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- Issue no. 19: Why do we overeat and how to break the cycle?
Issue no. 19: Why do we overeat and how to break the cycle?
Paolo Lamparelli
January 23, 2024
Reading time: 3 minutes
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Today’s menu:
1) Why We Overeat and How to Break the Cycle?
2) Unraveling Ancient Lives: Ancient Glue reveals ancestral diet
3) Fighting Fatty Liver: Can Resistant Starch Be Your New Weapon?
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🍽️ Why We Overeat and How to Break the Cycle?
🧠 Memory and cravings
The quest for weight loss has become a booming research field in recent years.
One particularly intriguing area of focus is the brain's role in appetite regulation, especially the interplay between memory, reward, and food intake.
A recent study delved into this very topic, investigating the brains of individuals with obesity to understand how they process the anticipation and consumption of rewarding meals.
The researchers' findings shed light on a potential culprit behind overeating: a disrupted communication loop between memory and appetite.
In individuals with obesity, the study revealed, the brain's reward system fires up more intensely when they anticipate a delicious, high-calorie meal compared to individuals of normal weight. This heightened anticipation translates to a stronger craving, potentially leading to increased food consumption.
Interestingly, the study also found a direct correlation between the degree of memory-appetite disruption and body weight. The heavier the individual, the more pronounced the disconnect between their memory of past eating experiences and their ability to regulate appetite in the present.
🥊 Punchline
This study highlights that conditions like disordered eating and obesity are a lot more complicated than simply managing self-control and eating healthier. The findings offer valuable insights into the complex dance between our brains and our eating habits. While the study doesn't provide a quick fix for weight loss, it does pave the way for developing future interventions that target the memory-appetite pathway. For example, cognitive behavioral therapy techniques aimed at reframing food memories and managing cravings could prove beneficial.
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🗿 Unraveling Ancient Lives: Ancient Glue reveals ancestral diet
🌳 From Forest to Table
Imagine peering into the lives of people who walked the Earth 10,000 years ago. A new study does just that!
Researchers analyzed the DNA extracted from fossilized resin used by teenagers to produce glue around 10,000 years ago. These remnants were found in an excavation site on the west coast of Scandinavia.
The analysis revealed a diet rich in local food sources. These included: foxes, deer, duck, trout and hazelnut.
This hints at a subsistence lifestyle heavily reliant on readily available food sources, as our distant ancestors embraced a diverse spectrum of what nature offered.
The analysis also shed light on dental health. Researchers identified bacteria associated with periodontitis, a gum disease. This finding suggests that the widespread use of teeth as tools — perhaps for chewing hides or crafting implements — may have increased the risk of oral microbial infections.
🥊 Punchline
This study is one of a kind because it analysed chewed material, an excellent source of DNA.
The research highlights a diet based on subsistence of local food sources available at the time, without favouring specific dietary staples. This reinforces previous research highlighting high microbiome diversity and good gut health among our distant ancestors.
At what point did we start to rely on few staple foods (such as wheat, rice, potatoes) to meet our daily caloric intake at the expense of our (gut) health?
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🌾 Fighting Fatty Liver: Can Resistant Starch Be Your New Weapon?
🥔 Resistant starch delivers
Fatty liver is a condition where excess fat accumulates in the liver, and affects 30% of people worldwide.
Traditionally, managing fatty liver involves dietary changes and exercise, but wouldn't a pill make things easier?
Researchers are exploring the potential of resistant starch, a type of carbohydrate that bypasses digestion but is rather fermented in the large intestine. Because of this, resistant starch benefits gut health.
A recent study involved 200 participants with fatty liver, divided into 2 groups. One group received a pill containing resistant starch 2 x day before meals for 4 months, while the other received a similar drink with corn starch. Both groups followed a dietitian-designed diet, ensuring the only difference was the supplement.
After 4 months, the resistant starch group showed impressive results:
10% lower liver fat levels regardless of weight loss.
Reduced inflammation within the liver.
Shifts in gut bacteria composition, with lower levels of Bacteroides stercoris, a bacteria linked to fat metabolism in the liver.
Even more interesting, transplanting poo from resistant starch-treatment patients to mice fed a high fat diet decreased liver weight and liver fat in these mice, compared to mice that received poo from the control group
🥊 Punchline
These results are encouraging. Resistant starch could potentially offer a convenient and accessible option for managing fatty liver alongside dietary and lifestyle changes.
The study used resistant starch supplements, but you can consume resistant starch by making few dietary changes including:
Allow starchy foods to cool down (e.g. pasta, rice, potatoes) before eating them. The cooling down changes the structure of starch making it more resistant to digestion.
Consume sugar-rich fruits when slightly under ripe (e.g. banana before it has black spots)
Increase intake of raw starchy foods (e.g. overnight uncooked oats, seeds).
Overall, adding resistant starch to a normal and balanced diet can be easier to follow through because effective, affordable and sustainable.
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