"THE BRAIN MONSTER" BUILDS FAT

I read a great article in a Swedish online newpaper the other day (“Hjärnkoll på vikten”). It's not often that an article on nutrition leaves such an impression on me but this one certainly did. I think it brings up some really important points and even though it's long I guarantee it's well worth the reading. That's why I'm posting an english version of the article (thank you Google Translate!) on my blog for my English speaking readers to enjoy!

Martin Ingvar, a brain scientist and Gunilla Eldh, a science journalist are the authors of the new book “Hjärnkoll på vikten” (the English translation would be something like “Brain control dictates weight control”) and the book tells about how the brain controls our behavior and how we should proceed in order to create new pathways for the brain.
Martin Ingvar wanted to write a book with principles that are easy to absorb and he is concerned that the health care in Sweden is not taking the brain's behavioral control seriously enough. Our brain controls motivation and behavior. If you learn how the system works it makes it easier to implement it to your lifestyle in a way that neither deplete the body or mind. By learning to interpret body signals, you can manage them better.

Published: 10 March 2010, Svenska Dagbladet
GOOD FAT. One reason for obesity is in the brain's reward system*. That's what dictates your way to the refrigerator and the cookie tray. The brain is quickly triggered by simple carbohydrates. The risk is that the setback after a sugar kick steers us out in a constant hunt for more sugar and simple carbohydrates.
Our modern lifestyle with a lot of stress and fast carbohydrates like sweets, white bread and pasta, too little sleep and exercise, is cooking up a chemical cocktail that make us all fatter. When we are stressed and tired our minds cries out of for fast-acting replenishment of energy - preferably sugar or simple carbohydrates. The stress hormone cortisol makes us eat even more.
What we eat and drink doesn't just show on the body but also leaves marks in the brain's reward system. We get used to a constant injection of sandwiches, pasta, cakes and sweets, so that is what our brain wants the next day and next and next.
With blood sugar curves that look like roller coasters, we become tired during the day and sleep less during the night. Negative stress and poor sleep are two important factors that make it harder to lose weight and to maintain normal weight. That's because several substances secreted during sleep affects metabolism positively, while stress hormones have a negative effect. If we're not exercising we miss the opportunity to clear the body's glycogen stores, which reduces the risk of insulin resistance. Insulin plays a key role in taking care of all carbohydrates. If we eat "hyperfood" all the tim the insulin sensitivity declines.
Our own minds have become a strong-willed “monster” that guides us towards choices that will make us gain weight and increase body fat.
The brain's reward system is the invisible power that allows you to choose whatever gives short-term energy to the brain. Sugars and carbohydrates provides a fast reward for the cranial office, but because the blood sugar curve rises quickly and steeply, it also means that it falls in the same way. It is during the downward curve when we experience a strong craving to eat more and bring the blood sugar up again. If we continuously feed this “brain monster” it becomes a requirement and need to the brain which creates an unhealthy pathway.
The reward system varies over the years too, perhaps especially for women, and it varies over time in the day" Martin Ingvar explains.
“- Since the health care systems isn't taking brain patterns in consideration for effective weight loss, gastric bypass is currently the best evidence for sustained weight loss. That is quite shocking" Martin Ingvar says.
No wonder losing weight by conventional methods is often described as hell on earth, Martin Ingvar and Gunilla Eldh writes, and criticizes those who still argue that the plate model (MyPyramid), low-fat, high-fiber diet is the best way to get Swedes to slim down.
Mood valleys when you are forced to live with the high insulin surcharge as a carbohydrate-based diet provides, while not getting enough calories. Your whole consciousness is as soon occupied by thoughts of food and eating. The brain makes sugar of all it can. If you try to eat fat-and calorie-efficient the brain signals that there's a crisis. Hunger! Find something! Quickly!
- If you learn how the reward system works, you can protect yourself from bad decisions. If the blood sugar curve is flat and you're relaxed, you are more likely to make better choices" Mrs Eld says.
Martin Ingvar and Gunilla Eldh suggests a switch to start eating as few simple carbohydrates as possible, especially in the beginning when the brain is still not used to the new paths and eating habits.
- Start by asking yourself, at what time of the day is it especially hard to fight food cravings? This will make you realize quite quickly that if you had eaten a well composed breakfast you would be able to work more efficiently and probably wouldn't have to take four trips to the coffee and vending machine before lunch.
It is easier to eat in moderation if the previous meal you had was well composed. If you eat salmon and wild rice for lunch, it is easier to skip the chocolate on the way home and not to overeat at dinner than if we ate a starchy pasta lunch or a low-calorie salad with too little protein and fat. This is called the “second-meal effect”.
“It is primarily what you eat that determines how much you eat. If you eat your meals based on low GI values and enough fat, it is easier to consume fewer calories" says Martin Ingvar and Gunilla Eldh. With a flatter blood curve so that the body will not argue with when you start to lose weight.
Martin Ingvar and Gunilla Eldh would like to kill the myth that fat is particularly fattening itself, even if it is not as useful as some hardcore “fat-fans” claims. Fat does not seem to create the same dependency as sugar. Instead, it releases the hormone serotonin, which suppresses appetite.
“- But if you mix fat and sugar, the sugar seems to overtake brain signaling and the satiety feeling is absent" says Martin Ingvar.
You will pack on body fat when the stress and the insulin systems are working at full speed and the blood sugar level is high. Too much insulin in the blood also forces the inflammatory systems to work harder.
- If you look at 25-year-olds on the beach today, you'll see more people who are obese than you did 25 years ago. It is due to the modern life with sleeping too little, too much stress, lack of exercise and consuming too many calories and simple carbohydrates”, Martin Ingvar claims.
The problem with today's modern food is that we eat to many processed, simple carbohydrates, and therefore we get an insulin-insensitive system. A resistance to insulin is built up and that is dangerous. The inflammatory substances in the body will decrease if you start eating right.
The more we use the brain's reward system, the more dopamine is needed for you to feel the same level of reward. The brain has changed and then calculates the discomfort that can come if the reward fails. The system predicts the future and if you usually buy chocolate on the way home from work that's what your brain will expect and that leaves a track in the reward system. But it is possible to recode the system although withdrawal symptoms can be strong in the beginning. The better you are resisting cravings in the beginning, the faster you lose the "dependency".
When you abstain from sugar and anything containing white flour or starch your body is allowed time to change the hormonal system back to normal operation. As a bonus the brain's reward system is normalized in relation to sugar cravings.
"Re-Set!", says Martin Ingvar and Gunilla Eldh.




*The reward system is created for a world in which there was a lack of food. It is a sensitive navigation system that will get people to do what is good for our species' survival (eating, sleeping, loving).
This “superpower” guides our behavior and, unfortunately, prefer the foods that shoots blood sugar levels through the roof. Sugar is the most easily digestible form of carbohydrate and simple carbohydrates require a minimal effort to turn into sugar.
The more the blood sugar swings up and down, the stronger the craving for sweets becomes. It's when the blood sugar level drops as the urge for simple carbohydrates comes. The brain wants the level to go up again. The body is being stressed by sugar-rich foods that are eaten at irregular hours. The stress hormone cortisol, enables us to choose foods with high calorie content, take bigger portions and eat faster.
The super-fast carbohydrates in soda prevents the brain from turning on the appetite regulation mechanism. Alcohol also increases the blood sugar curve. A few nuts or a piece of cheese before drinking wine can lower blood sugar levels slightly.
While sugar and other simple carbohydrates keeps you in the famine phase, fat makes you feel saturated. When you abstain from sugar and anything containing white flour or starch your body is allowed time to change the hormonal system back to normal operation. As a bonus the brain's reward system is normalized in relation to sugar cravings.

Source: “Hjärnkoll på vikten”

Like/Dislike? Leave a comment!=)