Obese people don't enjoy their food? - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Charlatan · 10-23-2008, 04:19 PM

I just read the following article which suggests that one of the reasons obese people eat so much is that they don't get the same sort of pleasure from eating as other people. Given how much I love food, I find this not only ironic but just a little sad.

What is your relationship to food? I don't think I've every really felt guilt about eating food except when I've perhaps spent too much money on it.

LINK

Quote:

All Things Considered, October 16, 2008 ·

Chocolate Milkshakes On The Brain

Scientists say they've discovered one reason overweight people eat more than they need to — and find it so hard to stop: Obese people don't appear to get as much pleasure as they expect from tasty treats.

The report, published in the Oct. 17 issue of the journal Science, involves some high-tech brain scans, some fancy genetic tests —and some chocolate milkshakes.

"There are very few things that excite the brain as much as chocolate," says Eric Stice of the Oregon Research Institute and the University of Oregon.

That makes chocolate just the thing to shine a light on the brain's "reward system" — the circuits that light up when people eat or drink something that tastes good. Chocolate milkshakes are ideal for the purpose, because the yummy flavor can be squirted through a straw while volunteers' heads are clamped into an MRI scanner. That yields images of brain blood flow, identifying which parts of the brain are responding to a stimulus — in this case, the taste of the milkshake.

Stice and his colleagues looked at how the brains of 77 young women responded to the milkshakes. Some women were lean, some obese, and some had a gene variant that makes them less sensitive to dopamine, a chemical central to the pleasure response. So they don't get as much pleasure out of food as others.

About 30 percent of people are thought to have the gene variant. And researchers know from previous research that they have about 40 percent fewer receptors that register the presence of dopamine in the brain.

The researchers found three important things:

• When obese women ate food, they had a "blunted" dopamine response in the brain's reward center compared with lean people.

• This low response was amplified among women who had the gene variant that results in fewer dopamine receptors.

• A year after the brain scans, women with the gene variant had put on more weight than women without the gene.

These findings run counter to the popular notion that overweight people love to eat and get more pleasure than others out of rich treats like ice cream. The Oregon researchers say that idea is only half true.

"If you look at the brain response when people are about to get the milkshake, obese individuals show greater activation of the reward circuitry, not less," Stice says. "So, ironically, they expect more reward but seem to experience less."

The Pleasure Gap

Kent Berridge of the University of Michigan studies how the brain responds to food — and the anticipation of food. He calls the new research exciting because it helps explain the difference between "wanting" and "liking."

By "wanting," Berridge means craving something: the anticipation of something delicious. "Liking" refers to the pleasure that comes from actually tasting it.

The Michigan scientist says the role of dopamine in appetite has long been a puzzle. There's evidence that dopamine suppresses appetite — think of the appetite-killing effects of amphetamine diet pills, which stimulate dopamine release. But there's also evidence that dopamine can stimulate overeating.

The Oregon research suggests how dopamine can play both roles. It increases craving, or the anticipation of eating something good, in obese people. But it blunts their enjoyment of eating it.

Stice sees direct parallels with other addictions, such as smoking and illicit drugs. He thinks obese people overeat to compensate for the mismatch they experience between their strong cravings and the reduced enjoyment they get.

Training The Body

The best way to avoid this vicious cycle, he thinks, is to develop healthy eating habits — before pleasure responses get blunted by overeating.

"Don't get your body used to eating really high-fat, high-sugar foods, because it'll be really hard to stop," Stice says.

He thinks it's best to do this when you're young. If you're already obese, the new research may have other implications.

If you're trying to give up chocolate, for instance, Stice thinks that "eating just a little bit of chocolate every day is not the way to go. It's better to stop eating chocolate and say, 'That's the healthy improvement I'm going to make in my diet.' And after a month or maybe six weeks, your craving for chocolate will finally go down and stay down."

genuinegirly · 10-23-2008, 04:41 PM

Quote:

The best way to avoid this vicious cycle, he thinks, is to develop healthy eating habits — before pleasure responses get blunted by overeating.

Seems to make sense.

So many factors contribute to obesity. Interesting study. I wouldn't have thought that some sort of pleasure response is involved.

Willravel · 10-23-2008, 05:32 PM

I can personally attest to this being true, at least for me.

It's the same thing that causes people to become addicted to things like Prozac; the body likes to create a certain balance of chemicals, if that balance is thrown off, the body compensates. If I eat chocolate every day, my body will become accustomed to the effects of chocolate and the triptophen (sp?) will not elicit as much serotonin from my body, for example.

The best way to fix this vicious cycle is to hire someone to hit you with a baseball bat whenever you eat sweets. Short of that, you may find that a buddy (spouse, SO, good friend) with better eating habits can maybe keep an eye out and mention when they think you're overdoing it. The other trick, of course, is to only buy healthy food (which is what I do).

Slims · 10-23-2008, 06:16 PM

I know a lot of fat chef's who absolutely love food.

I disagree completely with the premise that obese people eat more because they don't enjoy food.

I think it is reasonable that the less you eat, the more you will enjoy what you allow yourself to have, but I don't think the relationship is causative of obesity. I have gone days without food; when I finally had the opportunity to eat I devoured a small meal of old herring and rice and enjoyed it more than any fancy restaurant. When I am trying to put on weight and eating as much as I can stand, food holds no pleasure for me and it all seems to taste the same. I think this study indicates that a lack of pleasure from food is, in part, your body trying to tell you to back off.

Redjake · 10-23-2008, 07:37 PM

I have struggled with my weight my entire life but have recently in the past couple of years started to turn things around (lost 50 lbs so far).

Every time I eat I feel guilty. I hate food. I LOATHE food. Food makes me hate myself.

Willravel · 10-23-2008, 08:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redjake

I have struggled with my weight my entire life but have recently in the past couple of years started to turn things around (lost 50 lbs so far).

That's awesome. Keep up the good work! Also, you don't have to hate food, you just have to learn how to live with it.

spindles · 10-23-2008, 08:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greg700

I know a lot of fat chef's who absolutely love food.

This doesn't invalidate the study - there are always people outside the 'norm'.

Just for the record - I love food, but am thin.

10-23-2008, 06:16 PM	#4 (permalink)
Slims Eccentric insomniac Location: North Carolina	I know a lot of fat chef's who absolutely love food. I disagree completely with the premise that obese people eat more because they don't enjoy food. I think it is reasonable that the less you eat, the more you will enjoy what you allow yourself to have, but I don't think the relationship is causative of obesity. I have gone days without food; when I finally had the opportunity to eat I devoured a small meal of old herring and rice and enjoyed it more than any fancy restaurant. When I am trying to put on weight and eating as much as I can stand, food holds no pleasure for me and it all seems to taste the same. I think this study indicates that a lack of pleasure from food is, in part, your body trying to tell you to back off. __________________ "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." - Winston Churchill "All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act out their dream with open eyes, to make it possible." Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T.E. Lawrence

10-23-2008, 07:37 PM	#5 (permalink)
Redjake I'm a family man - I run a family business. Location: Wilson, NC	I have struggled with my weight my entire life but have recently in the past couple of years started to turn things around (lost 50 lbs so far). Every time I eat I feel guilty. I hate food. I LOATHE food. Food makes me hate myself. __________________ Off the record, on the q.t., and very hush-hush.

10-23-2008, 05:32 PM	#3 (permalink)
Willravel ... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.	I can personally attest to this being true, at least for me. It's the same thing that causes people to become addicted to things like Prozac; the body likes to create a certain balance of chemicals, if that balance is thrown off, the body compensates. If I eat chocolate every day, my body will become accustomed to the effects of chocolate and the triptophen (sp?) will not elicit as much serotonin from my body, for example. The best way to fix this vicious cycle is to hire someone to hit you with a baseball bat whenever you eat sweets. Short of that, you may find that a buddy (spouse, SO, good friend) with better eating habits can maybe keep an eye out and mention when they think you're overdoing it. The other trick, of course, is to only buy healthy food (which is what I do).