How Sugar Disrupts the Natural Eating Cycle by Joan Kent, PhD
How Sugar Disrupts the Natural Eating Cycle
By Joan Kent, PhD
The Natural Eating Cycle is simple and straightforward: We feel hungry. We eat. Hunger ends. We stop eating and lose interest in food.
Those 4 steps form a continual, ongoing process. Eating this natural way is primal and elemental. Babies are experts at it, although of course a parent or caretaker feeds them.
Babies do have the last step down cold, though. Have you ever tried to feed a baby who’s not hungry anymore? Good luck.
That’s how it’s supposed to be.
Yet the natural eating cycle can go wrong – and sugar is one reason that can happen.
Unnatural Eating Patterns
These patterns may include:
• restriction (dieting, fasting)
• bingeing
• purging (self-induced vomiting, abuse of laxatives, excessive exercise)
• irregular meal timing (skipping meals, grazing all day)
• extremely rapid eating
• eating a lot of food when not hungry.
I once read 2 articles on disturbed eating. According to one article, an event disturbs our equilibrium. We eat. We feel fat and resolve to diet.
The second article blamed dieting: We diet. We feel deprived. We binge.
What if we put the two patterns together and look at interactions among the steps?
1. An event disturbs our equilibrium.
2. We eat.
3. We feel fat and resolve to diet.
4. We diet.
5. We feel deprived.
6. We binge.
The 6 steps create a reasonable sequence and a recognizable pattern. Based on clinical experience, though, there’s more. Here are a few ways it might go.
Scenario A
We go through Steps 1-6. Bingeing (Step 6) is the event that disturbs our equilibrium, so we eat in response. We cycle through Steps 1-6, possibly over and over.
Scenario B
We go through steps 1-6. After bingeing (Step 6), we circle back to Step 3 – we feel fat and resolve to diet. From there, we cycle through Steps 3-6, possibly over and over.
Scenario C
This one involves Steps 1-3 only. Resolving to diet (Step 3) – anticipating the stress of dieting and deprivation – is enough to disturb our equilibrium, so we eat. Someone could cycle through Steps 1-3 over and over.
How Sugar Makes These 3 Scenarios More Likely
We might feel deprived (Step 5) because we gave up sugar for the “diet,” and our sugar cravings make us binge.
We might feel more stressed anticipating the dieting (Step 3). Dieting means giving up sugar and going through the discomfort of withdrawal. We then cycle through Steps 1-3 or Steps 1-6.
Eating sugar regularly may make Step 1 occur more frequently – we feel more disturbed by more events. The effects of sugar on brain chemistry may make it difficult for some people to maintain equilibrium. Almost any stage of sugar addiction – including withdrawal – can make our eating behaviors and other behaviors more impulsive.
The natural eating cycle is a delicate balance that’s subject to disruption. Eating sugar can disrupt it a lot more.
Bonus Tip
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