If I had to answer that question in one word, I would say, ‘Habit.’ Many fortunate individuals never want to eat more or less than they need to maintain their ideal weight. When they exercise a great deal, they eat more heartily than when they spend a quiet day at home; if they have a huge meal at noon, they just are not hungry at dinner time.

Their appetites are regulated by their requirements, and they seldom develop bad eating habits.

The late Dr. Norman Jolliffe, when he was teaching at Columbia University’s School of Public Health, coined the term ‘appestat’ for the mechanism that regulates the appetite. People who keep their desirable weights usually have appestats that are set exactly right.

In many people, however, the appestat is easily influenced or conditioned by habit. A patient of mine who had been visiting relatives and eating the huge meals they set before her, in order to be polite, came home two months later and told me her appetite had increased. On the other hand, people who do not get enough to eat for some time may develop low appestats and poor appetites.

Emotional factors can play an important part in over-eating or under-eating. People who feel lonely and unwanted often eat a great deal because it is one of their few pleasures. Women with small children have frequently told me they overeat simply because of boredom, or because nibbling makes them feel calmer and better able to cope with the children. On the other hand, worry and tension or the desire for attention and sympathy can also keep people from eating. Deep psychological problems naturally call for the help of a specialist. But often I have found that many of my patients who have fallen into bad eating habits can break them by willpower and the type of information given in this chapter.

*27\68\2*

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