David Kessler on overeating
Sep. 9th, 2009 02:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deborahjrossI heard about David Kessler's work on overeating -- how the combination of sugar plus fat and salt basically hijacks our brain chemistry -- through the CSPI newsletter. Here is a brief (4 minute) interview.
He asks, what is it about a vanilla milkshake that not only makes us want it, but keeps us consuming when we're no longer hungry? Turns out, sugar is the single most powerful eating-driver, but the effect is turbo-charged if fat is present. Ditto fat and salt ("Do you want cheese on your bacon burger?") The "bet you can't eat just one" phenomenon works by turning on parts of our brain. I'm not at all happy about the food industry setting out to concoct foods that are designed to keep me eating -- and obsessing about eating (which I am so thankful I don't do any more!)
From the CSPI article: dopamine, a neurotransmitter, spikes when something attracts our attention. It stays elevated in response to drugs like cocaine and amphetamines. With food, we expect the spike, followed by habituation -- food attracts our attention when we're hungry but loses the ability as we are satiated. If you combine sugar and fat, the habituation doesn't occur, and the more multisensory elements (not just ice cream -- sugar, fat, cold -- but ice cream with crumbled cookies, nuts, candy bits) the less habituation you get. Even looking at highly palatable foods causes the amygdala (where we process and store memories of emotions) to light up; in other words, in overeaters, the reward circuits of the brain are in overdrive, overriding the body's homeostatic mechanisms.
I don't generally eat commercial snack foods, but I have noticed that my first response to these crunchy salty or gooey sweet things loaded with artificial flavorings is, "Yuck," even as my hand is reaching for the next one. I know I'll feel awful if I eat more, and that's before I hop on the scale the next morning. I wondered what in the taste/texture was so domineering. Now I have a clue.
He asks, what is it about a vanilla milkshake that not only makes us want it, but keeps us consuming when we're no longer hungry? Turns out, sugar is the single most powerful eating-driver, but the effect is turbo-charged if fat is present. Ditto fat and salt ("Do you want cheese on your bacon burger?") The "bet you can't eat just one" phenomenon works by turning on parts of our brain. I'm not at all happy about the food industry setting out to concoct foods that are designed to keep me eating -- and obsessing about eating (which I am so thankful I don't do any more!)
From the CSPI article: dopamine, a neurotransmitter, spikes when something attracts our attention. It stays elevated in response to drugs like cocaine and amphetamines. With food, we expect the spike, followed by habituation -- food attracts our attention when we're hungry but loses the ability as we are satiated. If you combine sugar and fat, the habituation doesn't occur, and the more multisensory elements (not just ice cream -- sugar, fat, cold -- but ice cream with crumbled cookies, nuts, candy bits) the less habituation you get. Even looking at highly palatable foods causes the amygdala (where we process and store memories of emotions) to light up; in other words, in overeaters, the reward circuits of the brain are in overdrive, overriding the body's homeostatic mechanisms.
I don't generally eat commercial snack foods, but I have noticed that my first response to these crunchy salty or gooey sweet things loaded with artificial flavorings is, "Yuck," even as my hand is reaching for the next one. I know I'll feel awful if I eat more, and that's before I hop on the scale the next morning. I wondered what in the taste/texture was so domineering. Now I have a clue.
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Date: 2009-09-09 09:23 pm (UTC)