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Satiety - a nerdy question


leahcarn

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One of the scientific explanations of standard western diet food without brakes in ISWF is that the nutrition (micronutrients, filling fats and proteins) has for the most part been removed, so consumption of this food doesn't trigger the bodies satiety signals, leading to overeating.

 

How, then, does a food without brakes situation occur with whole30, paleo or paleoified food? Is it entirely a psychological disregarding of the brains satiety signal, or is that signal sometimes not sent, even with good food? Or are there other things going on?

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We are wired to get pleasure  from eating. Since the beginning of time food = pleasure has been linked in the brain. Eating, just like sex and love, fires the reward system, and that is what keeps us alive. We have since discovered ways to mess with this system by introducing chemicals that specifically enhances the neurotransmitters that gives the reward. This can be with drugs such as amphetamine, cocain or alcohol. We also design food to hit stronger on the reward system by combining sweet with salty and fat - all three of these triggers the reward system and when put together the response is intensified.

 

The reward signal will always be there, from all foods, but it will be stronger from foods that combine salty, sweet, fat. If you also remove fiber, water and make the food easy to chew you have designed them so that you can eat a lot of them before your satiety signals kick in and overrides the pleasure signals. Oreos do not contain any magfic drugs that make them a food without brakes. It is not the hidden additives, it is just the combination of several things that nature has taught us to seek out for survival and thus made our brain reward us when we eat. That plus the removal of things that fill us up; water, fiber and the work of chewing through a rough consistency.

 

When we bake with coconut flour and honey we will affect the same reward system. Paleo treats may be slightly higher in fiber and vitamins that store bought SAD treats, but they will still increase dopamine and send the reward signal. The same goes for Whole30 approved foods like bacon wrapped dates. I am yet to hear of someone having problems with hard boiled eggs and spinach though! ;)

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Satiety signals are sent, but we don't notice them.

 

Years spent eating foods with no brakes and years spent in an environment that teaches us to view food as reward, comfort, stress relief, etc. means that we develop habits in our eating. When we begin to eat real, whole foods, we do not immediately lose all our old habits around food. So we eat more than we need to satisfy our physical needs; we eat to achieve comfort, stress relief. We eat according to habit.

 

The Whole30 invites participants to eat according to the meal template consciously for 30 days to establish better habits and to create a habit of mindfulness with a view towards breaking old patterns and establishing new ones. Many of us need more than 30 days to establish healthy patterns of eating because we have so much baggage from the past on our plates. 

 

When we eat real, whole foods consistently with mindfulness, after awhile, we begin to notice the satiety signals more accurately than we have in the past. 

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I can offer a unique perspective on this one because of my situation.

 

I have a lifelong phobia of vomiting, and I also had a traumatic incident of a child where I was goaded to overeat until I was sick. Because of this I have always been hyper vigilant about reading my saiety signals to make sure I don't overeat. If I cross the line from comfortable full to overeating I get really, really anxious. 

 

There are definitely signals there despite the type of food I am eating, but your body really knows the difference. If you're eating something calorie dense but nutrition poor you'll quickly lose the feeling of enjoyment and feel almost repulsed by it as you're getting overly full. But if you are filling up on something very low in calories (like raw vegetables) you'll feel turned off that food as your stomach gets physically full but still feel this deep hunger (I almost feel it in my limbs?) of your body pleading for more calories. Your mind will fixate on food no matter how full your stomach is until you get the calories you need. If you eat a meal perfectly balanced you'll feel nothing but pure contentment both during and after eating. Usually that's a meal that has a good mix of low calorie nutrient dense foods (like a salad), protein, starch and fat.

 

I think the signals are definitely there, but maybe disordered eating are what dampen them? I don't relate to the same binge eating/shame/diet cycle that a lot of people on here mention because I've always been forced to listen to my body. I also feel unwell if I don't eat enough, so starvation mode/dieting has also never been an option for me either. Maybe for the signals to work you have to see food as both enjoyment and sustenance but not as something evil or wrong?

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A while ago someone posted a comment about coming to the US for the first time and seeing how people ate everywhere, during any activity.  In the store, in the car, while walking down the street.  He/she comment that in Europe where he/she lived this was not the case at all.  People ate at meal times.  That was it.  I certainly think the habit most of us have of being so distracted while we eat lends some credence to the fact that we all probably still get satiety signals - we just don't notice them.  

 

My own personal experience with this supports this.  My foods without breaks are almost entirely eaten for the wrong reasons - stress, boredom, etc.  When I'm stressed I don't make a spinach and onion frittata - I want raisins.  And then I eat a pound :)  My satiety signals seem to work just fine at meal times.  Breakfast and lunch fill me up.  Snacks often don't.  But snack time is the afterwork lull (maybe I'm bored, maybe I'm stressed about the day, maybe I feel I deserve a "treat" just for surviving the day).  

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