<\/p>\n
It has been reported that loneliness is as big a killer as obesity and as dangerous as heavy smoking.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n As a weight-loss physician, I understand that\u00a0overeating in the obese is a consequence of a biochemical or hormonal imbalance, and not just a result of reckless gluttony. Weight gain is under automatic control. You cannot will yourself fat, just as you cannot will yourself thin. If you deprive yourself of food for long enough, then your hunger hormones will go into overdrive and trump any \u2018willpower\u2019 you think you have.<\/span><\/p>\n Hormones control hunger, satiety, and cravings, as they do growth, thermal control and reproduction. The totality of evidence available also suggests that a substantial fraction of obese individuals exhibit an imbalance between an enhanced sensitivity of the reward centres in the brain to energy-dense food and weakened control over appetite behaviours. Whether this imbalance causes or is caused by uncontrollable overeating is currently a major subject of interest.<\/span><\/p>\n That said, there is no doubt that the vast majority of us, overweight or not, have a complicated emotional relationship with food. How often do we interrogate the relationship between what we eat and our mood? What impact does loneliness have on our food choices? Why do we crave foods such as cakes, ice-cream, chips, mandazi, biscuits, and chocolate when we are anxious, stressed or upset?<\/span><\/p>\n It is no coincidence that the foods we crave contain sugar. These situations are perceived as \u2018stress\u2019 by the body. The most primitive part of our brain interprets this as fear. This causes a surge of stress hormones, like adrenaline and cortisol, which flood our bloodstream with glucose (energy), fuelling us in preparation for the impending fight or flight. Observe that no-one craves spinach or nyama choma in these situations.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\nWeight Gain – The Physical<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
Weight Gain – The Psychosocial<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n