According to David A. Kessler, the doctor behind the book, The End of Overeating, Americans are getting bigger and bigger, the food we put in ourselves is what is making us eat, the chemicals that are in these foods and the feelings we get after eating stimulate us to want these types of foods over and over again.
For thousands of years, the human body weight has remained relatively stable, consumption was only as high as the body could burn off, but in 1980 that changed. Researchers found that the number of overweight Americans increased dramatically. "For decades, American adults gained a couple of pounds between the ages of twenty and forty and then lost a couple of pounds in their sixties and seventies" (Kessler 4). This has changed now and about 20 million Americans, all races and genders are now overweight. These weight changes are reflecting the gains that took place during childhood and adolescence. Also the heaviest people gain disproportionately more weight than the rest. Researches have tried to find an explanation for this overeating, but it couldn't just be due to having food more readily available, there had to be another reason.
People get fat because they over eat and everything consumed is underestimated. Scientists believed that humans had biological mechanisms to balance the calories we consume and the calories that are burned, and this was supposed to control body weight. Although this is true, it is not the only thing that determine food intake.The part of the brain that chooses to be rewarded also plays a huge part in the way we eat, or what we choose to eat.
Although the reward system in humans develops a motivation to act, and developed to keep us alive it also generates an emotional response drives a behavior. In this case, food activates the reward system stimulates us to keep eating and eating.
Food palatibility, the capacity for food to stimulate appetite and prompt more eating, is due to a combination of sugar, fat and salt. These chemicals cause a stimulation that act as incentives for us to eat, and they also are responsible for a preference of some food over others.
Everyone has a bliss point, that is the greatest pleasure from sugar, fat and salt content. The higher the sugar the more pleasurable until the bliss point is reached and then the experience decreases. Salt bliss point is determined on the food, and how much salt is wanted on that type of food. When the mix of these three factors is right, it becomes a stimuli for eating.
Supermarket diets, diets based on what is easily purchased at a store, are also responsible for the overeating, since there is a lot of variety of highly palatable food, and this in turn produces "dietary obesity". This is because a wide variety of food that is high in sugar, fat, and salt cause us to eat in excessive amounts, past reaching our caloric intake needs and even if we aren't hungry. An experiment done on rats proves that this type of food can be as addictive as cocaine.
Other features also exert a powerful influence on our desire for more food. These are quantity, concentration, and variety.The more of something someone gets, the more they want. The more concentration of the rewarding ingredients a food has the more desirable it is. And then the more variety, the different kinds of foods and where they are consumed increases the stimulation. All of these factors motivate us in pursuit of the stimulus.
All these factors amp up neurons in the brain, and it prompts the strongest emotional response for pleasure. "The neurons in the brain that are stimulated by taste and other properties of highly palatable food are part of the opioid circuitry, which is the body's primary pleasure system. The 'opioids' are also known as endorphins, are chemicals produced in the brain that rewarding effects similar to drugs such as morphine and heroin" (Kessler 37) This means that food that is highly palatable, that means high in fat, sugar and salt is capable of being as addictive as a drug. This addiction that is finally stimulated by taste, promotes a reward system that can relieve pain or stress and calm us down. It is a cycle, where eating palatable food activates opioids and this in turn increases the consumption of highly palatable foods; our body is a victim due to its genetic makeup.
Well as a whole its a good job, nice use of words, your paragraphs are really well structured, as well as your sentences. What I really like is that the last sentence of most of your paragraphs, you use words that makes it interesting, and also makes him/her want to read more, which is really important in my opinion. It is also a well detailed blog.
ReplyDeleteBut on the other hand, you do not give enough details about the book in your introduction. This is quite important for readers. And also, you should have a sentence that introduces each of your paragraphs in order to make it more properly presented and more professional. Also, your conclusion should be shorter/more brief than what you did. But as I said overall its a good job