This common personality trait may take a toll on your waistline. Find out why—and what you can do about it.
Picture this: You’re at a restaurant and plan to order grilled chicken with vegetables because you’re trying to eat healthier and shed some extra pounds. Your friend, on the other hand, wants to order a burger with the works and a heaping side of fries—and encourages you to do the same.
So you switch your order just so your friend won’t feel bad about what she’s eating. Being concerned about other people’s feelings is a great trait in certain areas of your life, but when it comes to eating, it may backfire—and your waistline may pay the price.
New research from Case Western University found that people-pleasers tend to eat more. In the study, involving 101 college students, participants completed a questionnaire to determine their levels of preoccupation with pleasing others and maintaining social harmony, otherwise known as “sociotropy.”
They were then paired up in rooms with a female actor who took a small handful of M&Ms from a bowl and offered the rest to the participant. Researchers found that high-sociotropy individuals were more likely to eat greater amounts of M&Ms than other participants and admitted that they were trying to match the actor’s eating habits to make her feel more comfortable.
“People pleasers don’t like to pose any kind of threat to others,” says study co-author Julie Exline, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at the university. “They don’t want to outshine someone and in this case, the way you’d be outshining is to eat healthy or really light when the other person is eating junk.”
Not sure if you qualify as a people pleaser? Ask yourself whether you agree with any of the following phrases used in the study’s questionnaire: “I worry a lot about hurting or offending other people”; “I’m very sensitive to criticism by others”; “I’m easily persuaded by others”; and “I’m too apologetic to other people.”
Susan Albers, a psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic and author of “50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food”, says that you should also consider whether you frequently regret your decisions. If you often find yourself saying, “Oh, I should have done this instead of saying yes to that event” or “I wish I didn’t eat that cake my friend brought over,” your worry could be taking a toll on you, including your waistline.
People-pleasing aside, there’s a good chance you’ve mimicked your friends’ eating behaviors whether you realized it or not. Researchers from Radboud University Nijmegen in The Netherlands paired up 70 women and observed them eating in a mock restaurant, noting bite timing for both participants. The experts found that women tended to mimic each other’s eating behavior. In other words, they were more likely to take a bite within five seconds after their eating companion took a bite rather than eat at their own pace.
The participants were also more than three times as likely to mimic the intake of their eating companion at the beginning of the interaction—in this study, the first 10 minutes—compared to the end of the interaction, or the last 10 minutes.
Whether it’s to make a good first impression—which might explain the mimicry timing results—or because seeing someone else do an action may physically trigger you to copy them, one thing is clear: “Women feel pressure to match or mirror other people’s eating habits,” says Dr. Albers.
Sure, we’ve all been there before. It’s tough to say no when your grandmother offers you a piece of her homemade pie or to slow down when all of your girlfriends are digging into nachos at happy hour. Every once in awhile is fine, but if you find yourself in this situation a lot, it can have detrimental effects on your health. “When [these negative social eating habits] start to become more of a pattern, you need to start paying close attention,” says Dr. Exline.
By: Abigail Cuffey
Andrea was a 32 year old professional woman who was referred to me by her primary physician. She had back surgery one year ago to free up a restricted nerve which was causing her a lot of discomfort. Her surgery was successful although she continued to have pain. Although her pain was less than before but she said it still interfered with her sleep and limited her extremely active lifestyle.
Andrea described her job as constant motion; she was a sales rep and did a lot of traveling and was on call 24/7. The financial rewards were enormous but over the last few years she liked it less. Further into our initial conversation I learned that Andrea was brought up in an athletic family; her father was a high school track coach who instilled his militaristic views on fitness to his family. When she wasn’t working she was a long distance competitive runner. In addition to all of this stress, she recently went through a divorce.
We talked a lot about her lifestyle, the surgery and how things are marginally better now compared to before surgery. I then asked her if she was happy. She didn’t understand what that would have to do with the pain so I explained that what we think about most on a day-to-day basis has a significant affect on how we feel physically, emotionally and even the types of situations we attract into our lives. I also added that apparently there was a physical component to her pain which surgery seemed to improve but that there also could be an emotional component still in need of attention.
I told her about a sixteen year old boy, Jeff (not his real name), who had come to me for IBS. He was not progressing as well as I thought he should, so during a session I asked him to look forward in time and see himself free of IBS, after the session he said he couldn’t envision such a scenario. He said everyone knew him as the kid battling IBS. He said it was part of who he was.
In a subsequent session in which we dialoged back and forth I asked him if the healthy Jeff would be able to help the IBS Jeff through this transition, to which he agreed. I then asked IBS Jeff if he thought it was a good idea to take a rest and let healthy Jeff lead the way, which also got a positive response. This is called parts therapy and can be an extremely powerful tool to free up inner conflict creating resolution, freedom and relief. After this session Jeff quickly began experience relief from his IBS symptoms.
Andrea was intrigued and excited to pursue hypnosis. In her first session I helped her learn how to deeply relax and to also stimulate the flow of endorphins which can be extremely comforting. When she came back in two weeks for her next session she was smiling and experiencing some relief but still had some discomfort. She agreed to try dialoging during this session as had I described doing with Jeff.
In hypnosis, I asked Andrea what she thought the source of her remaining discomfort might and she was quick to respond. She said she hated her job and always had. Her father had a sales job and he pushed her into doing the same. She also hated running and maintaining her family’s ridiculous fitness standards. I asked her what changes she might make that could help her with her discomfort and she said her first move was to search out a job that she was passionate about and also starting to listen to her body more rather than punishing it with endless exercise. She also said that because hypnosis has brought her such clarity she would continue practicing self-hypnosis.
At the conclusion of the session Andrea was very emotional. She had been driven for so long by values she couldn’t live with and to experience such immediate and complete freedom from the weight of such a burden can be an amazing experience. So many times I see clients who think they know what their problem is only to learn it was something completely different.
Andrea came back for a couple of more visits. Her pain was gone and she was excited about her future. She, of course, still wasn’t sure what path she might take but she certainly knew that positive healthy change was coming and was very open to consider all possibilities.
By: Paul Gustafson RN CH
Although hypnosis has been shown to reduce pain perception, it is not clear how the technique works. Identifying a sound, scientific explanation for hypnosis’ effect might increase acceptance and use of this safe pain-reduction option in clinical settings.
Researchers at the University of Iowa Roy J.and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine and the Technical University of Aachen, Germany, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to find out if hypnosis alters brain activity in a way that might explain pain reduction. The results are reported in the November-December 2004 issue of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine.
The researchers found that volunteers under hypnosis experienced significant pain reduction in response to painful heat. They also had a distinctly different pattern of brain activity compared to when they were not hypnotized and experienced the painful heat. The changes in brain activity suggest that hypnosis somehow blocks the pain signal from getting to the parts of the brain that perceive pain.
“The major finding from our study, which used fMRI for the first time to investigate brain activity under hypnosis for pain suppression, is that we see reduced activity in areas of the pain network and increased activity in other areas of the brain under hypnosis,” said Sebastian Schulz-Stubner, M.D., Ph.D., UI assistant professor (clinical) of anesthesia and first author of the study. “The increased activity might be specific for hypnosis or might be non-specific, but it definitely does something to reduce the pain signal input into the cortical structure.”
The pain network functions like a relay system with an input pain signal from a peripheral nerve going to the spinal cord where the information is processed and passed on to the brain stem. From there the signal goes to the mid-brain region and finally into the cortical brain region that deals with conscious perception of external stimuli like pain.
Processing of the pain signal through the lower parts of the pain network looked the same in the brain images for both hypnotized and non-hypnotized trials, but activity in the top level of the network, which would be responsible for “feeling” the pain, was reduced under hypnosis.
Initially, 12 volunteers at the Technical University of Aachen had a heating device placed on their skin to determine the temperature that each volunteer considered painful (8 out of 10 on a 0 to 10 pain scale). The volunteers were then split into two groups. One group was hypnotized, placed in the fMRI machine and their brain activity scanned while the painful thermal stimuli was applied.
Then the hypnotic state was broken and a second fMRI scan was performed without hypnosis while the same painful heat was again applied to the volunteer’s skin. The second group underwent their first fMRI scan without hypnosis followed by a second scan under hypnosis.
Hypnosis was successful in reducing pain perception for all 12 participants. Hypnotized volunteers reported either no pain or significantly reduced pain (less than 3 on the 0-10 pain scale) in response to the painful heat.
Under hypnosis, fMRI showed that brain activity was reduced in areas of the pain network, including the primary sensory cortex, which is responsible for pain perception. The imaging studies also showed increased activation in two other brain structures — the left anterior cingulate cortex and the basal ganglia.
The researchers speculate that increased activity in these two regions may be part of an inhibition pathway that blocks the pain signal from reaching the higher cortical structures responsible for pain perception. However, Schulz-Stubner noted that more detailed fMRI images are needed to definitively identify the exact areas involved in hypnosis-induced pain reduction, and he hoped that the newer generation of fMRI machines would be capable of providing more answers.
“Imaging studies like this one improve our understanding of what might be going on and help researchers ask even more specific questions aimed at identifying the underlying mechanism,” Schulz-Stubner said. “It is one piece of the puzzle that moves us a little closer to a final answer for how hypnosis really works.
“More practically, for clinical use, it helps to dispel prejudice about hypnosis as a technique to manage pain because we can show an objective, measurable change in brain activity linked to a reduced perception of pain,” he added.
In addition to Schulz-Stubner, the research team included Timo Krings, M.D., Ingo Meister, M.D., Stefen Rex, M.D., Armin Thron, M.D., Ph.D. and Rolf Rossaint, M.D., Ph.D., from the Technical University of Aachen, Germany.
University of Iowa Health Caredescribes the partnership between the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine and UI Hospitals and Clinics and the patient care, medical education and research programs and services they provide. Visit UI Health Care online at www.uihealthcare.com.
STORY SOURCE:University of Iowa Health Science Relations, 5135 Westlawn,Iowa City,Iowa52242-1178
Intensive Therapy: Utilizing Hypnosis in the Treatment of Substance Abuse Disorders. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Jul 2004 vol.47 (1):21-28. Potter G. This study examined 18 cases over the course of 7 years in which hypnosis was used in an attempt to assist the subjects in overcoming a variety of substance addictions. Fifteen cases related to alcohol, two to cocaine and one to marijuana. All subjects were received daily hypnosis sessions over a 20 day period and then reassessed a year later. While the sample size was small it was found that these daily hypnosis sessions led to a 77% success rate.
Paul Gustafson, R.N., C.H. has been featured on WBZ radio, hosts TV show Healthy Hypnosis, is an Angie’s List ‘Super Service’ provider. Check out his in-office Substance Reliefprogram. Also available as MP3 download.
Contact Paul for free consultation: 888-290-3972 or info@burlingtonhypnosis.com and visit Burlington Hypnosis.
Many are curious if their obesity is passed down.The heritability of obesity is a concept that points to genetics for the variation of weight in the population.Scientists have discovered a “fat mass and obesity associated” (FTO) gene that is strongly associated with BMI and obesity.
But a fat gene doesn’t have to dash your healthy weight dreams. That is, if you’re willing to get more zzz’s. A large scale study of twins found that those who slept under seven hours a night had greater genetic influences on BMI than environmental factors such as diet and exercise. The reverse was true for those who got more than nine hours of sleep. Specifically, genes accounted for 70% of the differences in body mass index for the sleep-deprived twins, as opposed to just 32% in well-rested participants.
Sleeping more therefore helps your healthy habits like diet and exercise count, while lowering how obesity genes affect you. While those with the FTO gene were found to be around seven pounds heavier, the effects of additional sleep on turning off that gene could help make up the weight difference.
By: carolyn_r
