The Eden Diet - Do You Eat for Internal or External Reasons?

Do You Eat for "Internal" or "External Reasons?

By Rita Hancock, MD

In 1968, a ground-breaking research study was published in the field of weight control. It was conducted by a social psychologist named Dr. Stanley Schachter. He showed that obese people tend to eat according to "external" cues, or factors that originate outside of the stomach. Examples of external cues for eating include the sight or smell of food, eating according to the time on the clock, eating in response to advertisements, or eating because of emotions such as stress, anger, or sadness.
            In contrast, Dr. Schachter found that thin people eat according to "internal" cues or factors that originate within their stomachs (i.e., their hunger pangs) (Science, Vol.161, 751-6, 1968).
How about you? Do you eat for internal or external reasons? Do you eat only when you feel hunger pangs, or do you eat because of the time on the clock, because of your emotions, or because you had a bad day at work? How many times a day do you actually feel hungry before you eat?
If you don't feel hunger pangs at least several times a day, then it's likely that you eat for external reasons, which means you probably eat too frequently, eat portions that are too large, or both. If that's the case, you're at very high risk for gaining excess weight, if you haven't done so already.
If you eat for external reasons, take heart. There's a way out of your problem. Through The Eden Diet, you can once again (or for the first time) learn how to eat for internal reasons. Then, you will be able to flow with God's intended eating plan rather than fight against it. And you will be better able to lose that unwanted weight and keep it off permanently.

Related Research

Because traditional dieting reinforces eating for external reasons, it sets us up for failure. It's no wonder that the authors of an article entitled "Medicare's Search for Effective Obesity Treatments" concluded that dieting does not lead to lasting weight loss or health benefits (American Psychologist, April 2007, vol. 62, number 3, pages 220-233). The authors went on to say that in one-third to two-thirds of the cases, dieters regain more weight than they lost on their diets.
           Conversely, in the June, 2005, issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association (vol. 105, number 6, pages 929-36), the authors concluded that when restrictive dieting behavior is de-emphasized, health risk factors actually improve.
            Did you get that? More and more scientific studies are emerging to prove that traditional dieting is worthless-even harmful, and it's better to de-emphasize rules and regulations and eat for internal reasons-just like God intended in the beginning.