What If The Very Hungry Caterpillar Had A Meal Plan?

I don't know if this is what Eric Carle had in mind when he wrote the book, but his caterpillar's eating follows a pattern I see in my office all the time. Day after day, the caterpillar tries to satisfy his hunger with fruit, and by the time the weekend comes, he pretty much goes on a binge and ends up with a stomachache. This is the classic yo-yo pattern we see where restriction results in overeating, and where deprivation leads to cravings.

What would have happened if the caterpillar would have had the slice of Swiss cheese along with the plum? The cake with the strawberries? The salami with the oranges? I don't think Saturday would have looked quite so excessive and we could have avoided that nasty stomachache.

Maybe our caterpillar just had a knowledge deficit about meal planning, but this pattern generally begins when someone restricts their food in an effort to lose weight. The problem with food restriction is that our bodies were created to be bad at it. We're not supposed to be calm about a decrease in nutrition. We were created to be good at survival, and food is essential for survival. When food is restricted, the brain and body work together to try and get more of it. This means we get preoccupied with food and find it harder to resist. This is one reason why weight-loss diets have such a poor success rate. People on a diet think a lot about eating, and food seems particularly appealing. Cravings often lead to overeating, and there goes the diet.

While we can all understand that it's a good thing that bodies were designed to fight back against food restriction, it doesn't mean everyone is happy about this mechanism. I'm reminded of a client referred to me because of "anxiety about hunger." She was worried about the fact that she always felt hungry even though she was "eating". She thought there was something wrong with her, either physically or mentally. After reviewing her intake, it became clear that the only thing wrong was the inadequate amount she was eating. Her meals and snacks were simply much too small. Of course she always felt hungry! It turned out that while she wasn't officially dieting, she felt bad about her size and was trying to get by with a lower level of intake than her body required. It took a lot of emotional effort for her to change her habits, but once she began eating enough, she felt satisfied and stopped thinking so much about food. Miraculous, I know. ;)

I'm not sure what it is about The Very Hungry Caterpillar that made it such a classic. The illustrations are great, the story is fun, and of course we all love a happy ending, but when I read it nowadays I mainly think of how brilliantly we're all designed, from the simple caterpillar to us incredible humans. If we try and mess with nature, it'll wisely nudge us back into place. Learn to work with your amazing body rather than against it; feed it well.