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It is well-known that diets lacking certain nutrients can produce very serious diseases. If one does not take enough vitamin C, scurvy will develop. Similarly, a lack of vitamin D can lead to rickets in children or osteoporosis in adults. Deficiency of iron can cause anemia. There are many other examples. However, these are all very straightforward links between a very specific disease and deficiencies of specific nutrients. Many of them have been well-known for centuries.
Feeding is probably the most important activity for all living beings. In the wild, animals spend most of their awake time exploring their surroundings, searching for food. This typically includes studying new areas and new things in their surroundings and pursuing prey. Thanks to the easy availability of food in modern societies, most humans spend much less time searching for food. However, deciding what to eat, where to get the food from, and activities needed to obtain and eat food are an important part of human life as well.
Many factors influence our decisions about when and what to eat. To a degree, these decisions depend on our subjective feelings of hunger and fullness. Still, they also depend on whether food is available and what kind, our eating habits, desires and plans, food cues, and many other things.
Sometimes, when we are sad or experience strong negative emotions, eating something will make us feel better. Some foods are so tasty that eating them feels like a rewarding experience. People also associate some foods with positive memories, so eating them will improve their emotional state by invoking those memories. But what happens when negative emotions are persistent? For example, when we generally feel lonely?
Most people understand that eating lots of high-calorie food will make us gain weight. That is rather straightforward. However, human bodies have an intricate food intake regulation mechanism that tells us when to eat and when we have had enough. That mechanism is crucial for our survival. Without it, we could starve to death without ever feeling a desire to eat. Or we could eat so much that we die from overeating without ever noticing that we have eaten too much. Luckily, this never happens as our food intake mechanism works and works well. So, if we have this mechanism that regulates our food intake, how does obesity develop?
“You are what you eat,” the old saying goes. It means one must eat good food to stay healthy and fit. This link between eating well and staying healthy is obvious – our body needs specific nutrients to function. If we do not obtain them through food, serious health consequences will follow.
