A lot of you know that I have been trying to fish more this year. With my schedule, it isn't easy, but I have enjoyed learning a lot more about bass fishing and catching some nice ones. I can't help but think of my profession when I do anything, and you are certainly going to wonder how I can relate bass fishing to medicine.

There are basically two ways you can catch bass. The main opportunity for putting bass on your line is to "match the hatch," which is bass language for providing the bass with what they have been eating. This would mean providing a crawfish-like bait if the place where you are fishing has bass feeding on crawfish or minnow-like bait when minnows are on the menu or lizards, leeches, etc. However, if the fish are not hungry, you have to find another way to make the fish bite, or you will be leaving the pond or lake without catching anything.

The second way to get bass to bite is to create a "reaction strike." This means that bass will bite at some lures because you have presented it in a way that makes the bass want to bite it even when the bass isn't hungry.

So what does this have to do with medicine? The food industry has been doing the same thing to you for years. Matching the hatch for you means that restaurants and grocery stores have learned what people in each area want to eat, and they will provide that for them. If an area traditionally likes fatty burgers, then they will provide it, and if barbecue is what you are hungry for, it will be available. Basically, many have blamed the food industry for the unhealthy food it makes available, but it only provides what we want to eat. How ignorant does it seem when we ask for and willingly choose fatty foods from the menu and then blame the restaurant for providing it? Just because we need to eat doesn't mean we don't have a choice in what we eat, and better choices are available if we will simply look for them rather than reacting to habit or letting our stomachs choose rather than our better judgment.

The second way the food industry gets us to eat the food is to create a "reaction strike." Hunger, for us, was created to remind us when we need to eat. Unfortunately, the food industry has figured out ways for us to think we need to eat when we really don't. For instance, I bet you think that breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner are a necessary part of getting your daily nutritional needs. Sometimes we are still full from the last meal, and we sit down for the next one just because we are programmed to think that we have to do it. Additionally, we think that a meal has to include a meat surrounded by certain expected add-ons, and we are going to demand this regardless of what we may actually need nutritionally. We pick our meal based on what we want and not what we may need.

Hunger does not always indicate that we need to eat. Commercials and billboards are designed to make us hungry even when we don't need to eat. Hunger can be triggered by sight, smell and even a memory. Have you ever simply thought about your favorite food or something you remember eating as a child (or even yesterday) and become hungry?

Another thing to remember about hunger is that the mechanism that takes away hunger requires about 30 minutes to respond to eating. If you eat too fast, you will think that you are still hungry and need more food when your body simply has not had time to respond to tell you that you have had enough. To help with this, you can drink water or eat a low calorie snack at the first feelings of hunger before a meal so that when you sit down to eat, the hunger pains will already be partially deprogrammed. This may help avoid overeating. Eating something with fiber during this time will help to fill the stomach and decrease hunger and overeating as well.

The bottom line is to recognize when you are appropriately hungry versus a triggered response and to control hunger rather than letting it control you. Actively choose what you are going to eat based on what you need rather than what you want. After all, we are smarter than bass.

Dr. John Hutto is a cardiologist at Orangeburg Cardiovascular Clinic and the Regional Medical Center in Orangeburg.

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