Essay on Conditioned Hypereating, Food, and Environmental Influences

This essay delves into the concept of conditioned hypereating, as described by Dr. David Kessler, which is characterized by a loss of control around food, lack of satisfaction, and constant preoccupation with eating, often leading to excessive intake. It examines the interplay between genetics and environmental factors, emphasizing the dominant influence of the latter, particularly in the context of increased processed food advertisements and marketing, leading to rising obesity rates and metabolic conditions. The essay explores how hyperpalatable foods fuel this condition, affecting the brain's reward system. It analyzes the development of conditioned hypereating, linking it to environmental cues, marketing strategies, and the production of hard-to-resist foods. Furthermore, it discusses the role of priming factors and cultural influences in overeating, including the impact of emotional transitions in children and the historical preference for large meals. The essay references key studies and authors to support its arguments, offering a comprehensive overview of the causes and effects of conditioned hypereating.

Running head: FOOD AND NUTRITION
FOOD AND NUTRITION
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1FOOD AND NUTRITION
Part 1
The state of ‘conditioned hypereating’, as postulated by Dr. David Kessler, is
characterized by a lack of control during eating, and absence of a feeling of satisfaction due to
eating and a constant condition of being preoccupied with food, resulting in excessive food
intake (Kessler, 2010). While an individual’s genetics establish the blueprint of his or her food
and lifestyle habits as well as susceptibility to health conditions and hence, risk of being
conditioned to hypereat, it is ultimately our environment which influences the rate of expression
of these genes. The extent to which conditioned hypereating is environmental in origin, can be
observed in the present scenario of increased processed food advertisements and the resultant
tendencies of households and schools to consume and deliver the same, high soda intake, rising
rates of obesity and high risk of children’s acquisition to chronic metabolic conditions (Tomer,
2016). Environmental influences are more dominant as compared to genetic influences in obesity
acquisition because it is our surroundings (advertisements, food marketing) which influence us to
engage in certain good habits, resulting in obesity and provision of fuel to our genes to express
mutations or not further leading to increased gene expression modulating inflammation, high
oxidative stress and obesity associated metabolic malfunctioning (Mackay, 2017).
Part 2
Question 1
The state of conditioned hypereating characterized by environmental influences
increasing one’s constant and excessive preoccupation with food intake, is majorly fueled by the
presence of hyperpalatable foods (Tomer, 2016). Kessler notes that hyperpalatble foods

2FOOD AND NUTRITION
influence the reward system in an individual with their high sugar and fat content resulting in
less need to chew and a blissful combinatory effect of sugar trapping the melted fat particles
leading to release of endorphins and activation of the amygdala – a major part of the brain’s
limbic system responsible for regulating emotions, which in this case, includes positive emotions
(Kessler, 2010). Such reactions have been associated to be similar to the pleasurable addictive
effects of drug intake in individuals, where it has been evidenced that sugary cookies may yield a
more potent effect than cocaine in neuronal activation of the accumbens, the region responsible
for regulation of emotions associated with reward and fulfilment (Reid et al., 2018).
Question 2
The development of a disorder of conditioned hypereating can be attributed to the
growing influence of environmental cues upon one’s eating habits, such as increased
advertisement of processed and junk food, high rates of marketing of such foods, increased
inclination towards ease and convenience in living standards resulting in intake of convenience
foods and high rates of production of hard-to-resist hyperpalatable (Shewfelt, 2017). Such trends
result in a state of ‘abstinence of violation’ where individuals, due to the above trends and
consumption of rewarding and pleasurable foods, relapse into a state of uncontrollable
consumption of consuming excessive or nutritionally imbalanced foods, despite promising
themselves to abstain from the same (Pursey, Davis & Burrows, 2017).
Question 3
The emergence of conditioned hypereating can be associated with the prevalence of
‘priming’ or presence of factors which have ‘primed’, prepared or set the set scene for
individuals to overeat and consume hyperpalatable foods (Ohotomo, 2016). The historical
origins of the same can be attributed to the evolutionary changes in society and human systems

3FOOD AND NUTRITION
resulting in humans adapting and being born with greater body, larger brain and smaller gut
capacities and the increased tendency towards consumption of bigger meals than constant
foraging. These factors, coupled with the growing exposure of an individual to processed food
marketing and advertisement, result in the individual being ‘primed’ or prepared for future
engagement in conditioned hypereating behaviors (Manippa et al., 2019).
Question 4
One of the key warning signs of conditioned hypereating in children is the emergence of
states of ‘emotional transition’. Transitioning of emotions in children is characterized by
alteration in a child’s emotions due to changes such as dramatic life events or the presence of
excessive stimuli resulting in indecisiveness and frustrations in a child (Wilson et al., 2015). In
this case, the increased advertisements and media projection of processed foods and almost
limitless food choices result in transitioning emotions where a child may be unable to
comprehend or take an independent decision resulting in the child being compelled to consume
foods in unnecessary amounts and gradual progression towards conditioned hypereating (van
Strien, 2018).
Question 5
One of the key effects of culture in overeating can be attributed to the history of growing
preference of large and fixed meal consumption rather than foraging. Further, increased exposure
to numerous food choices, result in a state of cultural flexibility, as observed in France, where
individuals have now been culturally restructured to engage in vagabond feeding. This is a state
where growing number of food cues in French culture has now compelled individuals, in
addition to meals, to engage in eating constantly for reward and not for hunger, throughout
multiple incidences daily, resulting in overeating (Kessler, 2010).

4FOOD AND NUTRITION

5FOOD AND NUTRITION
References
Kessler, D. A. (2010). The end of overeating: Taking control of the insatiable American appetite.
Rodale.
Mackay, L. M. (2017). Image Memory for Hyperpalatable Foods in University Aged Females.
Manippa, V., van der Laan, L. N., Brancucci, A., & Smeets, P. A. (2019). Health body priming
and food choice: An eye tracking study. Food Quality and Preference, 72, 116-125.
Ohtomo, S. (2016). Reduction of unhealthy eating behaviour by diet priming. European Health
Psychologist, 18(S), 505.
Pursey, K. M., Davis, C., & Burrows, T. L. (2017). Nutritional aspects of food addiction.
Current Addiction Reports, 4(2), 142-150.
Reid, J., O’Brien, K. S., Puhl, R., Hardman, C. A., & Carter, A. (2018). Food addiction and its
potential links with weight stigma. Current Addiction Reports, 5, 192-201.
Shewfelt, R. L. (2017). How Widespread Is Food Addiction in Our Culture?. In In Defense of
Processed Food (pp. 53-67). Copernicus, Cham.
Tomer, J. F. (2016). What Causes Obesity? And Why Has It Grown So Much?. In Integrating
Human Capital with Human Development (pp. 109-129). Palgrave Macmillan, New
York.
van Strien, T. (2018). Causes of emotional eating and matched treatment of obesity. Current
diabetes reports, 18, 1-8.

6FOOD AND NUTRITION
Wilson, S. M., Darling, K. E., Fahrenkamp, A. J., D’Auria, A. L., & Sato, A. F. (2015).
Predictors of emotional eating during adolescents’ transition to college: does body mass
index moderate the association between stress and emotional eating?. Journal of
American College Health, 63(3), 163-170.