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Once upon a time, Food and Pleasure did a loving couple make. Until one day, Pleasure discovered Guilt’s phone number in Food’s shirt pocket and lipstick stains on his collar. A heartrending confrontation ensued; and eventually, Pleasure, deciding she’d had enough, stormed out of the house. There has been no reconciliation since. |
Much of the enjoyment has been sapped from eating for myriad reasons – from email-interrupted lunch breaks to inflight-standard, eat-on-the-run meals to preoccupation with ‘Will this make me fat?’ So uptight are we about the health implications of what we consume that Guilt and Food have become such frequent bedfellows (pun intended). We forget that the overemphasized-yet-misunderstood connection between the mind and the body applies also to digestion. Nurture thoughts of self-loathing as you wolf a furtive doughnut and your digestive tract picks up on your unease. Knowing the basics of the connection between the brain, the spinal cord and digestive efficiency is enough to incentivize even the most careless eater to dine more mindfully.
Making Peace With The Hypothalamus
It pays to be on good terms with your hypothalamus: think of him as the secretary for a corporate bigwig you’ve been dying to do business with. The go-between for mind activity and the biology of the body, the hypothalamus translates sensory, emotional and thought input into physiological responses. Let’s say you’re devouring your favorite dish (mine would be cheese enchiladas), the hypothalamus will interpret your lip-smacking contentment by sending activation signals via parasympathetic nerve fibers to the salivary glands, esophagus, stomach, intestines, pancreas, liver and all the way to the gall bladder. This daisy chain of signals stimulates digestion, resulting in a fuller metabolic breakdown while burning calories more effectively. Since we can’t always eat foods we like, caving in to cravings (in moderation, of course) can hence be a good thing – think of cravings as periodic ‘power-ups’ for the digestive system.
If, during the meal, all you can think of is I swore I would cut cheese out of my diet, the input is negative and the physiological response is inhibitory. We have the fight-or-flight instinct to thank for that – an evolutionary mainstay that has withstood the ravages of time, left over from days long before supermarkets and transcontinental supply chains. When triggered, as in stressful situations, blood flow is diverted away from non-respiratory internal organs to major muscle groups, slowing metabolism and increasing the amount of time food stays in the gut. The longer food lingers, the more the population of healthy gut bacteria and digestive enzymes are diminished, and the more toxic byproducts from incomplete metabolic reactions are released into the bloodstream. The brain cannot distinguish between a real and an imagined stressor, so I won’t be able to fit into my jeans after this cinnamon roll is just as potent a trigger as an advancing grizzly.
That’s not the only bad news you have to contend with after you eat a dissatisfying meal. Paradoxically, the less you enjoy your food, the more likely you are to overeat. Oh, the irony! A study published in the Journal of Science compared the fMRI brain imaging scans of obese subjects and those of normal weight while they sipped chocolate milkshakes. The obese subjects showed lower activity in a region of the brain where the dopamine neurotransmitter, which is released in response to a pleasurable experience, tends to be concentrated. The leaner subjects who showed the lowest activity were more likely to have gained weight when researchers followed up with them a year later. Scientists then concluded that there can be a genetic predisposition to obesity – but even if you’ve remained lean after college, know that overeating, once started, becomes a vicious cycle of low dopamine levels leading to more bingeing.
Rediscovering The Pleasure Of Eating
Evidently, nature meant for Food and Pleasure to be soul mates – for the sake of your waistline, digestive health and pure epicurean hedonism. Eating should be an enjoyment yet how cavalierly we liken it to filling our cars with gasoline. Don’t settle for substandard meals; and if you must due to work or travel commitments, bolster your diet with nuts, fruits and vegetables – and yes, even periodic treats to keep your dopamine levels where they should be. Cholesterol, glucose and carbohydrates all have healthy counterparts (Omega-3 fatty acids, fructose and complex carbohydrates respectively), so there’s no reason to deprive yourself of any food group.
