¶ … Health Psychology: Overeating Overeating is a health issue that results in obesity in individuals with an eating disorder that results in over-consumption of food products. Various programs are in use by the psychology profession to address the issue of overeating with many of them stating claims of success. This work intends to examine overeating as it relates to the principles of healthy psychology.

According to the work of Prentice (2001) entitled "Overeating: The Health Risks" published in the journal of Obesity Research states that overeating "is a relative term. It refers to the consumption of an energy intake that is appropriately large for a given energy expenditure, thus leading to obesity." There are reportedly specific "environmental and cultural factors that have converged in the past few decades to markedly increase the risk of both active and passive (inadvertent) overeating. Chief among these are the increased availability and promotion of cheap energy-dense diets (usually high in fat) and the transition toward extremely sedentary lifestyles." (Prentice, 2001)

III. Significance of the Study

The significance of this study is the additional information and knowledge that will be added to the already existing base of knowledge in this area of inquiry.

IV. Literature Review

A. Food Types Impact Eating Habits

Prentice (2001) emphasizes the importance of considering factors including the types of foods that are readily available in contemporary society along with increases in sedentary lifestyles as "data ranging from highly controlled metabolic studies to large-scale epidemiological and ecological analysis illustrate the strong interactions between diet and physical activity in relationship to the over-consumption of energy." In addition, it is reported that overconsumption of "specific dietary components may also lead to health risks." (Prentice, 2001) Prentice reports that examples include "saturated and transfatty acids. More recently attention has switched to high glycemic foods and to n-6 fatty acids." (Prentice, 2001)

B. Active and Passive Overeating

Prentice additionally reports that short-term overeating "is a common human habit associated with feasting and celebration. In traditional...

It is when overeating becomes sustained over long periods that it becomes a health risk. The fundamentals of the energy balance equation dictate that long-term overeating will always lead to body fat storage and obesity." (2001) Overeating in the modern world is stated to be of the nature of a "relative phenomenon, where the appropriateness of any level of energy intake is judged against a person's level of energy expenditure." (Prentice, 2001) The energy intake requirements appropriate for one individual may well not be appropriate energy intake levels in another individual. Energy intake is relevant since findings shown that "there is good evidence that the low levels of energy expenditure associated with modern living (sloth) are at least as important as any willful overeating (gluttony)." (Prentice, 2001) Prentice (2001) states that there are actually two sides to overeating. The following illustration serves to assist in the explanation of precisely what is meant by Prentice.
Figure 1

Two Sides to Overeating

Source: Prentice (2001)

Overeating, according to Prentice (2001) can be both active and passive in that "active overeating can be induced by a number of conditions: a cognate drive to consume above one's natural appetite (driven by either internal or external cues), a constitutional defect in appetite regulation (as occurs in many of the rare monogenic forms of human obesity), an inappropriate psychological response to stress, or a physical or pharmacological disruption of the hypothalamic satiety center." (Prentice, 2001) Passive overeating is described as a separate phenomenon in which the consumption by small of amounts of food that would be absolutely appropriate against a background of normal physical activity has been rendered excessive by modern sedentary living." (Prentice, 2001)

Active overeating is known to occur in humans "for cultural reasons among populations in which fatness is esteemed." (Prentice, 2001) It is stated that an example of this is that of "urban Gambia, where the prevalence of obesity is >35% in middle-aged women and