Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Researchers have done it again -- put the scientific stamp on something we all know to be true

Can you build up a tolerance to delicious foods?  That is the question some researchers asked and the answer is exactly the one we all know to be true (honestly, how many times do researchers just validate something we aready know to be true?)

Anyway -- they did their study by feeling people ice cream and using an MRI to watch how the reward center of the brain lights up.  More ice cream = less light up.  More ice cream = less pleasure derived from the ice cream.

One of the struggles many people deal with is the idea that they "love" XYZ food.  They can't say no to it and "must!" eat it when ever it crossed their path (or more likely whenever they have the opportunity to cross it's path).

But I know from my own experience, every food I like has, at times, when I have eaten enough, lost its wonderful flavor.  And I'm not even talking about gallons and gallons of whatever it is.  I am talking about 1 portion that would be only a little embassarsing to share the picture of.

So that leads me to wonder, why, if we claim to LOVE a certain food (or all foods in general) wouldn't we want to do what it takes to maximize the pleasure those foods give us?  The way to do that has been researched -- but we've known it all along (although we might not want to admit it because it blows our excuse for our overeating behavior right out of the water!)

Eat less of what you love.  Eat less of everything.  Pay attention to what you are eating.  Full is not the same thing as satisfied (satisfied happens a lot quicker).

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