Interesting article about ice cream

Wait. So your body thinks ice cream tastes good? And then reacts in a way to process the calories consumed? And is fattening if you eat it over your calorie limit?

Thanks for posting! I needed a serious reminder. I have serious problems denying Ice Cream, so thank you!

Your brain would deliver the same response if you truly enjoyed brocolli. This is the brain's reaction to ANY pleasurable stimulus.

Not really seeing the point of this article.

If only my brain felt this way about broccoli...

http://www.today.com/health/your-brain-body-ice-cream-6C10588116

Before You Dig In

Your brain's pleasure and reward centers light up, prompting you to really crave that mint chocolate chip -- even if you're not very hungry.

Fueling the fire: Your hippocampus, a key memory player, starts reminding you just how good ice cream tastes and how happy you felt the last time you indulged.


After the First Bite

Fat and sugar coat your tongue, igniting your taste buds and alerting the brain, This stuff tastes great! Your noggin churns out dopamine and other feel-good chemicals.

Your pancreas, meanwhile, is squirting out insulin, which moves sugar out of the bloodstream and into your tissues. (That's fine in small doses, but eating sugar too often can lead to a wacky metabolism, weight gain, or diabetes.)

To avoid overeating, your stomach starts releasing appetitecontrolling hormones, like ghrelin and peptide YY. Give them time: In one study, people who spent 30 minutes lingering over their ice cream felt fuller than those who ate the same amount in five minutes.

After a Few Minutes

Sensing the cold, your brain tries to warm itself. Enter a sudden, sometimes painful rush of blood through your head's main artery -- a.k.a. brain freeze. (Holding your tongue to the roof of your mouth can help.)

After an Hour

Protein, fat, and carbs are filling your body's quick-energy stores -- but only if you worked out earlier. If you didn't, those stores might be full, so your fat cells absorb the 300-plus calories instead.


The Next Day, and the Next. . .

Treating yourself now and then can amp up your mood, but research shows that slurping ice cream four or five times a week can dull the pleasure, causing people to eat more to get the same sense of satisfaction.

Before you scoop, look at your serving ware. One study found that people subconsciously helped themselves to 31 percent more ice cream when using a larger dish, and ate 15 percent more when the serving spoon was larger.


Sources: Linda Bartoshuk, Ph.D., University of Florida; Kyle S. Burger, Ph.D., Oregon Research Institute; Philipp Scherer, Ph.D., The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Who lingers over ice cream for 30 minutes? lol