Behavior Begins In the Brain

SUMMARY:

 

The typical Standard American Diet (aptly abbreviated as SAD) is filled with an overabundance of high-calorie, highly processed, high-glycemic, pro-inflammatory, low fiber, and artificially colored, flavored, and sweetened foods that leaves more and more of us battling to drop our unwanted pounds. 

 

 

SAD has not only hijacked our waistlines, but it has also hijacked our brains. 

 

 

This is done by:

 

 

The purposeful manipulation of the fat, sugar, and 

salt found in our modern foods. 

 

 

This manipulation impacts our brains in ways that make it down-right difficult for us to make healthier food choices.  And, without the ability to choose healthier food, we struggle to be successful at our weight loss attempts. Here we look at what’s going on with what many are calling “toxic and obesogenic” food environments.

 

 

For right now, so we don’t get lost in the deep details and complexities of

how our brains work, and so what follows really resonates with you,

it is sufficient to say:

 

– Our brains control our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

 

-and-
 

– With enough repetition, we can re-wire our brains to make the behavior we desire automatic.

 

But We Can't Trust Our Brains

Food companies, in an effort to optimize their profits, go to great lengths to develop their products.  Their processes rely on the scientific literature coming out of the fields of neuroscience and psychology that show how our brains get addicted.  Therefore, their processes are geared towards addicting us. 
 
Many employ “Crave-ability Experts”.  These are scientists whose sole job is to engineer foods in such a way as to intentionally addict us so the food company can sell us more of their product.  I have heard it described as being akin to what the tobacco industry did back in the day when smoking was “in”.  Their focus is on finding the “bliss point” of foods.
 
The bliss point happens when food manufacturers manipulate
a product’s fat, sugar, and salt content until
 
just the right amount of these compounds triggers all our taste buds together
and activates the pleasure receptors in our brains.
 
This, my friends and fellow health seekers, is evil.

A food at its bliss point will make you feel that the amount of:

 

– saltiness

– sweetness

– and richness from the fat

 

is just perfect

This perfect point of irresistibility is what makes us reach

for more, and more, and more, and more.

 

If you’ve ever found yourself unable to stop eating highly-processed foods, this is why.

Not being able to stop eating has

absolutely nothing to do with a lack

of self control or a weak will. 

 

You’re human, with a human brain, so this over-indulging is what happens. 

 

It is normal behavior.

 

Your brain released dopamine (the happy hormone) and you felt good.

 

Your brain told you to keep eating,
even if you were full,
because your brain’s reward zone
got hijacked. 
 
And, overtime, in order for us to get the same feel good feelings (a dopamine rush),
we have to eat more and more. 
 
When we eat more and more, our
brain thins out its receptors to

adapt to the overload of dopamine.

This is known as down-regulation. 
 
And, it actually changes the physiology of our brains.
 
We end up needing more of the food,
just not to get the dopamine rush,
but to actually feel normal and okay.
 

 Most people don’t think of the very real pull towards these

foods as addiction but that’s what’s happening.

 

We get addicted to all the wrong kinds of food.

 

People even feel withdrawal if they don’t get the food. 

Highly-Processed Food

Also Bypasses

Our Normal

Fullness Mechanisms

The not-feeling-full sensation brings us to the area of our brains known as the hippocampus. 
 
This is where one of our major memory centers resides. 
And, it’s the area responsible for regulating our appetites.
 
 
Consuming high fat foods and high amounts of added sugar
(what SAD offers)

 

– even if only for one week

 

deteriorates our hippocampus function and leaves us with:

 

– Increased desire to eat more

junk food

 

– Insatiable hunger even if we

have just eaten

 

-and-
 

– Decreased performance

on memory tests 

We end up in a vicious circle of eating

highly-processed food,

impairing our hippocampus function

and appetite control, so we crave more

highly-processed food which further impairs

our brain function and appetite control,

and so on, and so on…

In Summary

We now know we can’t trust our brains because they are being manipulated by food manufacturers who bliss point their highly-processed offerings.  We end up seeking out and over-consuming foods that are not helpful to us – even when we are sincerely trying NOT to eat these foods because they’ve been purposely engineered to addict us.  If you’ve ever tried sticking to a diet when highly-processed foods were around, you know, firsthand, how difficult it is to resist them. 

We also now know that eating too much fat and added sugar (what SAD provides), even if only for one week, damages our hippocampus – our appetite control goes right out the window.  We are left with insatiable hunger.  Is it any wonder why we find ourselves with high obesity and chronic illness rates that continue to rise?  Just saying.

 

 

The news gets worse.

(Please don’t shoot the messenger).

 

There’s yet another factor that’s driving our eating behavior. 

 

And, it has to do with our hormones insulin and leptin.

 

Let's Talk About Insulin First

 Our bodies need glucose to function on a cellular level.

 

Glucose is the basic fuel our cells use to make energy, and it comes from the food we eat.

 

Although we measure glucose in our blood, it can only be put to work and transformed into energy once it gets into our cells.  So, insulin, which is a hormone made by the pancreas, gets released after we eat so glucose can get into our cells.

 

Insulin tells our bodies to either use the glucose now for energy or store it for future use. 

In this way, insulin is responsible for maintaining our blood glucose levels.

 

And, ideally, we want them in a normal range where they are

neither too low (hypoglycemia) or too high (hyperglycemia).

 

If we are eating the Standard American Diet, 

we are eating too much:

 

– saturated fat


– added sugar


– salt

 

-and-

 

– quickly digested,


high glycemic carbohydrates

 

Over consuming these kinds of carbohydrates leads to higher spikes in our blood glucose.  And, overtime, these spikes can increase insulin resistance and spur the development of both obesity and diabetes.


Insulin resistance is the resistance to the hormone insulin where glucose can’t enter the cells easily so it builds up in the blood.


With diabetes, glucose is not able to travel to the cells due to lack of insulin, or because of insulin resistance, so


too much glucose remains in the blood.

the real shame of it Is:

Because our bodies try to keep blood glucose in a normal range, its first response – when we are eating the typical SAD – is to secret more insulin.

 

Secreting more insulin has led to:

 

“Our baseline insulin levels being too high — in all of us. 

 

We’re talking AVERAGE levels, not just spikes that come when

we have one snack out of the vending machine.” [1]

 

But, wait…there’s more… stay with me here…

 

High Insulin Causes Other Issues

We have known for awhile now that obesity is tied to excess insulin. 

 

But, “excess insulin also blocks leptin.

 

Leptin is a hormone that is released from our fat cells.

 

 

It’s job is to signal to our brains to stop eating and get active.

 

High insulin levels block our brains from detecting the leptin that is circulating in our blood.

 

When our brain can’t detect leptin, our brains think we are perpetually starving.

 

Our brains will never believe it is safe to stop eating and start moving. 

 

We find ourselves experiencing

overpowering cravings, mindlessly

putting foods into our mouths, all day,

without any ability to get feedback

from our body telling us it

doesn’t need anymore food.” [2]

 

 

The Bottom Line Is:

We are eating foods that are causing our insulin to rise. 
 
Increased insulin blocks leptin. 
 
Blocked leptin makes our brains think we are starving.
 

What do starving people do? 

  
They eat!
 
And what are they eating?
 
The very foods that keep insulin levels elevated in the first place.
 
This, my friends, is why we find it difficult, if not impossible,
to lose weight and then keep it off long-term.
 

To Break These Cycles We Have To Stop

Eating The Foods That Are Keeping

Our Bodies Working Against Us

But how do we do that when our brains are causing us to engage

in behaviors that seek out the foods they crave?

 

First of all, if you’re anything like me, just knowing you’re purposely being

controlled and manipulated at the expense of your health,

just so some company can profit, really disgusts and angers me.

 
You can think about it this way:
 

If someone in your inner circle was purposely controlling and manipulating you,

at the expense of your health, and simply for their financial gain,

you’d put a stop to that immediately.

 

So, why allow food manufacturers to do this to you?

 

  

Using anger to foster positive change is one tactic, but the

absolute key to changing our eating behavior is:

  

Getting our brains out of the equation altogether

We do this by repeating desired behaviors over and over,

until we get to the point where our choices become automatic.

 

 

When our choices become automatic,

we have successfully re-wired our brain.

 

 

With re-wired brains, we are engaging in behaviors that

are a matter of habit, rather than a matter of choice.

 

This is key.

And Getting Choice Out Of The Process

Means We No Longer Have

To Rely On Our Will

To Power Us Through

 

This is great news because:

 

Willpower, which is the ability to resist short-term temptations

in order to meet long-term goals, is not infinite.

 

And, according to some researchers

like Roy Baumeister, it is subject to depletion. 

 

In fact, most of us only have about 15

minutes of it at any given time.

 

Just as a battery drains with each use,

our will power diminishes with

every single decision we make throughout the day,

even if those decisions aren’t about food. [3]

 

And, check this out:

 

Willpower does more than just

help us resist temptations.

 

it also governs things like:

 

– Our ability to focus,

– It monitors our task performance,

– It regulates our emotions,

– and –

– It helps us make choices

 

Every time we exert ourselves in one of these areas

of our lives, we use up our will power. [4]

 

So, with willpower governing all these

things, it is easy to see how, at any

given point throughout our day,

we may not have any of it at all. 

 

So, with hijacked brains, unbalanced hormones, and low-to-no willpower, it is very likely that when we are hungry, tired, bored, stressed, or any combination thereof, we are going to choose what is fast, easy, and convenient.

 

But, choosing what is fast, easy, and convenient, brings us right

back to the Standard American Diet (SAD).

 

But, SAD sets off processes in our bodies that then cripples our ability to make healthier food choices, making it all the more vital that we rely on automatic habits, and not choices, when we are determining what to eat.

 

Make no mistake about that, better and healthier habits 

that become automatic are our way out.

 

And, there is a process that works – I promise!

 

If you’d like to jump straight to the process I teach, you can do so here.

To Quickly Recap:

 

The Standard American (SAD) diet is full of highly and ultra-processed, man-made, food-like offerings that contain excess amounts of fat, sugar, and salt that have been purposely manipulated to make them very hard for us to resist. 

 

Specifically, these offerings contain pro-inflammatory vegetable oils, MSG, sugar, several artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, and chemicals that most of us have no idea how to pronounce, let alone know and understand what they are and what they do to our bodies. 

 

SAD damages our brains and our bodies by:

 

– Addicting us to all the wrong kinds of foods.

– Hijacking our hormones and our brains.

– Ruining our satiety feedback mechanisms.

 

Additionally, the Standard American diet is deficient in:

 

– Fiber

– Antioxidants

-and-

– Phytochemicals

 

That are needed for normal:

 

– Immune function,

– For maximizing brain health,

 

-and-

 

For protecting us against:

 

– Obesity and overweight,

– Chronic illness,

– Cancer,

– Dementia,

-and-

– Premature aging.  [5]

 

The bottom line?

 

It is in our best interest to stop eating 

the Standard American diet.

 

Oftentimes, we find ourselves in a loop of wanting to get healthier, we start to make changes, then we get pulled back into making unhelpful choices because our hijacked brains and our unbalanced hormones are calling the shots. 

 

Then, we find the strength to restart, only to get sucked backed into choosing unhelpful foods again because our modern foods are purposely designed for this to occur.

 

Sadly, as we go through this cycle, our health can suffer,

we can lose hope, and our spirits can get crushed.

 

I have been there myself.

I know how frustrating and demoralizing this can be,

and I have seen it over and over again with others.

 

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

What's The Fix?

 

Focusing on making our healthy food choices automatic is job one. 

 

We have to set up our environments and our routines to ensure our food choice behavior is on auto-pilot.  This takes the part of our brain that governs in-the-moment choice out of the equation. 

 

Once we do that, and are in the habit of consistently choosing real, whole foods, while minimizing, and eventually eliminating unhelpful foods, we have the solution.

 

 

Out goes the highly-processed and unhealthy foods of the Standard American diet and in comes

 

healing real, whole foods.

 

Then, with healed bodies and brains, we get free

because we are much more willing, and able, to choose healthier food.

 

 

This is because we are no longer being pestered by

our hijacked brains and driven by our wonky

insulin levels to seek out and consume unhelpful foods.

 

We are less vulnerable to the temptations

that typically derail us.

 

One healthier food choice turns into two, two turns into a few, a few turns into a

week, a few weeks turn into a month, and so on and so forth.

 

It is NOT any more complicated than this. 

 

It all starts with putting the process I teach into place, tweaking it to account

for your particular life’s circumstances, and then following it so your new behaviors become automatic.

 

And, I promise you – my hand to God – it works! 

 

I’ve seen its success time and time again.  I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t!  

 

All you have to do is contact me because I will teach you the process!

 

And then, looking great, feeling great, and functioning better keeps you going

until one day you realize you’re a year into your new way of eating,

and you’ve successfully turned your good choices

into permanent, healthier behaviors and habits.

 

You’ve re-wired your brain!

 

How great does that sound?

Pretty darn great!

 
If you value your health, and I know you do,
you have to move away from eating the Standard American Diet.
 
Learn about and sign up for your free Compatibility Call here.
 
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An Update On Willpower Depletion

 

The idea that willpower is subject to depletion has been challenged recently.  For our purposes, these new findings don’t matter much because we are working towards not relying on willpower at all.  We are working towards getting our food choices to be automatic habits.  It’s just that you should know, and you should know that I know, there are updated findings about whether or not willpower is subject to depletion.  If you are interested in a more detailed review, you can read more here, here, and here.

REFERENCES:

 

PHOTO:  Victoriano Izquierdo on Unsplash.com

 

SOURCES:

 

[1-4]  Thompson, Susan Peirce, Ph.D., Bright Line Eating: The Science of Living HAPPY, THIN, and FREE, Hay House, Inc., 2017; p. 27 – 43.

[5]  Walker, Courtney, “The Effects of an American Diet on Health” INQUIRO, 2015, Volume 9. https://www.uab.edu/inquiro/issues/past-  issues/volume-9/82-the-effects-of-an-american-diet-on-health