Cornerstone #3: Eating to satiety

The first two cornerstones have focused on what to eat and when to eat.  Now we focus on the obvious next question: How much to eat?  As I previously talked about our body has an incredible ability to regulate its energy intake all by itself.  Without conscience effort of what, and when to eat, humans should be able to regulate their energy balance on a completely unconscious level.  This process is regulated in many ways throughout the body, but I think one of the key ways to maintain this balance is to always eat to satiety, or fullness.

Cornerstone #2: Eating when Hungry

Our bodies are an incredible thing.  They are able to control so many different processes and chemical levels all inside a contained system with no external support.  This type of internal regulation is known as homeostasis, and allows us to do things like always keep a constant temperature, ensure our blood pressure doesn’t get too high, and even keep a proper pH balance within the body.  The body even has its own homeostatic controls for energy balance, and uses these to help control how much energy goes in and out.  Now, I assume most of you are asking yourself that if the body can internally control things like blood pressure and energy balance, why are there so many people with hypertension and obesity?  Well, these homeostatic controls can break down, especially in the perfect storm of the Standard American Diet (SAD). 

This internal control of energy is nice and all, but how can that help us?  Well, I think it leads us to my 2^nd cornerstone for health: Eating only when hungry.  Do you think our hunter-gatherer ancestors stopped at noon to eat lunch just because it was lunch time?  No way!  They ate when they needed to.  Obviously this eating strategy is starting to look like it’s on to something from an evolutionary perspective, but lets take a look at what the current science says about this.