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".
Labels: Food reward
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.
Labels: Food reward, overweight, presentations
[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.]
Labels: Food reward, overweight
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.
Labels: evolution, Food reward, hyperphagia, overweight, paleolithic diet
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.
Labels: Food reward, hyperphagia, overweight
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.
Labels: book review, Food reward, overweight
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