Nutrition & Physical Activity
Kudos for thinking about how your behavior might affect your long-term health and writing in to ask about it. What you describe is called pica, an eating disorder where people frequently eat non-nutritive (non-food) substances. Depending on what a person eats, pica can be very dangerous. Ingesting dangerous substances or large amounts of some substances can lead to medical problems, including poisoning. There is also a risk of infection resulting from some substances, such as soil, and stomach problems including constipation, and other issues.
Fortunately, in your case soap is not a very dangerous substance, though in large amounts over time it could disrupt your health. Soap is generally non-toxic and should not lead to poisoning. However, it can cause diarrhea, vomiting or skin irritation.
The causes of pica are not known but some suggest that the following may contribute to the desire to eat non-food items:
- Nutritional deficiencies. Some speculate that pica is your body's way of telling you that you are missing some important nutrient. Iron, calcium, zinc, and vitamins C & D deficiencies have been found in people with pica.
- Culture and family influences. There is some suggestion that certain cultures and social groups accept eating non-food substances. Also, if your parents encouraged this as a child, you may still have the urge to eat these substances.
- Stress. The desire to eat non-food substances may be a coping strategy for stress.
- Underlying biochemical disorder. In some cases, pica may result from chemical imbalances in your brain.
You mentioned that eating soap makes you feel good when you're stressed. This could be a sign that your stress level is too high and your body is reacting by craving soap. You could consider finding alternative ways to deal with your stress. See Stress, anxiety and learning to cope and Number one cause of stress for some tips on other ways to combat stress.
Pica is rare in adolescents and adults, and can be the sign of other medical issues including nutrition deficiencies so you should consider contacting a health care professional to help figure out what might be causing this behavior. Columbia students on the Morningside campus can call 212-854-2284 to make an appointment or log on to Open Communicator. Students on the Medical Center campus can contact Student Health at 212-304-3400. You may also want to consider talking with a counselor about healthier strategies for coping. Columbia students can make an appointment with Counseling and Psychological Services (Morningside) or the Mental Health Service (Medical Center).
You took an important first step in asking about your behavior, but it's also important that you take the next step and talk to a health care professional who can help you figure out if there is some underlying cause. Taking care of your health is not silly — it's smart.
All the best,
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Thank you, I thought that I was the only one and I searched high and low. I feel better knowing that there is a name for it. I opened up and told two relatives and I got scared when...
Thank you, I thought that I was the only one and I searched high and low. I feel better knowing that there is a name for it. I opened up and told two relatives and I got scared when they hinted that it may cause sterility. I also only eat bar soap and it relaxes me. I will take a chunk out of it and it's kinda like woosaa.
Thank you for this post and thank you for opening up soap eater.
It's wise to keep a healthy skepticism about the marketing efforts of some of these huge food corporations. Dannon's probiotic-fortified yogurt, Activia, is certainly an example of a highly promoted product. In recent years, the global market for "functional foods," has grown to billions of dollars annually, and since these supplement-food hybrids are appearing on the shelves ever more rapidly, the FDA doesn't have a chance to evaluate all of their claims. While there is evidence that probiotics do help to improve digestion and gastronomic health, it is hard to say that one brand over another is more effective at doing so.
Probiotics, beneficial bacteria that live in the small intestine, are believed to improve digestion. These gut-friendly bacteria actually help you to digest and eliminate your food, while crowding out the unhealthy gut-dwelling bacteria that cause gas, constipation, and bloating. Studies have shown that certain probiotics can help relieve irritable bowel syndrome, diarrhea, constipation, atopic eczema, and may also help protect against various infections and colon cancer. Researchers have found that stressed-out rats have benefited from a serving of water containing certain probiotics. Not a flattering comparison for us people, who might feel like stressed-out rats from time to time, but the findings of the study may be helpful. Probiotics are found in many types of fermented foods, like yogurt, sauerkraut, tempeh, and miso.
Regular yogurt is made using these live cultures, and serves up a healthy serving of them with each spoonful. But your question, is Dannon's Activia more effective in providing these results than regular good old-fashioned yogurt, is one that begs a good answer. Dannon (of course) says yes. Their Activia yogurt contains Bifidus regularis, a probiotic strain trademarked by Dannon that is not in other yogurts, and they claim that this particular strain speeds wastes through the digestive system and improves immunity in the intestines more effectively than other strains.
Dannon says that their Bifidus regularis, "survives passage through the digestive tract, arriving in the colon as a living culture," whereas other cultures can be destroyed by stomach acids and the natural process of digestion. The consumer reports lab has confirmed Dannon's claim, reporting that about three million of the original three billion probiotic organisms in a four-ounce serving of Activia made it through the stomach to the colon.
There is one other difference you mentioned between this yogurt and the others: the price. Activia typically costs more per ounce than regular Dannon yogurt. There are also other brands on the market that offer yogurts containing probiotics that are similar to those in Activia. If you're willing to spoon out the extra cash for yogurts with these particular probiotics and have noticed a decrease in stomach grumblings as a result, it seems like it working for you and might be worth it. However, now that you know that all yogurts contain healthy amounts of probiotics, it might be interesting to see if those regular yogurts feel just as good as the one with all the advertising. Eat up!
The symptoms you describe sound like what many people call the "food coma." Sometimes, after eating a holiday meal, a big dinner or lunch, or even sometimes after meals that didn't seem that big, you may feel a bit drowsy. Some medical conditions can cause this feeling, including anemia, kidney dysfunction, sleep disorders, infections, or an electrolyte imbalance just to name a few. But even people who don't have any of these medical conditions may still feel tired after eating, because this symptom is also a consequence of normal digestion!
Why? Because our bodies spend a lot of energy digesting food. The stomach mechanically churns the food, produces acid to break the food into tiny pieces, and then controls the rate this broken down food can enter the intestines. In the intestines, enzymes use energy to further break down and absorb food particles into the body. For humans, it is normal for the rate of energy use to increase by 25 to 50 percent after a meal. This increased bodily activity could contribute to your feeling flushed after eating.
One explanation for your drowsiness lies in one of the hormones released during digestion — cholecystokinin. Commonly referred to as CCK, this hormone helps make you feel full, but also activates the areas in the brain associated with sleep. So after eating, when CCK levels rise to tell you you're full, you may also start to feel sleepy. Additionally, meals high in carbohydrates can increase the levels of tryptophan (an amino acid) in the blood. In the brain, tryptophan is converted into serotonin (a neurotransmitter that makes people feel both happy and sleepy). This boost in serotonin could also cause someone to feel tired.
Since you don't feel tired after every meal, you may want to keep a food journal to see what types of food have you craving a post-lunch nap. If carbohydrate-rich or heavy foods like pizza, pasta, or panini slow you down, you could opt for a salad, soup, or sushi on days when you have a lot of work to do in the afternoon. You could also try eating several smaller meals throughout the day, rather than a big lunch, to avoid overwhelming your digestive system.
Feeling tired after eating is a common experience, and not necessarily linked to a medical condition. However, if you feel your symptoms may be related to a medical problem, it's always a good idea to visit your health care provider, especially if your fatigue begins to seriously impair your ability to get your work done. Students at Columbia can contact Medical Services (Morningside campus) or the Student Health Services (CUMC).
Best of luck in staying alert during your post-meal endeavors,
Fish can be an important part of a healthy diet; it's loaded with high-quality protein and omega-3 fatty acids and low in saturated fat and cholesterol. It’s also true that nearly all fish have at least trace amounts of methylmercury. The good news is that many of the commonly purchased fish in the United States, including several varieties of tuna, typically have lower levels of mercury and are safe to eat if the amount you consume doesn't exceed the weekly recommended serving size.
To answer your question specifically, Albacore (white) tuna and light tuna are the two most common kinds of canned tuna. Due to its larger size, white tuna contains significantly more mercury — up to three times more — than light tuna. The EPA guidelines state that it's safe to eat up to twelve ounces of light tuna (or any fish low in mercury) a week or six ounces of white tuna a week. Considering that the standard weight of a can of tuna is six ounces, you may be putting yourself at a risk for mercury poisoning if you're eating two to five cans per day.
So why worry about mercury? It's considered a pollutant and is released into the environment, largely from factories and other industrial settings. It eventually travels to streams and oceans where microorganisms present in the water turn it into methylmercury. Fish then absorb this chemical into their bodies from the water. Mercury levels in the fish depend on what they eat, how long they tend to live, and where they are in the underwater food chain. Larger fish typically contain higher levels of mercury not only because they're heavier and have more surface area to absorb mercury, but also because they eat smaller mercury-containing fish, which increases the larger fish's mercury content. Because of this, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends staying away from shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and tilefish from the Gulf of Mexico, since on average they have higher levels of mercury.
Most of the warnings about mercury poisoning are targeted to young children and pregnant women because exposure to mercury during development can cause neurological defects, including impairments in cognition, memory, attention, language, and fine motor skills. This is especially of concern because infants born with these impairments have been observed even when the mother showed no symptoms of poisoning. Mercury poisoning in adults can cause numbness in fingers and toes, muscle weakness, and speech, hearing, and walking impairments. And so far, research has not found that mercury exposure in humans is associated with cancer, but human studies are limited. If you find yourself experiencing any of these symptoms, it’s best to visit your health care provider as soon as possible. If you feel fine but are scared of prematurely swimming with the fishes, you might want to switch up your fish or seafood meals to include a variety of low-mercury choices, such as salmon, shrimp, pollock, catfish, cod, or tilapia.
The National Resources Defense Council's Mercury Contamination in Fish - Consumer Guide to Mercury in Fish provides tools that can help make this transition proceed swimmingly. It contains a list that informs consumers of the frequency that a certain fish can be eaten safely, as well as a mercury calculator that generates a safe value for fish intake based on a person's weight and type of fish. Lastly, if cost is of concern, there are many additional options for protein and nutrients on the cheap. You could also try substituting the tasty and affordable tuna with non-fish sources of protein, such as chopped canned chicken, lean deli meats, or beans; these can also be part of a healthy diet without breaking the bank.
Bravo for incorporating physical activity into your schedule! Regular exercise increases energy levels, improves quality of sleep, and boosts self-esteem. In terms of the effectiveness of your routine, it's difficult to say. Losing weight and toning up is influenced by multiple factors, including height, weight, bone density, genetics, and previous exercise regimen. By "a few pounds," do you mean two or ten or more? When setting out to change your body, it's important to ask yourself if the change you are striving for is realistic. In terms of your desired outcome, first ask yourself, "is this a realistic goal for me?" If you are unsure, it is wise to consult a personal trainer, exercise physiologist, registered dietitian, or your health care provider.
Part of effectively setting and reaching a goal means establishing one, or several, measurement criteria. Are you using a scale to measure body weight? Are you measuring body/fat composition? Strength? Clothes size? Body image? It's important to keep consistent with your indicators to know if you are making progress. If you are using a scale to measure body weight (in pounds), keep a few things in mind:
- Muscle weighs more than fat.
- Women especially can be prone to minor weight fluctuations due to menstruation and other types of hormonal activity.
- Water, an essential nutrient for all sorts of body functions, can tip the scale one way or another.
You can also incorporate some basic guidelines into your plan that will help you maintain an active lifestyle:
- Start slowly and build over time. It is smart to start off with a goal of running one mile as a workout, with the intention of increasing distance over time. Many people drop out of their exercise program because they go too hard, too fast, too soon. Pacing yourself, especially at the beginning, will help you establish confidence, self-awareness, and a strong fitness base.
- Incorporate variety into your exercise and eating routine. Including different types of food and activity into your schedule will help to maintain enjoyment and motivation. You mention running and abdominal exercises — are there other types of activities you enjoy? Decreasing body fat and increasing toning or strengthening of muscle requires a balance of cardiovascular and strength training activities. Also, a wide variety of foods will help to ensure that your body is getting the nutrients it needs. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and think about decorating your plate as though it were a box of Crayola crayons; that is, aim for foods that are rich in color, such as blueberries, spinach, salmon, and tomatoes.
- Find a friend. Studies have shown social support plays an important role in exercise motivation and sticking to an activity plan. Recruit friends and/or family to join you on a run, accompany you to lunch, or offer support.
- Get plenty of rest. Sleep deprivation often makes everything more challenging, and it is especially easy to skip exercise when you feel tired. Sleeping well may help you avoid that trap. Plus, the more you exercise, the more rest your muscles will need to repair and recover.
- Make it fun. Listening to music, running in the sunshine, or playing a rousing game with friends are all examples of ways to maximize fun and make physical activity something you look forward to and enjoy.
Maintaining a healthy and nutritious diet is an integral part of living a healthy lifestyle and achieving your weight loss goals. Here are a few great tips that may help you achieve your nutrition goals:
- Keep a food diary.
- Choose a diet low in fat, saturated fat and cholesterol and moderate in sugars.
- Eat smaller meals more often — this can help ward off hunger so that you won't overeat at your next meal. Healthy snack options include low fat yogurt, fruit, nuts, vegetables, and whole-grain crackers.
- Prepare smaller portion sizes.
- Eat your favorite foods in moderation to help stifle cravings and help you to stick to your diet.
- Avoid unhealthy fad diets.
- Eat slowly — this can help you feel more full and avoid overeating.
Above all, the most important thing to remember is that every individual is different. If you feel good about what you are doing and are making progress, keep going until you reach your realistic, healthy goal. You can do it!
It is courageous of you to write in about your situation, an important first step in getting to a healthy weight (and body image, for that matter). For most women, a healthy weight is one that allows regular menstruation and is sustainable when following a healthy, balanced eating plan. If the only way to attain a certain weight is by severely restricting your eating, that weight is not the healthiest, most natural weight for your body.
As far as a healthy weight for you is concerned, pinpointing a number, or even a range, without having a thorough medical assessment would be difficult, because different people can be healthy even if they have vastly different body weights. Unfortunately, media images and celebrities often aren't great role models when it comes to having a healthy weight. Some celebrities may be thinner than you, as you note, however they may achieve their weight through unhealthy means, such as over exercising, using drugs or diet supplements, or severely restricting their diets. In reality, they may owe their good looks more to teams of stylists and make-up artists than to good health.
It sounds as though you still have concerns about your health, even though the purging has stopped. You're right to realize that not getting your period is a huge red flag indicating something is not right with your body. Amenorrhea (loss of your period) can happen if your weight is very low, especially if your body fat is too low, or if your diet is too low in fat. Other factors, such as excessive exercise, may also play a role in amenorrhea. Your reluctance to see a health care provider is natural and understandable, many people who have disordered eating feel the same way, however amenorrhea is a condition that needs medical attention. If you are a student at Columbia, you can meet with a member of the Eating Disorders Team (Morningside) or with any provider at Medical Services (Morningside) or the Student Health Service (CUMC).
As for your diet, based on the plan you describe, your body is probably lacking many nutrients, including calcium, vitamins D, K, B-6, and B-12. In addition, you may be getting too little zinc, magnesium, iron, essential fatty acids, and protein. Some vitamin and mineral deficiencies take time to develop, but you are starting to see the effects of inadequate nutrition by not getting your period. Many people make the mistake of severely limit their dietary fat; however, our bodies must have some fat to absorb vitamins A, D, E and K, assimilate calcium into our bones, and manufacture sex hormones such as estrogen. Women need estrogen to keep their bones strong and get their period. The amenorrhea is a clue that your body isn't making sufficient estrogen, which, if continued, can put you at risk for developing osteoporosis — even as a young person.
When you're thinking about improving your diet, remember that your body needs healthy forms of carbohydrates, fats, and protein to function well and stay healthy. Balancing these "macronutrients" may sound like a daunting process, but if you break it down to small, manageable goals, even small bites, you could have a better chance for success. You can check out ChooseMyPlate.gov to find more information about balanced eating. Here are some tips to get started:
- Try adding one new food at a time to your daily regimen.
- You might start with a good source of protein: tofu, fish, poultry, meat, or eggs.
- Next, you can add milk (soy or dairy) or yogurt to your cereal. It will help to satisfy your hunger, and provide much needed calcium in your eating plan.
- Add in some vegetables, one at a time.
- Finally, try switching to some whole grains; for example, whole wheat bread or brown rice (instead of the white varieties of each).
- If you feel more comfortable snacking or having several small meals during the day instead of having full meals, that's fine, as long as you have well-balanced food choices.
Although you don't want to tell anyone about your situation, it might just help you feel better about your situation. Perhaps there is a parent, religious leader, guidance counselor, teacher, doctor, nurse, friend, or relative with whom you could speak to help put your body image in perspective. Maybe starting the conversation seems like the most difficult part. If you are nervous about how to start, you can simply write down your symptoms and show someone, like you have here. You may find that talking to someone is less difficult than you expect, and also worthwhile.
Vegetables can be a wonderful source of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that people need to stay healthy. The problem is that preparation can put a damper on the benefits that vegetables provide. In fact, according to the American Dietetic Association (ADA), improper preparation can cut the nutrient content of certain fruits and vegetables in half.
When cooking vegetables in water, some of the nutrient content, especially water-soluble vitamins including vitamins B and C, may leach into the surrounding water. But, as you suggest, using that water (or broth) in a soup or a gravy can, in fact, be a way of saving those nutrients and putting them to good use.
Still, high temperatures and long cooking times can degrade vitamins that are more sensitive to heat. While this is hard to avoid with soups, it is much less of a concern than leached and wasted vitamins.
If you're planning on preparing vegetables to eat alone, you may want to try steaming them briefly until they are crisp and tender. It's almost always best to keep cooking times low: microwaving, steaming, blanching, and stir-frying take the cake when it comes to speed. Also, you may want to eat your veggies raw; salads and crudité are a great way to enjoy fresh vegetables and their full range of nutrients. Generally, the less cooked the better — overcooked vegetables don't only lose nutritional content, they also lose much of their flavor and color. This doesn't mean you should stop adding vegetables to your soup. The ADA recommends that you consume at least 3 to 5 servings of vegetables every day, so it may be a good idea to vary your preparation on a daily basis. Bon apetite!
Dear Pushed too far,
The old axiom, "no pain, no gain," is just that... old and outdated. Pain and soreness aren't valid measures of the benefits of exercise. Muscle soreness can occur with anyone who exercises, from a beginning exerciser embarking on a new program to a conditioned veteran who is working at a greater intensity, frequency, and/or duration than s/he is used to. It frequently happens to well-trained people as they begin a new activity. Muscle soreness may also be a result of overuse, which may eventually lead to injury. It's important to listen to your body and seek treatment for injuries.
Meeting goals in terms of developing strength or endurance needs to be the focus of any exercise program. Well-defined goals guide results that you are able to attain through gradual behavior change. Examples: I want to be able to do 20 push-ups; I want to be able to run a 10K by the end of the year, etc. Goals are specific and measurable and can be useful in guiding any training program. Soreness can be a consequence of working toward a training goal, but should not be a goal in and of itself.
You write: "I think it's kind of odd that he bases his progress on how sore his clients are." It's important to consider who is looking for the progress here: you the client or the trainer? Your development and achievement should be the trainer's first concern. Some trainers feel the way a client looks or how much s/he can lift is a direct reflection of her or his ability. Does it make sense for you to have a conversation with your trainer about your concerns? You may want to reference Selecting and Effectively Using a Personal Trainer, developed by The American College of Sports Medicine. If you are a Columbia student, you can contact the Dodge Fitness Center to set up an appointment with personal trainer.
Since soreness is not a reliable indicator of a "good" workout, it sounds your trainer may need a little training. Best of luck toning up!
Dear Fat Frat Guy,
You write that you're sitting around the frat house bored. It sounds as though you may have more time to fit in activity than you realize. Exercise doesn't always need to be a long, intensive workout. Short, frequent bouts can be just as effective as longer ones. Why not go out for a walk? Does your frat house have weights in the basement or other area? Taking advantage of exercise equipment is a great idea, but if there isn't any available, jumping rope between sets of push-ups and sit-ups, in your room or a living room or den, can help alleviate boredom.
If these ideas aren't possible, or you still need some suggestions to resist snacking, a few questions to ask yourself may help. First of all, are you actually hungry? When was the last time you ate? Could you put off eating for 15 minutes? If you can wait 15 minutes and then see how you feel, you may decide that you really weren't hungry after all, or you may even forget all about that snack. If you don't and still want to eat — try to quantify your hunger.
Consider the Hunger and Fullness scale. On a scale from 0 - 10, with 0 being BEYOND HUNGRY as though you haven't eaten in an entire day (not recommended) and 10 representing BEYOND FULL as if you ate three Thanksgiving dinners — again not recommended, see where your hunger or fullness falls:
|1||Extremely hungry, irritable, and cranky|
|3||You have a strong urge to eat, but aren't ready to fall over.|
|4||Just a little hungry|
|5||Totally neutral... neither hungry nor full|
|6||You are a notch past neutral — you could eat more but aren't hungry|
|7||You are feeling satisfied. If you stopped eating at this point, you would need to eat again in about 4 - 4½ hrs.|
|8||You are getting pretty full. If you stopped eating at this level, you would probably get hungry again in 5 - 6 hours.|
|9||You are getting really full, and uncomfortable.|
One way to use this scale is to try to rate your feelings of hunger and fullness. You have to work on paying attention to your body's signals. Make an agreement with yourself that you will eat when your hunger is at 3, and stop eating when you reach 7. If you can ask yourself how you are feeling before taking a snack, you may be able to alleviate or at least cut down on boredom eating. Remember, food's for nutrition and nourishment. If another part of yourself needs nourishment, it's important to figure out what that is and create other ways of meeting that need. Excessive snacking often catches up with us in the form of excess pounds, as you have found. If you repeatedly find yourself eating when you aren't hungry, or when you are no longer hungry, you probably don't need those excess calories.
So, once you realize that you aren't hungry, there are probably a ton of things you can do to pass the time. Getting off your duff and moving your body — somewhere further away from the kitchen — would be a good start!
First off, it's not clear if you are running on an indoor or outdoor track. For the sake of this answer, let's assume you run outdoors when you do your track runs. There may be some slight physical differences between how your body expends energy running on a track versus a treadmill.
- The treadmill belt offers some help by pulling your feet back underneath your body, so you are potentially exerting less energy to move your feet and legs than if you were not on a treadmill. However, running stride may change depending on jogging geography. Studies have shown that many runners shift their stride when running on a treadmill. There is a chance that these changes may contribute to your slumping stamina. Subconscious attempts to correct balance on the revolving surface of the treadmill may also cause a runner to increase the amount of time his or her support leg is in contact with the belt, which, in turn, may decrease his or her forward lean. This may result in a runner spending more energy on moving up and down rather than forward, potentially leading to a quicker sap on energy.
- When you run indoors on a treadmill, you do not have to overcome wind resistance. The lack of wind means you'll spend less energy running four miles on a treadmill than you will when you run four miles outdoors. However, it may depend on how fast you are running. For the average person, running five to nine miles per hour (mph) will result in little difference. Some studies say outdoor running expends up to five percent more calories; if you run faster than nine mph, running outdoors could utilize up to ten percent more calories because you are working harder against wind resistance. Other studies say there's no difference. One study demonstrated the way to balance energy use between indoor and outdoor running is to set the treadmill at an incline (or grade) of one percent.
- Running indoors maintains or offers stable elements. Runners not only avoid wind, but also other potential natural elements, such as cold air, rain, or sand (if you run on a beach), which demand extra energy. The stability offered by a treadmill, however, does not necessarily mimic reality. On a treadmill you consistently run at the same pace. When outside, you may subconsciously slow down as your body tires, allowing you to run farther since you're exerting less energy. If you haven't already done so, use a stopwatch to measure your outdoor running speed to see if this is the case.
- Running on a treadmill versus pavement (the composition of the track surface you run on is unclear) provides a softer surface, making it a little easier for your joints. People with knee pain or soreness might opt for a treadmill versus the road outside for this reason.
- Though running on a treadmill may offer these benefits plus others, the psychological benefits of running au naturel may be contributing to your feelings of fatigue. Psychological cues from running outdoors, such as feeling wind against your face or gaining motivation from running with or around other people may make runners feel like they're making progress. On a treadmill, there is also the option to track the distance, speed, and other characteristics of your workout which may subconsciously cause you to feel tired ("wow, I'm running really fast/far!").
Your boredom theory may certainly be contributing to feeling like you're running on empty. Without the need to worry about navigating different paths, terrains, or natural elements, treadmill runners may have more of an opportunity to think about how tired they are. Some people find that being distracted may help them fight this and run for a longer duration. Sports and exercise psychologists often refer to the "distraction hypothesis" as an explanation for the stress/anxiety reducing effects of exercise. Running, in this case, gives someone a time-out from daily stressors or worries by diverting attention. Some people enjoy running on a treadmill because they can watch television, listen to music, or just zone out and run. Others prefer running outdoors because they are distracted by the scenery, other people, the weather, varying terrain, and/or avoiding traffic.
The next time you run on a treadmill, if possible, position yourself in front of a television or listen to your favorite music to test this "distraction hypothesis." See if you can run for a longer period of time. Other factors that contribute to how a person feels when s/he runs include the food(s) s/he has eaten, how well s/he has slept, and/or whether or not s/he is properly hydrated. Every day is a different day for our bodies, but if someone is a consistent runner and has fairly consistent lifestyle behaviors, it may be that their enjoyment of the outdoors is what fuels their running. Though track and treadmill running both offer many of the same benefits, finding out what works best in your workout routine will lead to a more satisfying experience.