Highway Health: Food Fight

How do you react to the thought of eating?

When you feel you’re getting hungry do you think of food as fuel to keep you going or do you think your next meal is all about that juicy hamburger or piece of cake you can get at the next stop?

Science has always known that there is quite a difference in those thought processes about food and are beginning to relate the differences to individuals who are obese and those who are not.

When we eat, some of us react to the chemicals and hormones that tell us we are full and stop eating. Others “ignore” the signals these chemicals produce but are influenced by smell, taste or the sight of something we like and so we keep on eating.

So, we are divided into two categories, those who eat to survive and those who eat for pleasure.

If you are about normal bodyweight for your size chances are you are a “survival” eater and you listen to your “homeostatic system.” If you are over weight chances are you are a “pleasure” eater and listen to your hedonic system.

Individuals who are “pleasure” eaters seem to have a stronger “need” reaction to sweets and pleasure foods than “survival” eaters.

According to an article, by Melinda Beck in the Wall Street Journal, this very phenomena was tested by researchers at Columbia University in New York. The researchers showed pictures of cakes, pies and other pleasure foods to 10 obese women and 10 women who weren’t obese. The reactions in their brains were monitored on MRI scans.

The greatest response in the obese women occurred in the area of the brain that releases the “pleasure chemical” dopamine. Even when names of pleasure foods were presented it elicited strong reactions in this area of the brain.

In another study at Yale University overweight and normal weight individuals were given chocolate to smell and taste. The overweight subjects had strong reactions in the emotional area of the brain, the amygdale, whether they were hungry or not. Normal weight individuals only had reactions when they were hungry.

Diets high in fats and sugars seem to blunt normal reactions to the food “signals” the digestive tract tries to send to the brain.

A lot of questions still remain in trying to understand why some people have a tendency to eat too much and become overweight and others don’t. There are so many chemicals, hormones, emotions, genetics, learned behaviors and environmental ingredients in the mix that there is no clear picture of cause.

Because of this ongoing research in the next few years you are going to see weight loss drugs that target certain areas of the brain and programs that retrain the brain to think about food in different ways.

In the meantime, remember, it costs about $1500 more per year to be overweight than to be normal body weight. You spend more money on food, medicine, doctors and fuel…yes I said fuel…if you are overweight.

This article shows the intricacies of “battling the bulge.” It’s not easy and it’s not totally understood. But the choices really come down to being healthy or not, enjoying life or not or being ill most of the time.

We are here to help and encourage you to put up the fight. Call us at 888-348-7623 (888-FitnessRoad) or get on the website www.fitnessroad.com. You can also stop and see us at our Wellness Center in Tempe Arizona. We are just two miles east of the I-10 off the Baseline exit.

No matter how you choose to do battle we can help with the programs, products and professionals we have been offering you for over 15 years. There is no question if you need help we have it. It’s your choice it’s our job!

God bless you and yours,

Mick