to think some people struggle to lose weight because food is no longer seen as fuel?

[Hiptobe]

I am not talking about people with any medical conditions which makes it complex.

People eat for other reasons other than to fuel their bodies. Maybe it is comfort, they are upset and a whole slew of other reasons.

Food is not seen as fuel but filling a gap in some way emotionally and mentally.

Of course there is nothing wrong with food being pleasurable and going out for dinners etc. But I am talking about people who are regularly eating more than their bodies need.

I do agree it plays a part, food is absolutely a pleasure thing rather than a “needed for survival” thing.

Some people use food merely as fuel. Many more use it as a social occasion

I think it's because there is such a plethora of affordable, delicious and bad-for-you food nowadays. In our parents generation people simply couldn't afford to eat the way we do now and meals were based around 3 meals a day of meat/carbs/veg and healthy fats. Then in the 80's junk food was massively pushed and UPF's etc became the norm. Also I read something the other day about how after the war things like decent meat/dairy products were really scarce and grain products (carbs/sugar) from the US started being pushed instead as it was readily available. Bread and cereals etc were marketed as being healthy and it's been hugely damaging to our health as they are nutrient poor and so addictive.

It's too easy for people to eat too much food nowadays and even poor people can eat unhealthily for relatively little money. When I was little I'd get something like 20p to go and buy a small bag of penny sweets from the shop once a week. Now a lot of kids are just given junk whenever they want it and it's not really seen as an occasional treat.

When has food ever been just for fuel?
It's been part of our social structure for centuries.

Food is culture. It’s never been Just Fuel, despite some individuals thinking of it like that.

Yes, that's well known.

Food has never been about fuel in the modern age where food became plentifully available. It's about family and community and society. Food customs are wholly intertwined with customs that foster a sense of community identify and social cohesion. It has a whole host of emotional and biological responses wrapped up in it. Why else do we have food cultures that spring up?

IME the people who spout 'to me food is just fuel' usually have some sort of eating disorder themselves and are mostly trying to separate their emotional responses to food by stripping emotion and desire out of it. Which is fine, if that is what they need to do. However to try and foster a sense of moral superiority around this and impose that on others is problematic.

You don’t say 😂😂

You're not wrong, but it's not exactly revolutionary is it? I think it's been known for a long time that people overeat for many different reasons.

What an absolutely joyless life it would be if food were only for fuel.

Yes.

Yes. Of course. This is exactly the reason. If we all saw food as fuel then we would take only the amount and type we need to keep our bodies working to optimum levels. Unfortunately that horse (if it was ever stabled in the first place given the inherently complex nature of the relationship between something we both need and take pleasure from) has bolted. A better question would be can we ever come to see food as only fuel, and if so, how?

Yes this is very well known it’s not really an AIBU.

People over easy for a variety of complex reasons. Stress, emotional etc.

Food addiction is very real, it’s not always a case of greed or over enjoyment.

Also if we are talking about thinking of food as fuel, what do we do about all the people who have genes that remember famine?
It's biologically proven that how much fuel our bodies drive us to take in, varies between individuals. And I say drives us, because it's not conscious.

The most obvious example of this is Pacific Islanders - only those who were good at carrying weight ever survived the journeys - but it's in many other populations too.

Trouble is with losing weight, you have to self-impose rules on something very enjoyable.

That's a really hard thing to do. For me, it's only ever worked with very clear, black and white restrictions over a short time period.

Trying to just "eat less" is much harder, as it's too fuzzy, too easy to have just a little bit more.

I mean, we are designed to seek out food for survival in an environment in which scarcity was par for the course

Those genes don't just switch off in an evolutionary 5 minutes when we have access to an abundance of food.

It's not rocket science.

I know!

This is hardly some new revelation OP.

Is this just another fatty bashing thread disguised, yet again, as some sort of faux concern about something?

I definitely eat due to comfort or to get me through rough days- I work in retail and the next three days have ten, eleven and twelve hour shifts and I definitely find the junk food creeps in on those days for a boost- I’m literally just pushing food in there to keep me bouncing along!!!! I also find I ‘treat myself’ more since relationship issues, the thing is I’ve 4 kids so I have to do that in a way that doesn’t drag them down too so it’s the awful thing of becoming a night eater, which is not good!

If someone says ‘food is just fuel’ I think that sounds incredibly sad, if they really derive no enjoyment from it. I’m not an over eater or a comfort eater, but from authentic curries to properly ripe fruit or freshly cooked bread, from posh restaurant food to a cheese toastie made slightly pissed late at night as a student, food is about pleasure, not just fuel!

What an absolutely joyless life it would be if food were only for fuel.

Sure, but it would be great if people, whilst still enjoying the food, were sufficiently aware of when they have refueled and stopped at that point...

The fact that a majority of people are either overweight or obese is a huge problem.

Yes to comfort eating because, as a mum, you can't disappear off into drugs/alcohol/mad sex sprees etc for escapism!

Caitlin Moran wrote about exactly this issue, I can't remember if it was in a column or a book, but it's always stayed with me.

This is Brand New Information!

That's true though the people close to me who really, truly struggle with weight just choose to ignore basic nutrition facts (they're all smart so they do know it) and won't accept they need to eat less calorie-dense food to lose weight.

eg My family member said he was hungry because he didn't have any lunch after I'd seen him eat a whole packet of potato chips. That didn't count as 'lunch'. Salads or dinners packed with veges are not for them because they are not real food or not satisfying or "rabbit food". There's a lot of cheeky pastries or biscuits as snacks.

It's a fundamental shift to accepting what you realistically need to eat if you want to be smaller and they don't want to do it.

It is sad, but there is no point in trying to describe the cultural or social or purely hedonistic aspects of food to the minority who don't 'get it'; it's like trying to explain to a colour-blind person why a sunset is beautiful.

Of course it is. God, those disgusting worthless face-stuffers… Why do we have to look at their big disgusting bodies and how can we try to understand why they continue to offend us with their mere existence.

Thats what the op means.

🙄