by roundcoconut » Wed Dec 27, 2017 12:04 pm
What an interesting post! I am fascinated by human psychology and how people can freak out and run away from the things that would help them the most.
If I may state the obvious:
Eating a diet of fruits, vegetables, starches and legumes is perfectly compatible with having ample & healthy hair. I swear to god that this is true!
There IS some minor “hair fall” that comes with an extended water-only fast (I did a fairly long water fast about five years ago, and I DO remember that there was more hair on my bathroom floor and in my hair brush than normal). I don’t know of any cases where people experienced more hair fall after improving their diet, but if you find that this IS the case for you, it would still be true that it’s temporary and will not last — and that your overall appearance is definitely on an upward spiral as you improve your diet.
Your overall appearance gets better and better, and any temporary thinning of your hair is more than compensated by how eating better foods makes you happier and more energetic and actually prettier.
On a side note, people’s food impulses are very psychological. When a person gets the urge to eat (and especially when a person gets an impulse to go buy a particular food), that is no indication that there is a real need.
Food and spending are very similar. Someone who walks into TJ Maxx and suddenly thinks that polished silver candle-holders are just what they need for their dining room, are experiencing an opportunity to do some impulse-spending. The sudden urge to buy candle-holders does not mean that their inner self NEEDS candle holders. It is just an impulse, and you don’t need to act on every impulse that your mind presents to you. In fact, people who act on every spending impulse they have, often end up in debt, with way too many unneeded possessions.
Food is similarly psychological — if you find that two hours after your last meal, you are having impulses to go get a cookie, or to run to the fridge for an extra bowl of soup — these are just impulses. People who act on every eating impulse, often end up overfed, with too much stored body fat. There are MANY food-cues in society, like when you see your co-worker eating some pretzels as a snack, and you think, “Maybe I should have a snack too?”
Also, people have food impulses without external food-cues, just because eating is something you like to DO during particular emotions and situations. The idea that you’d be driving down the road and having a food impulse is not an uncommon experience — but it is just an impulse, and people who act on every food impulse do not necessarily experience good health outcomes.
If you are able to see that you have enough intake or enough stored body fat to avoid dying of starvation, then it is probably OK to stick to your planned schedule of meals. No danger will come to you, if you ignore an impulse.
I have no idea whether this will be of use to anyone, but I just want to throw it out there. The idea that people will not get beyond their own panic mode sounds pretty awful actually! It is like someone continuing to smoke cigarettes because they are having cigarette impulses as a non-smoker, and so they run to the 7-11 and get another pack of smokes because they worry that their withdrawal experiences will not fade over time.