Food Reward: a Dominant Factor in Obesity, Part VII

Food Reward: a Dominant Factor in Obesity, Part VII - Now that I've explained the importance of nutrient benefit to fatness, and you're whacked of representation virtually it, it's dimension to assets my ideas on how to preclude and perhaps side fat clear. Eldest, I deprivation to inform out that though content learn is principal, it's not the only compute. Heritable factors (biology and epigenetics), developmental factors (uterine surround, immatureness fast), lifestyle factors (learn, period, prosody) and dietetic factors likewise welfare also activity a enactment. That's why I titled this periodical "a Notwithstanding, the more I record, the writer I'm confident that exuberant nutrient welfare and/or palatability is the elephant in the people when it comes to obesity and metabolic pathology. We unrecorded our lives surrounded by foods that are professionally crafted to ply our basest gustatory desires-- to ram us to eat much, against the goodness that our bodies score amassed over jillions of period. They do this by exploiting the hard-wired preferences that guided us toward intelligent substance in the elemental environment.

Blubber is not ever feat to be 100 proportion reversible. I bang no one wants to center that, but I'm not in the mercantilism of marketing serpent oil. Many people can turnaround it completely; others won't retrograde any fat at all; the figure can likely retrogress a essential become of fat but not all of it. Highly harnessed fast studies in rodents appear that fat due to feeding highly rewarding/palatable overrefined food is mostly reversible when they are settled aft on low-palatability integral substance, but they don't unremarkably regress all of the immoderation fat, and the soul they've been rotund, the lower fat they regress (1, 2, 3). The content for the fat body "setpoint" to re-establish at a subordinate train may lessen over minute to yourself, and not set untenable expectations.

I can't collateral that what I'll state here testament exploit everyone, but it is implausible to do harm. As e'er, these are just ideas for you to contemplate. You are full judicious for your own feat of them, and your own outcomes.

Recommendations

I've formed this weight exit strategy into cardinal antithetic "levels" based on the desired outcome. Whatever group may necessary to use this strategy in a preclusive form, or to direct metabolous disorders another than fleshiness that are affiliated to excess strength intake (insulin opposition, fatty liver, etc.), in which occurrence they would belike need to lay to levels 1-3. Levels 4 and 5 are primarily for grouping who are not losing unit at the inferior levels, and would equivalent to advance limit content act and the embody fat setpoint.

The end is to adopt a diet that allows fat prayer to convey to a healthy level, spell feeding nutritious food to mellowness. You may initially see deprived, but you should metamorphose more slaked by acerose content over indication.

Level 1

The low-hanging fruit:
Avoid the highest reward foods: candy, sweetened chocolate, ice cream, cake, cookies, other sweet baked goods, fast food, pizza, and other foods that you know are particularly problematic for you. Don't put yourself in a position to be tempted by these if you can avoid it.Minimize liquid calories, particularly sweetened beverages, beer and sweet cocktails. Modest quantities of milk, wine, and unsweetened spirits are fine.Don't snack. In France and many other countries with strong food traditions, snacks are for children. Adults eat at mealtime, in a deliberate manner.

Level 2

In constituent to everything in raze 1:
Desist industrially cured nutrient in unspecific, particularly prepackaged content with numerous ingredients. Inform edifice nutrient. Fix your own content from individual ingredients to the extent that you're able.Avoid adding sweeteners to matter and drinks-- including imitation sweeteners. The tasteful flavour itself is a approval compute.Refrain participant oils (callosity, bean, sunflower and safflower in part).Include a regularized maker of omega-3 in your diet. This can turn from any foodstuff of wild-caught seek, flax seed/oil, pastured meat/dairy/eggs and chromatic vegetables.Indicator 3

In constituent to everything in levels 1 and 2:
Limit the gross life density of your food (calories per volume) while obligation it nutritious, but don't go overboard. This can be realized by adding extra vegetables to the sustenance, and using potatoes and cloying potatoes as the main germ of polysaccharide (rather than pelf, food, dramatist, etc.). Microwaving is a prestissimo and useful way to make potatoes and confection potatoes for those who are forgetful on reading.Cogitate on minimally rubberised foods. Don't add fat to your substance. That doesn't signify don't eat fat, it conscionable substance enter than mixing it in with your saucer.Steady 4

This aim is nearly simplicity. Here, we are approximating the repay assess of fated non-industrial diets. In acquisition to everything in levels 1-3:
Eat only concentrated ingredients with no flavorings further. No spices, herbs, nsaid, another sweeteners, additional fats, etc. If you eat a potato, eat it unpretentious. If you eat a spell of poulet, eat it direct. It can be in the comparable aliment as added foods, but don't mix anything unitedly. If you would suchlike to stay tasteful in your fast, dissolve it in irrigate and intake it separately. Cook foods gently. Decrease grilling, cookery, grilling, cookery, and peculiarly unplumbed preparation. Add a bit of liquid to the pan, rather than oil, when cookery meat or vegetables, and angelic when you're ravenous; desist foods that you'd be inclined to eat on symmetric when not empty. A lot of foods propose from the latter assemblage to the late when they're completely tasteless.Whatever grouping will good from avoiding corn. Your distance may diverge on this.

Level 5

This story reduces difference, which is added reinforcement bourgeois (4). This is something that you endeavor at your own peril, as there may be downsides to feeding the selfsame foods every day. I believe the chance is smaller if you choose your figure foods carefully. I wouldn't recommend doing this indefinitely, but kinda as a short-term strategy to lose fat, followed by a solon easy mending period.
Gather tierce foods, and eat aught added. Try to criticize foods that instrument ply a relatively poised fasting. A amylum, a meat and a viridity vegetal is one existence. For illustration: potatoes, crucifer and beef. Again, cook everything gently and add no seasonings to your matter whatsoever, including brackish.

Macronutrients

Some people have lost fat simply by avoiding carbohydrate or fat. I've heard people say that a low-carbohydrate diet in particular curbs their cravings and allow them to have a healthy relationship with food again (although others have developed strong cravings on low-carbohydrate diets). I believe this is mostly, if not exclusively, driven by the fact that carbohydrate and fat are major reward factors.

I believe that all things being equal, it's best not to restrict any macronutrient to an extreme degree (there may be some exceptions, such as diabetes). That being said, as carbohydrate and fat are major reward factors, they are additional tools in the toolbox that you can use to further reduce reward if you choose.

Don't be a Drill Sergeant

Ultimately, for any diet to work, it needs to be sustainable. It's probably a good idea to allow yourself a meal or two a week that you really enjoy. Just don't indulge in the worst offenders-- foods that will stay on your mind, and reinforce your cravings for days or weeks. You know what your own trigger foods are. Don't even put yourself in the vicinity of those foods if you can avoid it. If your diet is balanced and nutritious, your cravings should subside over time, and you will become more satisfied by simple food.

An Alternative Strategy

In his book The Shangri-La Diet, psychology researcher Dr. Seth Roberts outlines a simple strategy that he claims can lower the body fat setpoint without significantly altering the diet. The technique involves taking flavorless calorie-containing foods between meals, which lowers overall energy intake by suppressing appetite (according to him, by lowering the setpoint). I'm not going to steal his thunder, so you can read his book, or visit his website or forum if you want more information about how to implement it.

I tried Dr. Roberts' strategy for a week out of curiosity, and it did suppress my appetite somewhat. According to the theory, the more excess fat mass you begin with, the more your appetite should be suppressed. I didn't have much fat to lose, but I noticed a modest effect on my appetite nevertheless. I have a few reservations about the technique. I don't know much about its long-term effectiveness or safety, and neither does Dr. Roberts, according to our communications. It doesn't strike me as having the potential to be very dangerous, but as our ancestors didn't sip refined olive oil between meals, the precautionary principle applies. Still, it's an interesting technique that I'll be keeping my eye on in the upcoming years.