According to Evolutionary theory, as we are told, overeating
is in our genetics because, in the past, the lack of readily available foods
would have meant that our ancestors would eat everything that was available to
them in order to keep a layer of fat, in case they were unable to find food
over long periods of time.
So, most people now think that if you are fat, it is because you are surrounded by abundance when you don't need food, and that you can't regulate yourself eating too much because it is in your DNA to do so.
Well, well, how about if it was this opposite (or a
combination of both), how about one may eat too much because one is in a state
of deprivation? How about the feeling of deprivation is overarching many kinds
of deprivations, a combined effect at play?
Studies show that food deprivation in rats increases the rewarding effects of lateral hypothalamic brain stimulation and addictive drugs (Carroll, France, & Meisch, 1981). Furthermore self report data suggests that eating, drinking alcohol, and watching television, are all popular substitutes for social interaction (Derrick, Gabriel, & Hugenberg, 2009).
Another kind of research also shows that 'both food related and sexual words are positively associated with scores on a measure of narrowed attention (i.e., the Navon Letter Task; Navon, 1977) when compared to neutral words.
This evidence suggests that when one is deprived of reward (i.e., dopaminergic reward centres are not being activated), a state of consumptiveness may be induced.
This suggests that when in a deprived state, individuals may seek additional or alternate consumptive rewards...
So do people eat, consume, compromise their health off working insane hours because they feel deprived of something/lonely?
This would need a lot of unpacking, but it is so fascinating...
