This is SUCH a good way of putting it, you perfectly describe my food love.

I finally had to decide I wanted to be thinner and healthy more than satiated with orgasmically tasty food. I could lose weit and still occasionally indulge, but it comes of faster and I have less cravings when I just buckle down and do without. Because, really, my physical health means more than any food experience. But I would be lying if I didn't say it took me a LONG time to get to that point, or that I didn't still miss that food experience. I just want something else, more.

I really like this thread. I have come to a similar revelation myself. I am known as the true food lover in my circle. Everyone knows that I LOVE food. Like Lianna, I love looking at pictures of food, shopping for it, smelling it, cooking it, tasting it, going to exotic grocery stores. I love food the way some people love fashion! And when I would sit down to eat something good, I have realized that I would wolf down a big portion, THEN when I was no longer "hungry", would come the true savoring and enjoying. I really don't know what THAT is. My dad and I were talking once years ago about overeating, and he said, "the second helping is usually just lust". hahahha

I was very concerned that in order to lose weight, I was going to have to give up one of the biggest passions in my life. No room for a food ADORER in the healthy weight set. But I have found that to be just not true. Sure, I have had to make some adjustments to my portion sizes and most often what it is I'm cooking/eating, but amazingly, I don't think I've ever loved food more. You should see me at the grocery store when I'm picking out our apples for the week. I admire them and spend time looking for the prettiest, most interesting apples I can find.

Edit: I forgot to add that I LOVE how Robin talks about the calorie budget and relates it to our real budget. Yeah, I love spending money, too. There is a limit to what I can spend each day. No different! And weirdly enough, I have a much better handle on my money budget now that I have the calorie budget in control, too!

this thread made me think of a King of Queens episode where Doug has a pudding cup. He starts eating it with real relish, in something of a frenzy, then gets to the bottom of the container. He scrapes the sides of any last remnants with a spoon, stops, looks at it sadly (like how can it all be gone??), and then looks at Carrie with a pathetic puppy dog face (she has her own pudding). She gives him hers, and he takes it joyfully and goes through the same routine. I could completely relate to that.

yes. wanting to be full, and mixing up a psychological/emotional desire with a physical state.

I think it's that we are looking for something, and that something can't be found in the food.

That's why there is no satiation point. That's why we eat it till the box or the carton is empty. Because we're still looking for that something. But it's not in there.

And that's why we've got to look elsewhere.

But on a good note, I do believe that at some point, even if we were initially looking for something, that may no longer be the case and at that point it's merely habit and or addiction. And addictions can be managed and bad habits can be broken and new ones formed.

Chocolate candy. Friday night I gave in to my insatiable craving for the mini Musketeers bars in the house. I ate 10 of them. I never have liked Musketeers because the filling tastes salty and sting-y on my palate. I ate them anyway. Then last night it was the mini butterfingers. I was on the second one when I realized, this doesn't even taste like chocolate. It's brown Crisco! I want to be able to savor the good stuff in small portions. My new must-reach goal.

This post really resonates with me. I do love food, but it's the love of eating that gets me in trouble.

This discussion made me think of this article. People who love food can be homeostatic eaters, but if it's the eating you love, maybe you are more likely to be hedonic.

I definitely relate to the OP. I find with me its the taste i want, not the most quantity i can get, but in a way it is also that. If I know more is right there I feel compelled to eat it. even if i try not to and do something else it'll be sitting there nagging at me at the back of my head until I either go to bed or give in, and as soon as i give in and have a little more i feel satisfied for a little while but if theres more left the cycle starts again.

I've fixed this by not having the foods that cause this (pizza, candy, pop, chips etc) avail at my house. I only run into a problem at my boyfriends house, he lives at home while in school and his dad is in charge of shopping and only buys junk, or will bring home pizza for dinner 2-3 times a week. I tried just saying I wouldn't go over there to avoid it but i realized i need to go there to do laundry cause i dont have the money for the laundermat, now i'm going to make it a point to only go when the bf is home and not napping for work (works nights) so he can tell me no and remind me why i dont want to eat crap when its taunting me lol

really interesting article! thanks for posting the link. another thread here in the 100 club had to do with this sort of topic

From the article:
Why are some "foodies" who get intense pleasure from eating able to stop when they're full and others aren't? Is the tendency to eat way past fullness genetic or learned behavior, and how much can it be changed?

my boss's husband LOVES to eat, he's always thinking about the next restaurant he wants to try. He loves chocolate. They buy a baguette every day. And he can pack away a meal. He also exercises rigorously 5 days a week (swimming). He's in great shape without an extra pound. He's weight and health conscious, but definitely doesn't deny himself. Interesting.

What a great thread! I never thought about it, really, but the second I read what you wrote, I got it! I've always known that I love that full feeling that others are talking about, but I could never really pin that down. It's because I love eating, and eating leads to that fullness. It's true, you can't get it from eating tons of veggies, it's not at all the same, but nonetheless, I thank God for big salads these days!

When I think about it, feeling satisfied with food and feeling full are two different things.

Marvelously prepared, wholesome food that tastes delicious is satisfying. One does not need to eat until full to feel that satisfaction.

One bite of delicious food can be enough for food enjoyment and mouth satisfaction.

Wanting to keep that sensation going on and on is something else--it's grasping at the experience and wanting to make it last forever. It's driven by the mouth and the brain receptors.

Wanting to "feel full" is something else again. It's allowing "enough" to be defined by the stomach's physical state. Unfortunately, people who routinely eat until their stomach is really full end up with dulled fullness receptors, so it takes more and more food to make them feel full. Check it out.

So learning to stop before that feeling arrives is an interesting exercise. Eventually those receptors liven up again, so that you really do feel full with less food. People think this is "stomach shrinkage," but that's not the whole story.

Just some idle thoughts...

Jay

That's brilliant.

I enjoy the sensation of eating until I don't want to eat anymore. The last bite of a great meal or dish is probably the worst part of my day on a given day. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to change my thinking on this.

I read a blurb in ELLE magazine a while back about how Americans tend to consider a meal finished when their plate is empty while the French tend to just go by physical fullness.

Well you know what? I DO listen to my stomach. And it's ALWAYS hungry.

One of the biggest things I want to achieve from my lifestyle change is to move from "That was a really nice slice of pie, I must now have another slice of pie to experience that all over again" over to "That was a really nice slice of pie, thank you". A subtle difference to most people, but a massive difference to the struggling fatty inside of me.

I'm studying endorphin responses as part of my college course and it's interesting because food is supposed to produce a pleasure response in proportion to how calorie-dense it is to encourage our ancestors to survive the lean times. Some people's endorphin (pleasure chemical) response to food is similar across different foods, others have a rush of endorphins but the endorphins continue after finishing the food and gradually tails off over the rest of the day. Some of us (I suspect most here!) have a rush of endorphins in response to the tasty food, but this is followed by a crushing hideous low that makes you want to top the endorphins back up again. I find that if I eat something I enjoy I now make a special effort to think happy thoughts and do happy things straight afterwards, eat some chocolate then go hug your kids. Seems to be working for me for now, we'll see.

Meanwhile I always buy things in little packets or else get my portion out onto the plate before I start, never, never open a packet and think I'll eat half!

Very interesting and enlightening thread.

Interesting thread. I have recently come to understand that I really don't love food at all. When I gained all of my weight, I did so through sneak eating, and I ate junk, food I would never eat when I wanted something to eat. During binges, it was always the cheapest instant crap, mostly sweets....again food I did not normally eat. It was a punishment to eat like that, to make myself so full I felt sick. It was like a drug, a need....a way to not deal with something I should have dealt with.

This is not to say I don't enjoy eating, I do. But I loath feeling full and I loath being in such a bad relationship with both my body and my impulse to eat crap. That puts a damper on my enthusiasm to eat.

And yet....I really don't want to be a foodie. I want to get on with life and find passions for other things. I would prefer to let food be an obsession of the past and not the future.