Latest / NHA Today Podcast / Are Your Emotions Controlling Your Eating Habits? with Dr. Stephan Esser
Transcript
- Stephan Esser MD: Hi, it's Dr. Esser with the NHH State Podcast. Today I wanted to talk with you about a pretty crucial topic, and that is your relationship with food. And I call this one the science of emotions and eating. And I want to walk through this with you because this topic is perhaps one of the most underdiscussed and yet incredibly powerful topics that we all need to be thinking more about. Because what we eat. And our relationship with food radically influences, right? Radically, radically influences how we live our lives. And, you know, food is something that we cannot live without. And yet, so many of us have a dysregulated, disorganized relationship with food. We're we're loving food that doesn't love us back and instead severely compromises our health. So let's get right in. You know, I grew up with my grandfather, one of the founders of the NHA. And it was fascinating for me to kind of think about the tenets of health. That the NHA has espoused for more than 70 plus years. These are the basic elements. And you can see there in blue the one on emotional poise, on about our relationship with the people around us, with ourselves, and with our food. You know, we all know this basic premise, this basic fact, don't we, right? Eat more plants, exercise. mean, our grandmother, our great-grandmother, and our great-great-grandmother may have said the same thing to us. And yet, How often are we really living up to this? And why is that, right? I mean, look at the stats. They're so pathetic. 50% of calories from added fat, oil, and processed flour, fewer than 8% of calories from fruits and vegetables. I mean, we're doing abysmally, right? In fact, we know that it's predicted 70% of Americans are going to be overweight or obese by 2030. That's just around the corner. And the number one BMI category in women is projected, in fact, to be severe obesity. And this is just continued. And continued over time. One in three adults at this point, right? Mass amounts of people with elevated cholesterol, high blood pressure elevations, diabetes, the list goes on. We have more information than ever before that eating more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, exercising, et cetera, is good for us. And yet we have one of the sickest societies in the history of Earth. We have to ask the question: why is there all this knowledge and s yet so little action? There's a disconnect. And what is that disconnect all about? And where is it coming from? You know. You and I might think that if we just get one more recipe, or if we just read one more book and one more inspirational talk, I'll change my behaviors. And yet our behaviors are actually not even based, the majority of them, on knowing things, right? The benefits of deep green vegetables. Because it's just one tiny part of why you and I choose to eat healthy food. And so Maybe we need to stop trying to force feed ourselves this one thing because we already have enough of it. It's not changing our behavior. But we need to focus on the missing links. You know, why do you do what you do? Why do I do what I do? This question this question is so, so foundational. And yet, how often do we even stop and think about it? Why did I swing by Chick-fil-A? I don't know. I mean, was I bored? Was it convenient? Was I angry at my mom and used to tell me to eat salad? I mean, why did I go there? Is it just because I was craving dopamine? So, you know, you may not be here with me right now, but maybe you've got somebody watching this with you. And if you are, I want to encourage you to just stop and chat with each other and ask each other this basic question. Why do you eat what you do and why do you exercise as you do? If there's nobody there with you, write it on a piece of paper for yourself. Do a little reflection for a moment or two, take a break, and then come back. Because I need you, you're back now, right? I need you to understand that you're at conflict, right? You're meant to eat, but certain foods are not food. In other words, what we believe, feel, and experience becomes our reality, but we have to be careful with that because it's not really a reality. Right? We can walk through this fun little psychological thing, right? Where they, you know, try to walk through this and say red instead of purple when you're reading purple. Try to say blue instead of yellow when you're reading it, right? So try to go quickly through this, right? So you might be like orange, green, black. Yellow, orange, green, right? Your brain is fighting because it sees one word, and yet you're trying to say a different thing because you're naming the color of it rather than saying the word. And so there's there's this battle between the left and the right side of the brain there. The left side that's all logic and analysis and facts and thinking, and the right side of the brain that's all creativity, imagination, visualization and feelings, right? All these things that are interplaying together and yet. There's a war in your brain constantly, right? So, for example, when I pull up this slide right here and you look at the donuts, the left side of your brain is saying, ooh, disgusting, bad for me, unhealthy, ultra-processed. Dr. S you would never approve. And you're not going to touch it. And yet there's the other part of your brain that says, beautiful, colorful, playful, tasty, sweet, creamy. I had them as a kid. My grandmother used to pick them up on the way to school once a week. It was so special at her house on Saturday mornings, whatever, right? But there's a relationship. That's developed in the brain about the feelings related to those. And maybe you have very different feelings related to that when you look at this slide. What are they? I don't know, but you need to be aware of them, right? And so our relationship to food is all up in the brain. That left brain and that right brain at battle with each other, at war with each other, right? Where we make even negotiations without realizing. You look at the donuts, you say, no, I'm not going to have any. Then the right side of your brain says, please, you should. The left side says, no, I'm trying to lose weight. The right side says, please, just a half a donut, not a big deal. And then the left side negotiates and says, fine, half a donut, but then we have to eat nothing but salad the rest of the day. That all went on in a split second or maybe it was minutes. But it happened and you need to be aware of it. Because you're designed in such a way that you have a desire to maintain balance between the energy used and the energy expended. Right. And so when you use the energy up, right, the body's trying to fill back up the tank, if you will. And the reward system that helps you know that the tank is ding-ding, filling up, is that of dopamine, that feel-good hormone that is released in the brain, you know? So You know, we all have reason to eat, right? If I asked you why do you eat, the very first thing you should say is for survival. But the majority of us wouldn't say that. That we we would say because we're hungry or tastes good, or I don't know, maybe the nutrition, maybe be but we're hanging out with friends. That's why we ate. Maybe it's noon. I don't know. Maybe it's just feeling happy and so I had this, or I'm anxious and depressed, so I drank that. You know, so so many aspects and and probably the worst one is that I don't know, right? Boredom, right? Or it's habit, or I just I don't know, I don't know, it's just kind of somehow made it from the table into my mouth. But that's not why we should eat, right? We should be eating to survive. We should be eating for nutrition. We should be eating for disease prevention. And yes, we should enjoy eating. It's a pleasure to eat. But we cannot allow just that momentary feel-good moment, that release of dopamine in the brain, this excitatory neuronal relationship to suddenly take over our bodies when we know that eating certain things is going to compromise our health. That's what's so essential here, right? Because food that we used to think was food has evolved over time, hasn't it? Right. I mean, and the more we process something, the more addictive it becomes. So we begin to enter into this place, right, where we take the cocoa leaves and we turn them into crack cocaine, we kill for it, right? We take the poppy seeds and we turn it into opium and we will devastate our families for it. But it's the same in many ways, right, that will. Take that wheat kernel and turn it into white flour, right? And even if we're now 40 pounds overweight with type 2 diabetes, we're gonna keep snarking away the cookies. Right. Or as the you know commercial says, once you pop, you can't stop. And and it's so true about the foods that we consume, the more we process them, the more uncontrolled our relationship becomes with them. Is sugar sweeter or cocaine? In animal models, we see the answer is sugar, in fact, is more addictive. Than even cocaine itself. And for that very reason, in our own brains, so many of us struggle to let go to release this addiction. And the problem is, right, we enter into a place now in our contemporary culture where hyperpalatable foods are ubiquitously available to us, right? Go through any checkout line at the gas station or your local supermarket, and there they are, waiting for you, all kinds of little nibbly treats. And unless you train yourself to recognize that this is not food intended for human consumption. You will be tempted. You will be called to consume those foods because why? They make you feel good and they're colorful and they're playful and they're attractive and they're appealing. And they're loaded with sugar, salt, and fat, and they're multi-sensory, many of them, right? So again, these are some of the things that make food hyperpalatable. The combination of sugar, salt, fat with a multi-sensory experience. You take this cold creamy milk, you take this dark chocolatey stuff that crunches and then melts in your mouth, and you take Peanut butter that's creamy and fatty and maybe salty, you put it, all of those are extremely amazing. But if you put them together, boom, right? It's like an orgasm in your brain. This is just being released, this level of dopamine because it's multi-sensory. It's salty, it's sugary, it's creamy, it's crunchy, it's cold, it's hot, it's everything in one place. And all of that makes you feel amazing. And you want to feel amazing because you've been going through hell in your life. Right? The stress at work, the stress, the family, the children, the divorce you went through, the financial challenges, the insecurities that you're experiencing, the aging process that's getting your hairlined, all of these things that are leaving you feeling inadequate, not good enough. And so somehow it feels better when you stuff that Reese's Sunday in your mouth. until a couple hours later or the next day and you do it again. And so these hyperpalatable foods, they stimulate you to overconsume. They trigger massive dopamine release. They override your feelings of satiety and they're highly accessible and affordable. So they're everywhere. It truly is like snorting crack for so many of us, right? We could see sugar lights up that brain, those feel-good areas of the brain, far more even than so many substances that are out there. What else could explain my 600-pound life Except for addiction to these foods, right? And these foods that destroy people's lives and children as well. So this is why we're seeing this rapidly continued increase in obesity over time, and with it, diseases like type 2 diabetes. And of note, also along the same timeline, crazy other things, right? Like diseases from or the addiction and deaths from benzodiazepine overdose and heroin overdoses, et cetera. It it calls upon me as a philosopher, philosopher, to kind of think and say, wow. What's going on in our society that all of these addictive behaviors and patterns are all increasing? And I would argue that there is a loneliness, there's an emptiness, right, in each of our hearts and souls that desires to feel connectedness and pleasure. And so we reach for those foods that cheat us and lie to us, right? Because they're not true foods. They're orally administered, highly addictive substance of abuse that destroy our health and rob us of our vitality. And that's so crucial that you and I are aware of this. Traditional real food, right, promotes moderation, it fosters a sense of satiety, it makes you feel good enough, it makes you feel adequate, it makes you feel content, it makes you feel filled. But these other foods don't. They rob you of that, right? Lettuce never makes you feel guilty when you eat a whole head. Five pounds of apples, nobody says they feel bad because they ate too many. That's not what happens with these true foods. And so it's crucial that you and I say the same thing again and again, that some foods are not food, right? So that when I look At that birthday cake, you know, made of all manner of artificial thing. I look at it, go, wow, that's a beautiful work of art, but that's not food. Any more than the painting on the wall is. That's not food. You and I need to recognize that and also begin to key into what true hunger feels like, right? Physical hunger comes on gradually. Be satisfied with almost anything. It once you're full, you're likely to stop eating. It doesn't cause feelings of guilt or shame. An emotional hunger does all the opposite, comes on suddenly, leaves you demanding a specific craving, and you eat far more than you normally would, and often leaves you feeling guilty and ashamed. So next time that you feel, quote, hunger, ask yourself, is it physical? Is it emotional, social, cultural? Is it convenience? Drink a glass of water. Do you just need a nap? Are you dehydrated? What's going on? Are you just stressed? You know. You and I function based on various motivational factors. There's this whole reward system that we're tied into, right? Chronic stress, environmental influences, inattentiveness, ignorance, willpower. I mean, all these things play a part. We need to understand what it is that motivate us, what it is that moves us, right? Because we many of us developed unhealthy relationships with unhealthy food very early on in life. And if you've never faced that reality, you've probably never been able to break it. And in fact, if you've never faced that reality, you're probably handing on these same addictive patterns and behaviors to the people who are closest to you and the most intimate that you love and care about the most. But the good news is you can change it. You can change it for yourself, and then you can change it for the people you love and care about the most. But you have to understand first about that relationship with food. It should not be complicated. It should be straightforward that you're consuming food that loves. You back. But to understand this, you need to know again back to the basics of why do you eat? And so here we see two columns of one of intrinsic and one of extrinsic factors. And we need to be very aware of what are the strongest motivators for you and for I. What are the things that are most likely to trip us up? Is it your time? Right? I was in clinic today working, seeing patients, and last night before bed, I said, Stop. You've got to prepare some healthy food, or you are going to be in trouble. Either you're just going to be fasting again. Or you're going to choose an unhealthy option. And so I did. I prepared my meals. I had them all ready, packed smoothies, this, that, and the other. And I was okay all day. I was able to make healthy choices throughout it. So if you're not alone and you're watching this with friends, I want you to break out right now and rank the reasons why you eat from strongest motivator to least. Take a moment or two and do this. If you're on your own, pause the video and write down for yourself what these strongest and weakest motivators are. Welcome back. Now let's talk a little about emotional intelligence, because this can help create a platform, a foundation for you to understand more about yourself and to build greater emotional intelligence so you can make decisions when times are challenging or difficult or hard. You know, emotional intelligence uses these five basic approaches or parameters to think about our how we're doing. One of them is self-perception. How do you think of yourself? Are you motivated? Are you hard worker? Are you disciplined? Do you think of yourself as lazy, as fat and out of shape? Right? It's too insecure, anxious, depressed. Who told you that? Right? Who told you that? Is it really true? Or was that some sort of angry parent at some point when you were a little kid or a teacher who was frustrated with the staff and let it out on you? Or was it your best friend who liked the boy you liked and so they wanted to bring you down? How do you perceive yourself? Who are you? What do you stand for? How do you feel about yourself? Do you like yourself? Or in fact, do you kind of dislike yourself? You think you're a loser deep inside your own heart. And so you don't even really care about feeding yourself well. You're still too busy internally beating yourself up all day for the mistakes you made three years ago. This is crucial because this is the deep stuff. I mean, we all can talk about how to make a nice lentil pilaf. That's not it. That's not what's holding you back, not knowing the recipe. It's that perception, right, of who you are, how you live your life, what you believe. What about self-expression? Can you express yourself, your beliefs, your passions, your motivations effectively? Are you an independent learner? How much direction do you need? You know, this is crucial stuff. A lot of this is habitual. Some of this you can learn over time. You can work on, you can improve in these areas. So you do in fact become an independent learner because now you're watching regular videos. Now you're reading books on the regular basis. You just become part of who you are. You can change this, but being aware of it is key. Your interpersonal relationships, do you relate well to others? Do you engage in multiple diverse groups, right? Are you just isolating? Are you on your cell phone looking at, you know, Facebook and then watching Netflix and then eating more ice cream and then going to work and then doing the same thing again? Our interpersonal relationships are powerful. Right. You think about the sequoias as such a great example of this of how their roots don't necessarily go deep. They intertwine with all the sequoias around them, and yet they're the biggest, most powerful trees on earth. And yet their roots, you know, don't go down supposedly more than twenty, thirty, forty, fifty feet at the max. Right. And most trees go much these very deep tree roots. But what the roots do is they interconnect, all holding each other together. Having those interpersonal relationships with people who reinforce your healthy behaviors and encourage you in being healthier. Is exactly what you need. What about decision making? Can you delay gratification? Or is it one of those like, I'm hungry, I need to eat now, or I'm gonna get hangry. Well, guess what? You can train yourself. You can work on this and start with simple things like, I wanna eat, I wanna eat, okay, wait, I'm gonna push it back by two minutes. Or I don't wanna, you know, go exercise. No, I'm gonna walk another five minutes, then I'll turn around. Pushing yourself a little bit into a less comfortable zone where you can delay that gratification allows you to then build the neurologic muscle to allow you to make tough decisions when the time comes that you have to. Where you can turn down the alcoholic beverage and choose the non-alcoholic despite harassment, where you can choose the less dopaminergic food-like substance and choose a healthier option. But you know, what about stress management? Do you have any coping strategies? What are your top 10 things that you do when you're stressed that have nothing to do with food? Is important because if food just keeps pinging at the top, number one, right? And that that food tends to be ice cream or donuts or chips or cookies or cakes, etc. Well, hold on a second, you don't stand a chance. You need more coping strategies. You need five, 10, 15 coping strategies that are health promoting. I have nothing to do with food. Might be reading scripture, might be deep breathing, might be yoga, might be calling a friend on the phone, might be reading that book, listening to the music. So many options, but you've got to have other coping strategies. You know, your plan when it comes to this is a learn why you eat what you eat. You've got to understand this. I eat a lot of what I eat because it was how I was raised, right? I was raised. I'm a fifth generation or fourth generation plant-based eater, right? I grew up my grandfather's ranch. So this is I eat this way because I've always been eating this way. It's habit. I also eat this way because it makes me feel good. I also eat this way because I see my numbers on all my labs, et cetera, looking fantastic. I also eat this way because I'm able to play tennis, run, jump, work out, play with my children, stay active, feel good in my skin. I love that. That's why I eat this way. Why do you eat the way that you eat? Number next, you gotta remove morality from your food choices. It has no place in your life anymore. Saying that a food is good or a bad is not true. You can say it's healthy or unhealthy. That's true. But remove morality from your food choices, avoid diets, and embrace a health-promoting lifestyle, a long-term lifestyle that you're going to stick with for a long time. Develop relationships with people who share similar health goals as you do. Not that you're always alone doing this. You've got to develop more relationships, reach out, identify groups that have similar belief patterns and hopes and dreams and aspirations and want to feel good in their own skin and believe the same things that you do. Limit or eliminate hyperpalatable foods. You know, if you struggle with food addiction, if you struggle that you have that bag of chips, and next thing you know, you're, you know, three Big Macs in, and now you're not slushy and blah, blah, blah. And it's just downhill. Guess what? You've got to eliminate all of those. They cannot be part of your life. So, but if you're someone who says, yeah, I can have three chips, it's not a big deal. And you go right back to your big kale salad and your berries the next morning, fine, so be it. Again, why put trash in your body? But if you want to eat a small amount of trash, it is what it is. Just be aware it's trash. You're not cheating anybody. You're just putting trash in your body. You know, consider intermittent periods of fasting, not only for their true therapeutic benefit with autophagy and detoxification, but also just with teaching you that you have the ability to delay gratification to last a little longer than perhaps you thought you you could. Channel factor your life. Create an environment in which your life directs you. Through life healthfully. So in my refrigerator and in my pantry and on my counters, if I only have healthy food, I'm far less likely to get into trouble eating unhealthy food like substance of abuse. If my shoes are by the door, if my garage is turned into a gym, if I have some bands and elastic things to work with, if I have a video ready on YouTube, I'm more likely to work out and exercise. If my room does not have a TV and does not have a cell phone in it, I'm more likely to go to bed. At a reasonable hour and not self-stimulate with all that in my eyes. In addition, we need to fill our lives with joy, enthusiasm, and service and sources beyond food. Because food is not the end all be all. It's just fuel. And yes, it's pleasure. And yes, it can be fun and playful. And many of those aspects of it are wonderful. But not when they abuse us in return for consuming them. You want to fill your plate with colors, flavors, and celebrations with things that love you back. Here's my closing statement. You are the most powerful force for health in your life. What you believe, what you think, what you do are incredibly powerful. Never lose sight of that. There are a lot of people and organizations and corporations that want to convince you that what you do doesn't matter. But that's not based in the science. It's not based in the reality. You deserve to be healthy, but health comes from healthy living. And today is your day to look in the mirror and to ask the tough questions. Why do you do what you do? What can you change in your life today to help you to achieve a healthier tomorrow? You can do this. Thanks for joining me for today's NHA Today podcast. I look forward to welcoming you back soon.