Journal #3: The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite

In this portion of the book, Kessler continues on explaining why people are fat. A big part of why we eat is motivated by the brain; it’s a psychological battle, not just a matter of whether we are hungry or not. There are three main components of the brain, in addition to hunger signals, that make us want to eat more. The first is neurons. When we eat, neurons put off signals that make us want to eat more. The second is opiods. Opiods activate pleasure. So when we eat foods that taste and smell good, have a good texture, or signal a happy memory, we want to eat more. And more. Whether we are hungry or not. And the final component is dopamine. Dopamine is what motivates us to food. If we smell Chinese food in the mall, dopamine is what makes us pursue it. Dopamine is what makes multi-sensory (ex. sweet AND salty) foods that much more rewarding. Dopamine is also what conditions us to food. Kessler discusses the traditional study of Pavlov’s dogs. Pavlov rang a bell every time he fed his dogs. Eventually, when Pavlov would ring the bell, even if the dogs were not given food, they salivated. The dogs had become conditioned to the food, or as Kessler defined, “incentive salience: the desire, activated by cues, for something that predicts reward.” Ultimately, dopamine is what causes eating to become a habit.

The main take-home lesson from the effects of dopamine is, as Kessler writes, “Rewarding foods are rewiring our brains. As they do, we become more sensitive to the cues that lead us to anticipate rewarding foods.... [People] cannot control their responses to highly palatable foods because they have been changed by the foods they eat.”

As I’m sure I’ll read once I get deeper into the book, the only solution is to practice eating with conscious. As Kessler showed, humans are prone to keep eating, and keep eating, and keep eating. It’s hardwired into the brain, on so many levels. Is there a way to stop the brain from developing habits that make the body yearn for food? Doubtful. So, it’s clearly up to the consumer to resist succumbing to what the brain wants it to do. The consumer needs to activate the other aspects of the brain, the ones that say, “STOP! You aren’t hungry.” That, or researchers and scientists must develop a substance that can eliminate the effects of dopamine and other food-related chemicals in the brain.