Sources of Good Health: Food reward

Home / Food reward

Showing posts with label Food reward. Show all posts

Tuesday, 7 July 2015

Princess Health and What Properties Make a Food "Addictive"?. Princessiccia

Although the concept of food addiction remains controversial, there's no doubt that specific foods can provoke addiction-like behaviors in susceptible people. Yet not all foods have this effect, suggesting that it's related to specific food properties. A new study aims to identify the properties that make a food "addictive".

Introduction

Read more �

Saturday, 22 February 2014

Princess Health and Why Do We Overeat? A Neurobiological Perspective. Princessiccia

Gusty 16:15 Add Comment

I just posted a narrated Powerpoint version of my talk "Why Do We Overeat? A Neurobiological Perspective" to YouTube. Here's the abstract:

In the United States, the "obesity epidemic" has paralleled a gradual increase in daily calorie intake. Why do we eat more than we used to, and more than we need to remain lean-- despite negative consequences? This talk reviews the neurobiology of eating behavior, recent changes in the US food system, and why the brain's hardware may not be up to the task of constructively navigating the modern food environment.

This is the same talk I gave at the University of Virginia this January. I had a number of people request it, so here it is:

Why Do We Overeat? A Neurobiological Perspective

This is one of my favorite talks, and it was very well received at UVA. If you find it informative, please share it!

Monday, 2 September 2013

Princess Health and Is Refined Carbohydrate Addictive?. Princessiccia

Food reward overweight

Gusty 16:03 Add Comment

[Note: in previous versions, I mixed up "LGI" and "HGI" terms in a couple of spots. These are now corrected. Thanks to readers for pointing them out.]

Recently, a new study was published that triggered an avalanche of media reports suggesting that refined carbohydrate may be addictive:

Refined Carbs May Trigger Food Addiction
Refined Carbs May Trigger Food Addictions
Can You be Addicted to Carbs?
etc.

This makes for attention-grabbing headlines, but in fact the study had virtually nothing to do with food addiction. The study made no attempt to measure addictive behavior related to refined carbohydrate or any other food, nor did it aim to do so.

So what did the study actually find, why is it being extrapolated to food addiction, and is this a reasonable extrapolation? Answering these questions dredges up a number of interesting scientific points, some of which undermine popular notions of what determines eating behavior.

Read more �

Tuesday, 7 May 2013

Princess Health and The Neurobiology of the Obesity Epidemic. Princessiccia

evolution Food reward hyperphagia overweight paleolithic diet

Gusty 19:00 Add Comment

I recently read an interesting review paper by Dr. Edmund T. Rolls titled "Taste, olfactory and food texture reward processing in the brain and the control of appetite" that I'll discuss in this post (1). Dr. Rolls is a prolific neuroscience researcher at Oxford who focuses on "the brain mechanisms of perception, memory, emotion and feeding, and thus of perceptual, memory, emotional and appetite disorders." His website is here.

The first half of the paper is technical and discusses some of Dr. Rolls' findings on how specific brain areas process sensory and reward information, and how individual neurons can integrate multiple sensory signals during this process. I recommend reading it if you have the background and interest, but I'm not going to cover it here. The second half of the paper is an attempt to explain the obesity epidemic based on what he knows about the brain and other aspects of human biology.

Read more �

Sunday, 28 April 2013

Princess Health and Food Variety, Calorie Intake, and Weight Gain. Princessiccia

Food reward hyperphagia overweight

Gusty 19:00 Add Comment

Let's kick off this post with a quote from a 2001 review paper (1):

Increased variety in the food supply may contribute to the development and maintenance of obesity. Thirty-nine studies examining dietary variety, energy intake, and body composition are reviewed. Animal and human studies show that food consumption increases when there is more variety in a meal or diet and that greater dietary variety is associated with increased body weight and fat.

This may seem counterintuitive, since variety in the diet is generally seen as a good thing. In some ways, it is a good thing, however in this post we'll see that it can have a downside.
Read more �

Monday, 22 April 2013

Princess Health and Book Review: Salt, Sugar, Fat. Princessiccia

book review Food reward overweight

Gusty 19:00 Add Comment

Michael Moss is a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist who has made a career writing about the US food system. In his latest book, Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, he attempts to explain how the processed food industry has been so successful at increasing its control over US "stomach share". Although the book doesn't focus on the obesity epidemic, the relevance is obvious. Salt, Sugar, Fat is required reading for anyone who wants to understand why obesity is becoming more common in the US and throughout the world.

Read more �

Wednesday, 27 February 2013

Princess Health and Your Brain on Potato Chips. Princessiccia

Food reward

Gusty 19:00 Add Comment

Or, more accurately, a rat's brain on potato chips. Last week, PLoS One published a very interesting paper by Dr. Tobias Hoch and colleagues on what happens in a rat's brain when it is exposed to a highly palatable/rewarding food (1). Rats, like humans, overconsume highly palatable foods even when they're sated on less palatable foods (2), and feeding rats a variety of palatable human junk foods is one of the most effective ways to fatten them (3). Since the brain directs all behaviors, food consumption is an expression of brain activity patterns. So what is the brain activity pattern that leads to the overconsumption of a highly palatable and rewarding food?

Read more �

Monday, 25 February 2013

Princess Health and Salt Sugar Fat. Princessiccia

Food reward

Gusty 19:00 Add Comment

I'd just like to put in a quick word for a book that will be released tomorrow, titled Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, by Pulitzer prize-winning author Michael Moss. This is along the same lines as Dr. David Kessler's book The End of Overeating, which explains how the food industry uses food reward, palatability, and food cues to maximize sales-- and as an unintended side effect, maximize our waistlines. Judging by Moss's recent article in New York Times Magazine, which I highly recommend reading, the book will be excellent. I've pre-ordered it.

Friday, 22 February 2013

Princess Health and Food Reward Friday. Princessiccia

Food reward Food reward Fridays

Gusty 03:00 Add Comment

This week, Food Reward Friday is going to be a little bit different. I've received a few e-mails from people who would like to see me write about some of the less obvious examples of food reward-- foods that are less extreme, but much more common, and that nevertheless promote overeating. Let's face it, even though they're funny and they (sometimes) illustrate the principle, most people reading this blog don't eat banana splits very often, much less pizzas made out of hot dogs.

So this week's "winner" is something many of you have in your houses right now, and which was also the subject of an interesting recent study... potato chips!