No Regulations

One of the biggest problems I see with Americans is that they have no regulations on how much food they consume.  Next time you go to a restaurant observe how much food the average person consumes.  It is truly amazing how we are all conditioned to have to eat everything that is served to us.  I believe this “eat everything on your plate” mentality was instilled in our grand parents during the The Great Depression.  During the Great Depression food was scarce and the supply was rationed.  What was served on the plates during meal time were small in amount and lacked in taste.  Many of the kids didn’t want to eat the food, but they were hungry and were forced to eat.  The parents would demand that they eat “everything on their plate”, because they couldn’t afford to waste food. They had to be thankful for every crumb.

As the country progressed beyond the depressed years and became more prosperous, the food supply increased. However, the “eat all” mentality has stuck throughout the generations.  It was undesirable not to eat everything on your plate.  In some cases, not eating all of your food resulted in an early bed time or no dessert. Or in severe cases, not eating all your food for dinner meant that you had to finish eating it for breakfast the next day– YUCK!

Today, many people still uphold the “eat everything on your plate” mentality.  Even though as adults we are no longer threatened by an over bearing grandmother or parent forcing us to eat, we are held captive to our subconscious encoding.  When we were younger and going through the torture of having to eat everything on our plates until our stomach exploded, we stored this information into our subconscious mind. Feelings of guilt, fear and the thought of letting someone down are the reasons why we end up forcing the food down our throat.  Not only is this a physical trauma to the body it is also sets up an emotional dysfunction.  A dysfunction is a cramp in consciousness that is not resolved. When a thought, memory or experience is not resolved, they are disconnected. If a disconnected thought gets into the subconscious mind, unresolved,  it will stay controlling our behavior.

The subconscious mind is a sort of subliminal network of thoughts that is transferred off the stream of consciousness. We often times are unaware of our subconscious thought patterns. However, much of our behavior is associated with the subconscious mind.

Eating food is a necessary act of human living.  Without food we die.  Food becomes a means of survival and emotional comfort for many people.  The more food we eat the more content we feel.  Many people eat to satisfy a broken feedback loop in there subconsciousness without even realizing it. Going back to the earlier years of life when the person is being traumatized into eating all the food that was on their plate, this is when the dysfunction started.  The person is damaged physically and emotionally. This dysfunctional pattern continues throughout their life.

Our society is based on “getting our money’s worth.”  “I paid $20.00 for your dinner and I expect you to eat every bit of it, or else I will never take you out to dinner again.” This is usually the threat that many parents tell their kids when they go out to eat.  So obviously the kid doesn’t want to let their parent down so they end up eating everything on their plate.

The problem with this scenario is that it reinforces the child to not have any idea of food regulation.  Just because the parent spent hours cooking, or a spent a lot of money for the meal, it doesn’t justify forcing the child to be force fed. Believe it or not the body is designed to only take in a certain amount of food per feeding. Over-consuming food is dangerous and sets off a series of body system dysfunction.  Physical illness, digestive stress, cardiovascular disease, blood imbalances, ph imbalances, central nervous system dysfunction are only some of the negative effects from over-consuming food.

With no regulation on how much food a person consumes will alter body composition.  People are constantly battling fluctuations with body fat percentage and muscle because they are out of balance.  One of the big reasons for a person to change their body composition so much is because they lack regulation on how much food they should eat.  Also, they consume way too much junk food and not enough good nutrients.  Even if the food is organic and pure, eating too much will cause problems.  Once you over fill the stomach and digestive tract, dysfunction occurs.  

Many people are not taking in the recommended daily allowance of healthy nutrients. Instead they are consuming way too much of the wrong things each day, or in some cases are ingesting nutrients beyond what their daily recommended allowance permits. I wonder if folks how many nutrients they are supposed to take in per day. My guess is that only a handful of people know.

Heart disease, cancer, and obesity,  in my opinion, are all related to poor nutrition. Not having a shut off valve and eating whenever, whatever, and in large quantities will spell disaster for the health of the body systems.

Daryl Conant, M.Ed

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