Why do we gain weight?
Some time ago I was reading about a discovery by some researchers, related to the study ofthe causes of obesity. They discovered that the center of pleasure and satiety (which tells you when you are full) are located very close in the brain and very finely delimited. They had also discovered that if you push your limits, eating more, the delimitation between the two areas disappears, making us eat more and more,without the same pleasureand especiallywithout being full, in other wordswithout measure. I also mention that the study was closely related to the increasingly large portions in fast-food restaurants. These portions are much more than a person’s real food needs for one meal.
Consumerism or the culture of excess
Some time after that reading, I found myself in a well-known store that sells various items for the home, the representative of an international company. Being in the “for the kitchen” district, I had the revelation of the fact that none of the dishes presented, and none of the containers for food or liquids has the quantity or volume marked anymore. That means you won’t know how muchyou consume. This made me explain why a housewife praised for her culinary qualities started to miss meals after changing her kitchen utensils to “modern” ones.
In the age when the gram became “oz” and the centimeter became “inch”, it becomes more and more difficult, if not impossible, to figure out which is the right measure, the right limit. It is very likely that the introduction of the “all you can eat” concept in America, about a decade ago, produced a real revolution. What can be seen, some years later, is that “all you can eat” actually meant “all you can buy”, just buy…
Under the pressure of consumerism, the car became too big, the house became too big, and everything became too big, including the people – whose “size” in some countries exceeds the imaginable. Beyond that, “limitless”behavior has become widespread, with most people living as if everything is infinite, including the planet’s resources.
Small business is the new way to do business. The kilogram of 900 grams is a habit of large stores. Regardless of the direction, measure, limit, it no longer exists. “Less is more” (less means more – trans. adapted Engl.) has suddenly become “more is less”.
The result? The excess or lack of the limit is ALWAYS paid. The psychology of the masses has already been disturbed. Obesity is considered a global emergency, and bulimia,anorexia,depression,anxiety disorders, plus other mental disorders are exploding in statistics. General health is worse than it has ever been in modern times.
The lack of measure has come to govern us. Excess is in everything and everything, from the mass media to the man on the street, from governments and politicians to the pollution of the oceans, which has become visible from space.
Those who want to escape try various solutions to restore the limit. And they EXIST: from retreating to desert islands or the country topsychotherapy. From joining forms and formations of action and protest to courses and workshops that reteach them how to be with…measure…
