The Hungry Brain - Stephan J Guyenet

KeepRunningFatboy

So this book is really enlightening. And I am fascinated by the role of dopamine in learning and reinforcing behaviors. Anyone else read the book, and what are your thoughts on the book as a whole?

So if the hyper-palatable foods can trigger a release of dopamine, can we somehow integrate a Paslov's bell to release the same dopamine when eating spinach or other healthy habits....Can we manipulate dopamine to positively reinforce healthier habits?

kommodevaran

Junk food is easy to eat, easy to like, no other boxes to tick than taste and convenience. It's also associated with reward, celebration, freedom. Healthy food is great if you ditch the ideas of low fat, low carb, low salt - low everything including taste. Traditional meals and recipes are diverse, delightful and healthy. They don't have the same range of flavors and textures as junk food, they are richer and more subtle, so you'll need repeated exposure, good cooking, and an open mind.

KeepRunningFatboy

Good response- I sense that if we approach healthier foods with a positive attitude and mindset, we can reinforce eating more healthy. If we look at exercise and healthy eating as rewards (instead of work or a burden) we can drive more of that behavior...

snowflake954

Let us know how it works out for you.

lemurcat12

On the book, yep, and it makes sense to me.

lemurcat12

On pleasure and food: Back when I focused on changing my diet (around age 30, when I lost 60 lbs), I think I did focus on making eating healthfully rewarding: I started going to farmers markets, reading cookbooks with beautiful pictures of vegetables and related dishes, turned myself into a foodie who loved so called "natural" foods, got into cooking and enjoying homemade food. Although for various reasons I eventually regained (I did not kick the emotional eating, I had a bout with depression, etc.), it took a while, and I found it very easy to focus on cooking and healthy eating again, and do really love and get excited by different foods coming into season and going to the farmers market and all that. I find that for me (not saying this is true for all) when I have a buy-in to eating a particular way, a positive thing (NOT just based on an idea of avoidance or restriction), I tend to want to eat that way, crave the foods I normally am eating. I've been refocusing on mindful eating lately, and that helps too.

So I do think that can be part of it -- as humans there are all these subconscious influences, but we can channel them some.

KeepRunningFatboy

Summary or Conclusions after Reading Book: The Hungry Brain - Stephan J Guyenet

To lose weight: Exercise more and Eat Less.
Foods that include more sugar, fats, and salt seem to be more rewarding.
The more hyper-palatable foods will increase the desirability of and the behavior / habit of eating such foods.
Some persons seem to be more prone to this effect.
A diet that is simpler, more bland, and less rewarding might decrease the intake of calories.
Diets that include more protein (at the expanse of fats) might improve satiety.
Unmanaged stress and the availability of foods high in sugars, and fats (comfort foods) can increase calorie intake. Further stress might drive us to self-medicate on comfort foods.

What can we do individually:
1. Reduce exposure to and availability of foods that are strongly tempting.
2. Choose foods with increased satiety like veggies, fruits, beans, lentils, eggs, potatoes, whole grains.
3. Be careful if prone to the high reward and hyper palatable foods. Instead eat simpler bland foods that are closer to natural state and less dense in calories.
4. Get enough and restorative sleep.
5. Exercise.
6. Manage stress (reduce, eliminate). Try meditation. Replace stress with healthier coping mechanisms.

I really enjoyed the book, found it informative.

Unknown

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KeepRunningFatboy

Yes ! This subject is covered fairly well in the book.

kommodevaran

KeepRunningFatboy wrote: »

Summary or Conclusions after Reading Book: The Hungry Brain - Stephan J Guyenet

To lose weight: Exercise more and Eat Less.
Foods that include more sugar, fats, and salt seem to be more rewarding.
The more hyper-palatable foods will increase the desirability of and the behavior / habit of eating such foods.
Some persons seem to be more prone to this effect.
A diet that is simpler, more bland, and less rewarding might decrease the intake of calories.
Diets that include more protein (at the expanse of fats) might improve satiety.
Unmanaged stress and the availability of foods high in sugars, and fats (comfort foods) can increase calorie intake. Further stress might drive us to self-medicate on comfort foods.

What can we do individually:
1. Reduce exposure to and availability of foods that are strongly tempting.
2. Choose foods with increased satiety like veggies, fruits, beans, lentils, eggs, potatoes, whole grains.
3. Be careful if prone to the high reward and hyper palatable foods. Instead eat simpler bland foods that are closer to natural state and less dense in calories.
4. Get enough and restorative sleep.
5. Exercise.
6. Manage stress (reduce, eliminate). Try meditation. Replace stress with healthier coping mechanisms.

I really enjoyed the book, found it informative.

I agree to all this, but I think it also needs some nuancing and elaboration.
- A simpler, more bland diet can reduce desire to overeat, but a too simple and bland diet will have the opposite effect. Variety is important too. Balance.
- Demonizing/vilifying/over-restricting foods - and especially when being surrounded by and reminded of them at all times - can intensify the desire for those foods.
- I have found having a regular meal pattern very helpful to reduce obsession with food and eating.
- Cooking isn't just a strategy to make meals more nutritionally balanced; if you make food you like, it can be fun and rewarding and empowering too.
- Exactly what to reduce and increase intake of, would depend on how you're already eating, and what you may be lacking. Balance.
- Moderate exercise is good. If it's fun, it's good. Exhausting can be good. Over-exhausting is not good.

kommodevaran

Noel_57 wrote: »

I want to read that book. I was thinking about places where obesity is very rare or nonexistent. The diets in these parts of the world are pretty bland and not with a huge amount of varietey. They basically eat the same foods everyday. Here in the west, we have such an availability and a variety of foods, highly seasoned and hyper palatable. In fact many commercially prepared foods have ingredients added to them just to make them extra flavorful. I I think this is one reason why people overeat. And I suspect this has a lot to do with the rise in obesity.

I think it would be useful to investigate what we think about as "variety". And keep in mind that other people's diet can seem boring and bland; of course - we like what we are used to. IS our modern, commercial, (over)processed food really varied? Or is it just "more of the same"? IS a diet filled with fruit, vegetables, meat and fish, grains and dairy, home cooked, really the same food every day?