SOME LIGHTBULB MOMENTS

A follow-up to my post yesterday...

I did go to the library and checked out "The End of Overeating."  I started reading it this morning.  Already two things popped out at me relating to what I wrote yesterday.  I mentioned that I was anxious about my daughter and I was wanting to eat, even though I wasn't actually hungry. 

Dr. Kessler writes about the power of opiods within the body to calm us and give us pleasure.  The neurons of the brain that are stimulated by taste and other properties of highly desirable foods are part of the body's primary pleasure system.  Studies have shown that there are changes in the circuits of the brain after exposure opiods which cause a desire to keep eating beyond fullness or even being interested in the taste. That the drive, in fact, becomes just slightly less than that for heroin.

Reading that makes me feel pretty good that I only ate a peach!

The second thing was about my dislike for the focus on mocking up foods - like making "mock" mashed potatoes. Or tying to mimic the taste of a candy bar with a bunch of artificial flavors in a protein drink.

I have only read one chapter so far about the food industry, but it is very damning.  the amount of effort that is made to layer fat on fat and add salt and sugar into everything is just disgusting.  And Dr. Kessler names names - Cheesecake Factory, Chili's, Outback and more.  Foods have been manipulated, people have been manipulated - so it is no wonder they are trying to re-create what their brains have been taught to crave.

I will be reading on...