Monday, September 26, 2011

Notes on Kessler

The End of Overeating -- a book worth reading.

Concepts worth exploring more:

Settling point ... the ultimate value of the body weight/time graph for as given diet, but that is actually a slope, not as finite value, as something like consolidation of soils, and that is what the data look like. Initial or Immediate, Primary, and Secondary.

Settling point is a result of many factors. The drive to eat and the capacity to be satisfied are primary on the input side of the weight equation.

Quantity of serving (grams), concentration of rewarding ingredients (caloric density ?), variety (boring), and dynamic contrast are factors.

Taste stimulates the opioid circuitry, and drives us to eat more, and is a lower brain function, like breathing. Unconsciously responding ok. Yes. That is it. A good  fit to data description of my actual behaviour.

Dopamine drives the appetite - the desire to eat.  No wonder wheat is such a bitch - it provides both opioid and dopamine.

Supernormal stimulus- a stimulus greater than exists in nature, new to the human species, cheaper making it available to all - the greed drive provide by nature - but now we have unnatural foods. Now wonder the obesity response happened to at this time. Some of us were the early adopters, the canaries in the mine. And all this is just unconscious responding to food stimulus.

More to come

1 comment :

  1. I think two things are going on. One, our brains evolved in times of food scarcity and fight or flight. Industrial food pings multiple appetite systems in a way that stimulates overeating.

    At the same time, if this happens more than it did for Grok (i.e., a irregular feast), the down stream systems get overloaded and broken. I believe that the biggest damage happens to the liver, as we're essentially feeding it tons of toxins and not giving it the nutrients it needs to do the job.

    I'm not sure if one has to happen before the other, but the combination is definitely a recipe for disaster!

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