Steve Cook discusses how food has become a drug to make us feel better… and leads to serious unhealthy overeating.
Steve Cook further broke into the mainstream this year by becoming one of the main celebrity trainers featured in the reboot of The Biggest Loser. In our latest GI Exclusive interview clip, we ask Steve Cook what seems to be harder for most “average” people – training or dieting?
With Steve Cook’s crossover appeal, he has seen more deeply into the “average” American than most bodybuilders and fitness stars. He’s outside of the bubble in bodybuilding where diet and training are the only important things in life. For most average people – fitness becomes a necessary component for health and life longevity. But with a life that isn’t simply focused on fitness and building muscle, going to the gym and eating the right diet can be a big challenge. So which is harder – dieting or training? Steve Cook thinks that it’s much more challenging to change your diet lifestyle but perhaps not for the reasons you would think.
Steve Cook believes that for many Americans and perhaps humans across the globe, food and eating has become a drug. People don’t overeat simply because they love eating massive amounts of food. They eat because it’s a way to feel good after going through the struggles and stresses of life. You can call it emotional eating, or stress eating, or binge eating. But the end results is the same. Food has become a release and an escape. The same way people might smoke weed or drink alcohol to forget their troubles – food can be a way to feel good after a terrible day.
Add into the mix that corporations have been pushing processed foods with sugar to make food taste even better and become physically addicting – and you have a situation not very different from any other drug.
Steve Cook has even experienced it himself and mentions when he was younger in his career he would binge eat ice cream after a successful photoshoot because he just needed something that felt good.
The damage spreads even further when thinking about gender norms in our culture. Women often struggle just as much with stress eating as much as men… but have much more pressure to stay thin year round. A man can just throw on baggy clothes when he loses weight. A woman isn’t judged the same way – and can lead to extreme binge dieting that eventually leads to metabolic damage.
Check out the full GI Exclusive interview clip above to see Steve Cook dive into how dangerously close food has become like a drug in our culture.
