Healthy Living Series with Dr. Divine: Overcoming over-eating

Dr. Divine Lardey Agyemang

“An over-eating mouth tortures whole body and over-speaking mouth tortures everybody.”― Amit Kalantri

While over-eating may be normal and expected in children for example and does not pose much risk to them, same is not true for adults.

An ideal daily intake of calories varies depending on age, rate of metabolism of an individual, levels of physical activity, among other things. Generally, the recommended daily calorie intake is 2,000 calories a day for women and 2,500 for men.

The body demands more calories during early adolescence than at any other time of life. Boys require an average of 2,800 calories per day. Girls require an average of 2,200 calories per day. This number of calories may sound high, but it can be easy to reach if you eat certain types of food.

For example, eating a large takeaway hamburger, fries and a milkshake can total 1,500 calories – and that's just 1 meal. It must be stated emphatically that eating more than the body needs on a regular basis isn't healthy.

Overeating refers to eating more calories than your body uses for energy. This definition must be applied to our daily lives taking into consideration one’s age, rate of metabolism, physical activity level, and gender.

Overeating can lead to a host of health problems, including obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. That’s why it’s important to get your food portions under control. Let us explore how over-eating could lead to these health problems.

Although genetics and other health conditions such as Cushing's syndrome – a rare disorder that causes the over-production of steroid hormones lead to Obesity, the key culprit today is over-eating. If you consume high amounts of energy, particularly fat and sugars, but do not burn off the energy through exercise and physical activity, much of the surplus energy will be stored by your body as fat leading to obesity over time.

With over-eating and heart diseases, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, it is interesting to note that eating and digesting food releases many hormones into your bloodstream.

These hormones increase the heart rate and blood pressure as well as increase the substances that help form clots.

The temporary rise in blood pressure increases the oxygen requirements and creates an extra burden on the heart. High blood pressure may also rupture cholesterol plaques in the arterial wall, triggering the formation of a clot that can block a blood vessel, triggering a heart attack or stroke.

Another mechanism could be that a high-fat meal impairs the function of the endothelium, the inner lining of the arteries, by a direct effect of fatty acids and other fats in the bloodstream.

The rise in insulin, a substance that helps the body burn energy, after a large meal may also affect the inner lining of the blood vessels that lead to the heart. An increase in insulin levels in the blood decreases the normal relaxation of the coronary arteries.

Enough of the science on over-eating, how do we minimize over-eating? check out these eight (8) over-eating commandments.

1. Always be mindful of over-eating when you are serving yourself or are being served.
2. Avoid eating directly from containers. Serve and control portions.
3. Do not continuously eat with friends and family members who you know over-eat.
4. Exchange large plates and glasses for smaller ones to help you eat and drink less.
5. Eat your food slowly to let your brain get the message that your stomach is full.
6. Drink a cup of water before your meal.
7. Eat your meals at the same times every day — eating at different times or skipping meals may lead to overeating later in the day.
8. Watch your alcohol in-take before meals.

Experts say it is easy to over-eat while watching a TV show or a movie because you’re distracted.

To end, we must basically stop trying to fill the emptiness inside us with food. Man shall not live by bread alone.