Wisdom Wednesday: Why do we eat?
Monday I published a review of Dr. Jason Fung’s book, The Hunger Code. The key point of his book is that an effective diet must manage hunger.
Another great point he makes is that we don’t always eat because of physiological hunger. Sometimes we eat because it is breakfast, lunch, or dinner, regardless of if we are hungry or not. He discusses 3 types of hunger: homeostatic, hedonic, and conditioned.
Do we eat popcorn at the movies (or watching TV at home) because we are hungry? Likely not. We do so because either it is what we always do (conditioned hunger) or it is pleasurable (hedonic hunger) but not because we are eating to fuel or body (homeostatic hunger).
Likewise do we finish everything on our plate because we are hungry or because we don’t want any food to go to waste?
I discussed related topics in my blog posts: What Job is Overeating Doing for You? and 5 Reasons Why We Eat.
