OH! Magazine - Australian Version February 2016 | Page 16

( Men’s Health )

IS OBESITY CAUSED BY
SCARCITY
THINKING?
Mike Campbell explores the notion of scarcity
thinking and it’s impact on our health.
ave you ever fallen prey to the
nagging thought that you need to
take as much as possible – like you’re
going to miss out if you don’t? This can
cause us to ask for more, consume more,
and something as simple as NEVER
leaving food or drink ‘to waste’. This is a
simple difference between abundance
and scarcity.

H

It’s not a case of having too much that is
making us fat, it’s the mindset to begin
with that we don’t, nor will we ever, have
enough. In short, it’s about quality versus
quantity.
Let’s take a look at this common coffee
situation, as an example.
On a recent trip to the US I asked a guy if
there was somewhere close by to get a
coffee. ‘Yeah, around the corner, but it’ll
cost you like 50c extra than normal and
it’ll be the smallest coffee you’ve ever
seen’ he said.
As soon I heard those words penetrate the
air, I knew it was going to be a coffee that
I would like because it will not taste like
crap, and it will actually be worth the extra
50c. To me there simply wasn’t a
comparison.
I’ll add to that – a week earlier when in
Seattle, I ordered a small coffee and the
server asked me ‘Do you want the large?
It’s the same price but you get loads
more!’

16

FEBRUARY 2016 ( OH! MAGAZINE )

My
face
must
have
screamed
bewilderment. However, I politely
declined, choosing to leave out ‘No,
because it’s going to be a terrible coffee
and I don’t want a greater quantity of it!’
My response was met with total confusion
– why does this guy not want more, for
free?

were rushing to it and grabbing handfuls.
What the...?

An abundance mindset says, ‘I’ll gladly
spend 20c or 50c more for a quality cup
of coffee, regardless of whether it’s a small
serving size.’

We hoard things, attaching our happiness
to them instead of chasing what will truly
make us happy in life.

The scarcity mindset says, ‘Why spend
more, PLUS it’s such a small cup! I want
to get as much quantity as I can for my
money.’
Can you see the key difference in approach
to this situation? Once you can, you’ll see
it everywhere: people eating as much as
they possibly can at ‘All you can eat’
restaurants. Even at a normal restaurant,
how common is the sentence ‘I’m sooo
full?’
Just because it’s free or you’ve paid for it,
doesn’t mean you should shove as much
of it as you can in your face, just to ‘get
your money’s worth’ – there will be more
meals, more food.
It’s time to stop with the scarcity.
I was walking through the train station a
while ago and there were massive bins full
of oversized cans of ‘energy’ drink. People

Seriously, you don’t need that, nor
probably like it, so don’t grab it and shove
it in your face just because it’s free!
Stop with the scarcity.

Even if it’s not from a place of money –
i.e., it’s free, or you’re getting your money’s
worth – you just really like the taste
perhaps, well guess what: there’ll still be
more opportunities in life to eat it. Just
not right now, you’ve had enough!
Stop with the scarcity.
JUST STOP!
Why is this so?
Our parent’s and grandparent’s generations
grew up in and around war time and the
Great Depression. This brought with it a
very real sense of lack – a visceral feeling
of never having enough.
It undoubtedly led to this way of thinking
spreading through the industrialised
world.
When money and resources were tight,
you certainly don’t let anything go to