Food + Dopamine

Hiya,

Pancake Tuesday got moved to Thursday this week due to the late night on Monday. I had completely forgotten about them, but Matt was busy in the kitchen when I got up:) These were extra special because there were chocolate chips hiding under that peanut butter.

What a fabulous way to start the day.

Today flew by because I left school to attend a fascinating lunch lecture on food addiction at the local community health center. I was surprised to find out that food addiction is an area that is just beginning to be explored and it is not formally recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental disorders (although it could be diagnosed under Eating Disorders – not otherwise specified). The lecturer presented the results of one study involving rats and food that I found particularly interesting. Rats were given free (unlimited) access to fruit loops (high sugar) and cheetos (high fat) and their dopamine levels were measured when they indulged. The researchers found that dopamine spiked (signifying a reward) when the rats initially ate either of the snacks, but that dopamine leveled off and the rats learned to maintain their weight over time by controlling their intake at each “meal.” However, when rats were deprived of any food for 12 hour periods, they ate as much as they possibly could when they were allowed to have fruit loops or cheetos again and then they continued to overeat at each subsequent meal, leading to weight gain over time. In addition, dopamine levels spiked when the rats first indulged after the deprivation period, but dopamine did NOT level off with each meal like it did when the rats were not deprived, suggesting that the ‘binge’ eating behavior was rewarding to the rats.

Moral of the story: eat incredible real foods (read: whole wheat pancakes with pb and banana and sometimes choc chips) in moderation and don’t deprive yourself!  But you already knew that:)

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Dinner was orange tonight in celebration the upcoming holiday. (PS – does anyone have any costume ideas for me?)

I had a potato veggie burger with avocado, cheddar, and banana pepper on an habanero wrap with sweet potato fries.