Why We Eat When The Heat Is On

(Julia Ewan - Twp)

"It's reflected in the paradox," he says, "that both the absence and the presence of food are capable of making us hungry, but apparently in very fundamentally different ways."

So while it makes sense physiologically for people to be hungry four to six hours after eating a meal, it's harder to explain why a plate of chocolate chip cookies can be so appealing shortly after a meal. "You're not in a state of caloric deprivation," Lowe notes. "But you experience the desire to have them."

It's that kind of hunger that scientists hope to better understand. Until they do, people who are most susceptible to so-called stress or emotional eating will have to look for ways to minimize the caloric damage, Lowe says.

Some Lean Plate Club members are already doing that.

"About 9 a.m., after I'm at work for a little more than an hour, the cravings prey on my brain," notes Jennie Geisler of Erie, Pa. "I try to suck on hard candy, gulp down decaf coffee, drink water, eat South Beach protein bars and Quaker oatmeal bars. That all helps."

So does pacing how quickly she eats. "Pick it up," Geisler notes in an e-mail. "Take a bite. Put it down. Work for five minutes. Start over. If I don't do that, I'll eat 10 cookies without thinking about it. Pretzels and bagels sometimes slow me down."

Geisler also uses physical activity to help thwart stress eating. "Sometimes I just have to get up and walk around the building until I can get my brain back in gear," she says.

That's a strategy that also helps Lean Plate Club member Jody Nyers, a benefits analyst for the Department of Agriculture.

Nyers gets up at 3:45 a.m. and begins her commute from Southern Maryland at 4:45 a.m. She doesn't get home until 12 hours later.

The long work days mean that she often has to fight the urge for midafternoon sweet snacks. "If I'm tempted, I walk the half-mile around the building," says Nyers, who also teaches spinning classes at her gym and has recently started taking yoga to help reduce stress.

Even so, "it's a battle," she says. "We live in a world where everything comes in huge portions and there are so many foods to choose from. . . . I work out a lot because I love to eat."

Nyers begins the day with a healthy breakfast. She follows that with a healthy lunch. And she gets to the gym five to six times a week. "But 2 p.m. is my killer time," she says. "If I'm stressed and trying to get something done, I could go down to the cafeteria and get more than I should have to eat."

Jerry Franz, a Lean Plate Club member who recently began working at home, says the change in job venues has led to a few revelations about stress eating. "Simple steps really can work," he notes in an e-mail. "I have stocked my kitchen with healthier options that I enjoy, so when that stress urge to eat comes and I run downstairs from my office to the kitchen, I only have the healthier options such as Gala apples, oranges or yogurt from which to choose."

When he worked in downtown Washington, Franz says, it was easy to go to the company kitchen and find "cakes, cookies and doughnuts or to run to the local deli or CVS for a salty snacks or candy. . . . Of course, I am far from perfect, so I do keep a bag of small-sized Reese's Peanut Butter Cups for when nothing but chocolate will do." ·