Counseling for Health, Wellness, and Nutrition
Hunger is Natural
Today while counseling a client, I told him that seeking hunger is not about losing weight. Seeking hunger is:
- natural
- necessary and
- healthy
Hunger is natural
Every diet and weight loss program I’m aware of preaches: “Never Be Hungry.” When you finish reading this post, you might agree with me that “Never Be Hungry” means “Never Be Natural” and that SeekingHunger is not a weight loss program or a diet.
Natural as I define it means “as found in nature.” A forest is natural. A log cabin made from trees found in a forest is not natural because log cabins are not found in nature. A log cabin is a rearrangement of nature by humans. If humans did not rearrange nature, humans would not survive. Thus, contrary to the politically correct nonsense that it is a sin to rearrange nature, it is in fact, absolutely necessary for people to rearrange nature in order to survive. So although I use the term “natural” please don’t mistake me for someone who believes that people should die so that trees may live.”Natural” does not always mean better for you. The log cabin Abe Lincoln grew up in was closer to nature than the home you’re living in. There was no indoor plumbing, electricity, hot running water, TV, cell phone or Internet available in Abe’s natural home. It’s not too smart to assume that the closer to nature you are, the better your quality of life will be.
“Natural” can be good for you. Country air is cleaner than city air. In nature you are surrounded by the sounds of life. Concrete doesn’t sing at sunrise. Natural food and water has enabled the human race to survive. Skyscrapers don’t grow food. The preservatives used to extend the life of natural food can be toxic. If candy grew on trees, trees would die and so would the human race because trees provide the oxygen we the people need. So let’s agree to worship neither nature nor modern living. Each has its benefits and its problems.
In nature, comfort eating isn’t comfortable
Every animal in the wild must find food and escape its predators. An overweight critter cannot move fast enough to avoid being invited to a predator’s meal as the main course. Human history began in the wild. Like all other creatures in the wild, being overweight or obese was a death sentence in the wild for we the people. So, we know that one reason we the people are here today is that our ancestors weren’t into comfort eating.
Comfort eating wasn’t possible
Agriculture came on the scene about 10,000 years ago. Homo sapien sapiens came on the scene about 140,000 years ago. Homo sapien sapiens R us. The first sort of humans came on the scene about 2 million years ago. From the 2 million year perspective,Homo sapien sapiens R modern and that’s why anthropologists refer to us as Modern Humans.
We know for a fact that food was scarce for the hunter gatherers. Had it not been scarce, humans would have remained hunter gatherers rather than till the land for survival. One farmer can feed approximately 125 people. How many people can one hunter feed? How many people can you feed picking berries in the woods. Yup, food was scarce for we, the hunter gatherers.
When food is scarce, hunger is prevalent. Thus, hunger is natural.
Hunger is necessary
Hunger is nature’s way of informing you that you need to eat. If you never experienced hunger you would starve to death because you would never have a reason to eat. Thus it can’t be reasonably denied that hunger is necessary for your survival.Diet programs that preach “Never be hungry” are preaching that you should never let yourself experience nature’s signal to eat.
It might seem paradoxical that someone who overeats doesn’t let him or herself experience the natural signal to eat. There are no paradoxes in nature. The apparent paradox that an overeater does not experience nature’s hunger signal is explained by the fact that overeaters experience two hungers. The first is the natural hunger all people experience. The second is an addictive hunger that the overeater has developed by using food for comfort.
Another example of a an addicted person experiencing a natural drive and developing an addictive drive occurs in sex addiction. You will hear the sexually addicted person claim ,”I have more sex drive than most people.” The sexually addicted person does not have more sex drive than most people, he has two drives, one the natural drive he was born with, the other is the addictive drive he developed. Both sex addiction and eating addiction stem from the same root, that is, the misuse of a natural drive. The misuse of a natural drive causes an addictive drive to be developed. Overeaters misuse their hunger drive and thereby cause themselves to experience an addictive hunger.
Diet programs that preach “Never be hungry” are actually saying, “Always feed your addictive hunger.”
Copyright © 1999-2013 Positive RealismOwnership of copyright: Excluding “The Most Personal Addiction,” the copyright in this website and the material on this website (including without limitation the text, computer code, artwork, photographs, images, music, audio material, video material and audio-visual material on this website) is owned by Positive Realism, Inc.Copyright license: Positive Realism grants to you a worldwide non-exclusive royalty-free revocable license to: 1)view this website and the material on this website on a computer or mobile device via a web browser, and 2)print pages from this website for your own [personal and non-commercial] use. In other words, ALL OTHER RIGHTS ARE RESERVED. For the avoidance of doubt, you must not adapt, edit, change, transform, publish, republish, distribute, redistribute, broadcast, rebroadcast or show or play in public this website or the material on this website (in any form or media) without Positive Realism’s prior written permission.The automated and/or systematic collection of data from this website is prohibited.
Permissions: You may request permission to use the copyright materials on this website by writing to joe at jozymail.com
Enforcement of copyright: Positive Realism takes the protection of its copyright very seriously. If Positive Realism discovers that you have used its copyright materials in contravention of the license above, Positive Realism may bring legal proceedings against you seeking monetary damages and an injunction to stop you using those materials. You could also be ordered to pay legal costs.