Why, even if illness causes obesity, you've still got to deal with gluttony to get well.

In my post Untangling the Threads of Gluttony I asserted that none of the prevailing obesity narratives correctly account for the role of gluttony in weight gain and weight loss.  

In a subsequent post, I defended the notion that gluttony isn't typically the cause of obesity, on the grounds that a quite-ordinary, moderate-looking American diet seems, for many, to begin the slide into metabolic syndrome -- frequently, starting in childhood, when moral culpability is low -- and once it starts, it's self-perpetuating because the individual so afflicted supposedly perceives normal hunger signals, but the signals are actually driving abnormal eating.  As Aquinas wrote, "The sin of gluttony is... extenuated... on account of the difficulty of discerning and regulating what is suitable."  Metabolic syndrome destroys the body's ability to discern and regulate what to eat. 

Then I considered whether insulin resistance can cause gluttony.  I proposed that it can, because (even if metabolic syndrome destroys the body's innate ability to discern and regulate what to eat) it is possible to become, out of habit, so psychologically deranged with respect to food that one begins unnecessarily violating social norms and the demands of duty and charity in order to secure one's food supply (when in fact the food necessary to support health is not at risk).  The same thing can happen in a person who doesn't suffer from metabolic syndrome, but I suggest that metabolic syndrome can be a trigger.

Now I want to write about gluttony as the barrier to weight loss.

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It almost sounds as if I have come back around to the calorie-is-a-calorie theory.  First I said "No, gluttony isn't why people gain weight."  Now I'm basically saying "Yes, but you have to overcome gluttony in order to lose weight."

(It isn't a contradiction, any more than saying "Nicotine cravings don't cause people to become smokers, but to stop smoking, people have to learn to resist cravings for nicotine.") 

Metabolic syndrome -- insulin resistance -- destroys or severely damages the body's innate means of discerning and regulating what is suitable.  But we do have another means of discerning and regulating what is suitable, and that is our own intellect and willpower.  It's a shoddy substitute for a working endocrine system.  But it is what we have.  And we have to get it working, at least in a rudimentary fashion,  before we run up against our gluttony.

The control-system patch that we jerry-rig from our intellect and willpower is glitchy and buggy.  

Bug #1:  Discernment.  Our intellect can have the wrong theory about what to eat, how much, and when.  Gotta get that right first.

Bug #2:  Regulation.  Our intellect can have the wrong ideas about how to arrange the details (who will shop?  where will I store food?  what will I do if I get hungry?) so that we don't have to rely as much on our willpower.  

But once you can discern what to eat (thanks to a working theory of what to eat, how much, and when) and regulate what to eat (thanks to a working plan of arranging your life so you can, theoretically, easily do what you're supposed to do) you don't get your "extenuating pass" from the sin of gluttony anymore.  

You are now ready to deal with...

...Bug #3:  Willpower is weak. In other words:  Here is where the gluttony comes in.  If you are a glutton, now is when you will discover it.

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 OK.  So, let's suppose that it turns out that the Taubes folks are right, that the answer to "what to eat" is "sharply reduce carbohydrates."  

And let's suppose that you have worked out the most feasible specific diet to do that.   This is going to vary person to person, from "total elimination of all carbs but a few bites of green leafy vegetables a day," through "cut back everything across the board and that will decrease my carb load," all the way up to "fairly normal diet, except I try not to eat a lot of sugar, bread, or pasta."  Because some people have to cut back a little, and others have to cut back a lot, to see results.  It's not fair, but it appears to be true.

And let's suppose that you have some strategies in place to overcome obvious external barriers:  you're planning menus, and you're getting the shopping done, and you've removed unnecessary temptations from your environment, and you have a plan for what to do when you eat out, etc.

You still might have to say no to things you want to have.

And if you find that it's really really hard to do this... you may be dealing with gluttony.

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Back to the definition of gluttony I came up with:

Gluttony is eating behavior that flouts the restraints

of charity, obedience, resources, health, duty, or manners.

Now that you know that you should avoid (say) sugar for the sake of your health, if you refuse to be bound by this constraint, if you keep saying "Gosh darn it, I don't care about my blood sugar, I want a handful of gummy bears,"  you are dealing with gluttony.

(I'm not talking about the rational decision in advance to allow yourself a portion of chocolate every day because you judge it's a permissible pleasure, or a plan to have small desserts on the weekends so you can learn to enjoy them in moderation.  I'm talking about the decision, in the moment, to ignore the plan you've already set for yourself because you want cake NOW.)

It's understandable that it will be difficult to follow your plan in the face of real hunger signals that urge you to eat, or drive cravings for something that you know you shouldn't have, at least not now.  But if you really know you really should resist them, then it's gluttony that you have to resist.

Disobeying the rules you've set for yourself is probably the biggest problem, but you may discover other depths of gluttony that you didn't know you had.  Take charity, for instance.  If you suddenly become seriously stressed out and scream at everyone because the children ate your special sugar-free breath mints and you have to have those breath mints to keep from eating between meals then you are exhibiting what is basically a gluttony problem.  You are letting your food issues interfere with your generosity and kindness.

And manners.  If you are invited to someone's house for dinner and you have to pointedly scrape all the breading off your chicken, where they can see it, because they are  ruining your diet and they should know better, then you are letting your food issues interfere with your manners.  You may have never been this kind of a dinner guest before.  Having an eating plan that you are trying to stick to may bring this hidden gluttony out.

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The good news is that it's supposed to get easier as you go, because the more you heal your blood sugar problem, the less you'll have to deal with hunger and cravings.  But to start to heal, you have to work to resist the hunger and cravings.  There is not much way around this.  You will want cake, and there will be cake, and you will have to make a lot of individual decisions not to eat the cake that's right there and that you really want.

If you cannot -- will not -- make a lot of those decisions go in the right direction, you won't get better and it won't get physiologically easier.

You also have to deal with the force of habit, which is not so physiological, but still a strong force keeping you in that rut.  This is another thing that gets easier as you go -- provided you are not asking too much of yourself at once.  One step at a time, one small change at a time, may be more effective in the long run for the mind.

There's a certain tension here.  The physiology will react more quickly to a drastic change (the more carb-load you can remove at once, the quicker your blood sugar and insulin resistance will start to heal).  But the psychology, it seems, does not change quickly, and more-incremental changes may be more likely to stick.

Which just reinforces the notion that the path to healing (or redemption, depending on how you look at gluttony) is excruciatingly individual.

 

Comments

[Rebekka]

You are so awesome, bearing! This last series of posts is so helpful, tying it all together as they do. And this particular post is (in my opinion) one of the best changing-your-eating posts ever in the history of the internet (that I've read).

[Lisa]

This is all so insightful. Thanks for thinking about this and laying it all out here.

Lower-carb eating has definitely transformed how I think about cravings, willpower, and my relationship with food. It's so much easier to do the right thing that now, when I look back, I am much easier on my old self. I was doing the wrong things for so long and just didn't know it.

But you're right; even with one's insulin levels evened-out, old habits can persist and one has to deal with them to truly get getter.

The word "gluttony" doesn't really resonate for me personally (maybe because I'm not religious); just thinking about it as "bad habits" suffices for me. And as you suggest, I've found that small changes to my habits are what sticks.

[Jan]

I can not tell you how much I enjoy and truly appreciate your sharing of this information. You have inspired me yet again.

[Delores]

I agree -- this series is really good. Have you read about the No S Diet? I would be very interested to get your take on it.

[bearing]

@Rebekka -- wow, that is pretty high praise. I was thinking of this as more sort of a theoretical post, so can I ask -- what about it makes it a good "changing-your-eating" post?

@Delores: I am a big proponent of No-S. I think it will need to be tweaked a little bit by the individual user, but not unless a plateau is hit -- it is a great place to start.

@Lisa -- not only is it that habits persist after the blood sugar is ironed out, but it requires a lot of self-control to deal with the cravings and such when you first get started. Anti-gluttony.

[MrsDarwin]

Gah! I literally ate the cake this weekend at a graduation party -- took the second slice that was offered, even though I knew I didn't really need it. You convict me. I convict myself.