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If the brain goes hungry, sweets look a lot better, a study led by researchers at Yale University and the University of Southern California has found.
Brain imaging scans show that when glucose levels drop, an area of the brain known to regulate emotions and impulses loses the ability to dampen desire for high-calorie food, according to the study published online September 19 in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
"Our prefrontal cortex is a sucker for glucose," said Rajita Sinha, the Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry, and professor in the Department of Neurobiology and the Yale Child Study Center, one of the senior authors of the research.
The Yale team manipulated glucose levels intravenously and monitored changes in blood sugar levels while subjects were shown pictures of high-calorie food, low-calorie food and non-food as they underwent fMRI scans.
When glucose levels drop, an area of the brain called the hypothalamus senses the change. Other regions called the insula and striatum associated with reward are activated, inducing a desire to eat, the study found. The most pronounced reaction to reduced glucose levels was seen in the prefrontal cortex. When glucose is lowered, the prefrontal cortex seemed to lose its ability to put the brakes upon increasingly urgent signals to eat generated in the striatum. This weakened response was particularly striking in the obese when shown high-calorie foods.
03:50 PM on 9/14/2011
A good book to read about why we eat what we eat is "Good to Eat" by Marvin Harris. It offers some excellent theories about why a culture finds some foods good and others repellent, yet another one sees the same foods opposite in appeal. One of my long-time faves.
09:31 PM on 9/14/2011
Well another thing is you don’t get parasites if you don’t eat meat. I started eating a lot of meat recently (delivery) which probably had it’s fair share of parasites in it. Eczema began to flare up on me in which I hadn’t had an outbreak this severe in years. I did the math and obviously the food was to blame. I notice as I switched back to mostly rice, noodles and grains as I was on before the symptoms are subsiding.
So you don’t have to give up food entirely during your fast, just don’t eat meat for a few weeks. I already feel lighter and more energetic. More hungry yes, but not as heavy. Once you stop eating meat the parasites will die and exit through the colon without any drama.
05:54 PM on 9/14/2011
So you suggest starving yourself for three days as a solution. Right. That’s healthy.
04:29 PM on 9/14/2011
Parasites are a big part of our food cravings. Not popular in the ‘kill em all’ age of Antibiotics, but we have symbiotic relationships with a large variety of microorganisms.
Sugar cravings from Candida and friends, fat cravings from other oganisms.
400 types of bacteria live in our mouths. If we do ‘Oil Pulling’ we reduce their impact on our health and dietary cravings.
If we go organic to avoid the antibiotics in commercial meat products we will have a chance for natural cravings to grow.
A simple way to overcome addiction to certain foods is to go on a water fast for 3 days. This is not a question for researchers or doctors. It is for you to answer with your own fork.
04:38 PM on 9/14/2011
a more positive reaction after listening to depressing music and looking at sad faces…hmmm
04:42 PM on 9/14/2011
It’s all about your mentality, basically you can think yourself thin, kind of like ‘the secret’
http://www.fourgreensteps.com/infozone/lifestyle-health/mind-over-matter-does-thinking-your-fat-lead-to-obesity
11:34 PM on 9/14/2011
what sam knox said.
05:31 AM on 9/15/2011
Too bad you feel this way. Counseling, psychotherapy and education is not snake oil and it’s a shame you can’t tell the difference. Therapeutic Psychogenics is a collection of techniques of psychotherapy, "made up" by countless mental health professionals, including me.
Posting comments here has helped many people, judging by the mail I get. I think posting to help others is a good idea. More should post with that goal in mind. The world and the Huffpost would be a better place.
08:14 PM on 9/14/2011
Did you really discover "Therapeutic Psychogenics", or did you make it up?
It would be easier to take you seriously if you didn’t always post comments on dietary articles that are such blatant advertisements for your weight-loss snake oil.
04:55 PM on 9/14/2011
You’ve got part of it right. Compulsive eating is the number one most difficult addictive-type behavior to get under control. You’ve got some of the "whys" right, but knowing why doesn’t really help that much, and the truth is, we can succeed even if we never find out "why?"
Your suggestions may be helpful to some, but your ideas here never helped me when I was overweight and fall far short of what will help the clients who have come to me for help.
I’m a psychotherapist and addictions counselor who lost 140 lbs. after 25 years of obesity and failure when I discovered Therapeutic Psychogenics, a comprehensive collection of eclectic technique. I’ve been successful keeping it off since 1985 and I’ve been successfully teaching others and writing extensively about it.
Here’s one of my blog articles about how to kill a craving: http://theandersonmethod.com/blog/page/4/ On other blog pages and the "news" page you’ll find a number of articles addressing various aspects of the problem and successful treatment.
Best wishes,
William Anderson, LMHC
Author of ‘The Anderson Method – Secrets of Permanent Weight Loss’
http://www.TheAndersonMethod.com
08:16 PM on 9/14/2011
They do look good. Torture.
05:01 PM on 9/14/2011
Darn. I thought I’d get a recipe for those great looking cinnamon rolls.
I guess I’m on the wrong thread…hungry…
11:33 PM on 9/14/2011
if you liked it you might…
06:27 PM on 9/14/2011
You’re sure if one ingested sawdust regularly, one would soon be craving it? I’m equally sure you’re wrong.
06:08 PM on 9/14/2011
Saw dust, are you kidding? I disagree. I crave carrots at times and feel it is a biological need from the brain. That comment really cooks my carrots. LOL pun intended.
06:27 PM on 9/14/2011
I’m glad you put "common sense" in quotation marks.
05:52 PM on 9/14/2011
The science disagrees with you "common sense" intuitive analysis.
05:13 PM on 9/14/2011
I think one tends to crave whatever one habitually consumes. It’s basic physiology.
The body grows attached to what it’s consuming--no matter what it is. I’m sure if you ingested sawdust regularly, you would soon be craving it and wanting your hit of sawdust every day.
05:52 PM on 9/14/2011
Why would anyone want to "cure" these instinctive urges? They’re a much needed, valuable part of our intrinsic nature. Yield to temptation…it may not pass your way again.
05:53 PM on 9/14/2011
I have that problem with fish and tomatoes rather than sweets. I get these tremendous cravings for them. I could eat a whole container of cherry tomatoes in one sitting.
12:39 PM on 9/15/2011
Sounds about right to me!
02:35 AM on 9/15/2011
Agreed. The body will tell you what it’s needing at nearly every given time if you know how to listen. It’s not too far off from when you’re dehydrated to crave water with a massive thirst. Drink a can of soda and you’re still craving more liquid. Dieting and craving that bacon cheeseburger? You’re needing fat. The HUGEST thing I’ve noticed is when people keep eating and eating and never really feel satisfied. Try a THICK slice of meat and see if your craving more of those potato chips. Like most healthy kids. They only eat as much as they need. Give your body what it needs, when it needs it and you really don’t crave anything.
06:42 PM on 9/14/2011
And sometimes we crave what our bodies are telling us we need. If you’ve been working all day and perspiring, you might find yourself craving salt because your body is low on it. If you’re anemic, you may find yourself craving red meat. Not all cravings are bad ones.
09:22 PM on 9/14/2011
Not that simple. Depends on geography and a myriad of factors. I recently switched jobs, due to working longer hours (for higher pay) I am more restricted to what’s around the immediate vicinity of my workplace and home. Used to have the time to stop at the healthier Asian grocery store (about 1 mi from my house, down the hill) but now I have to stop at the Waldbaum’s (1500 feet away) due to time constraints. Their selection is crap.
Can I make the effort to time manage and get around this? Yes. However, it will take time. Adjusting to a new job isn’t easy so it will take me a few months to get back on track. Old job paid crap but had fruit trucks galore. Had bananas and oranges everyday. This one has nothing but crap restaurants that deep fry even just simple dishes.
Manhattan is known for good food but it really depends on what part. And forget about exercise. I work 9 hours with basically no lunch break and the job is highly sedentary. Add in the commute and I have no free time (if I want to sleep). Thank god I have a naturally fast metabolism but that obviously won’t save me from heart disease so I do take Omega-3s.
Sometimes bad habits are purely a product of your situation. I live in the city where there is walking so imagine in the mid-west where you drive everywhere. Even more impossible for them.
06:44 PM on 9/14/2011
eat right and exercise. that is literally the correct answer to every fitness question asked in every article on this website. there should be one article on fitness and it should just say "eat right and exercise." stop trying to explain away bad habits.
02:04 PM on 9/14/2011
Now I know why I crave that pizza all the time..
02:36 PM on 9/14/2011
Uh……because we hungry?
03:19 PM on 9/14/2011
The time is ALWAYS 4:20 at my house. Peace.
03:07 PM on 9/14/2011
So I’m not the only one to say the same thing. Happy smoking & eating.
02:58 PM on 9/14/2011
There’s no mystery for me; weed is the reason I crave the food I crave.