system is not relaxes. If you must escape from danger, for instance your organs are put on alert and your blood is concentrated in the muscles. There are three preparation phases for eating - preparation in the mouth, in the stomach and by the pancreas (Guyton and Hall, 2000). Saliva is used in the mouth to wet the food, this is done through tasting it, then chewing it, separate the food into small participles and finally swallow it. Food must be wetted, because it is easier to masticate it. In addition, saliva contains number of enzymes, which aids the stomach to chemically digest the food. Guyton and Hall (2000) describe that food has to be mixed with fluids in the stomach and that is why when we are eating this stimulates the release of gastric juices. Also one of the reasons why while we are eating we usually drink as well is that water or any liquids in general are necessary to keep the food easily liquefied. Pancreas is important for the normal digestion, because it releases insulin. This is a hormone responsible for the production of glucose and amino acids (Guyton and Hall, 2000). When they are produced by the blood and enter the cells they are used as fuel and to renew the tissue (Guyton and Hall, 2000). Insulin is important when the food is digested, because the levels of glucose and amino acids in the blood expand. Psychological and physiological processes of eating are interrelated and we have to take into consideration the social and cultural perspectives of eating, so as to understand the human feeding behaviour. References: Gershon, Michael D. ,1999. The Second Brain: A Groundbreaking New Understanding of Nervous Disorders of the Stomach and Intestine. New York: HarperCollins. Guyton, Arthur C., and Hall.J., 2000. Textbook of Medical Physiology. 10th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders. Humphries, R., 1927. The psychology of eating: The Effect of Mind on Metabolism and Its Relation to Autointoxication and Disease. American journal of public health, No.17,pp.1142-1147. Logue.W.,A., 2004.The Psychology of Eating and Drinking, Brunner-Routledge, New York. Ogden., J., 2003. The Psychology of Eating: From healthy to disordered behavior. Wiley-Blackwell Read More