May 23, 2022 — As we explained yesterday, there’s quite a body of research on the food cues that surround us and keep prodding us to eat. Food marketing embeds itself deeply in our daily lives. We suspect it explains a lot about our obesogenic food environment. Yet changing that environment has proven to be quite a challenge. So […]
May 22, 2022 — Our food environment has changed to contribute to the rise in obesity over the last half century. People disagree about many things in the effort to find policies to reduce obesity. But this presumption is one that most of us can agree upon. The real question, though, is how to define these changes. Are ultra-processed […]
October 9, 2021 — Reporting on non-caloric sweeteners has more in common with reporting on religion than science reporting. We see a constant churn of reporting about studies by people who are looking for evidence to support a belief that sweeteners must be bad for you. The latest headline from NPR on this subject tells us these sweeteners “may […]
July 10, 2021 — Most people – even many healthcare professionals – simply don’t get it. Because the popular concept of bariatric surgery is that it prevents people from eating – just by altering your gut. But the reality is that it works very differently. Bariatric surgery changes the signaling between the brain and the gut in ways that […]
June 23, 2020 — Tamar Haspel tells a positively appealing story in the Washington Post this week. We don’t have a problem with obesity because of carbs, she writes. Nor fats, nor processed foods. The problem is the food environment. Cheap, convenient food surrounds us, with endless prompts to eat it. All these food cues, coaxing us to eat […]
April 7, 2019 — Is it mere coincidence that the rise of digital screen time has moved in parallel with the rise in obesity? A new paper points to a possible explanation. Researchers studied the effects of multitasking on digital screens by college students. They found a close relationship between heavy multitasking and and a stronger brain response to […]
December 25, 2018 — However you’re celebrating this holiday, we hope you’re feeling warm and well loved. Along with all those good feelings, no doubt some special food and celebrations may be coming your way. Holiday Cooking, Food, and Memories Jennifer Finney Boylan tells us that this holiday season is full of bittersweet memories. But cooking and eating can […]
February 18, 2017 — It’s a complex puzzle. But your brain definitely responds in very complex ways when you spot some food. Food marketers know this at a practical level. They spend their lives figuring out ways to make you respond to images of their products. Neuroscientists are figuring it out at a more basic level. Functional MRI images […]
July 27, 2016 — A body of fascinating research is coming together to suggest that it might be possible to retrain the brain and alter its response to food cues in a way that provides meaningful reductions in obesity. The promise lies with interventions that use insights about brain responses to food and inhibit the brain activity that contributes […]
April 4, 2016 — Your brain’s response to food is one of the key tools that your body uses to protect you from starving or losing too much weight. Even bad food starts looking really good and thoughts about food crowd out everything else in the brain. In a featured presentation at ENDO 2016, Olivia Farr and colleagues demonstrated that […]
