THINK THIN AND OUTSMART TEMPTATION

 Our minds contain such a strong primal urge that the best defense is to avoid them entirely, and “lead yourself not into temptation.”  The standard advice for getting svelte and firm is to eat less and move more.  Some researchers have turned to brain science.  Diets fail because they set people up to battle their own biology.  Unlike in earlier generations, the food landscape in our modern developed world, teems with readily available, calorie-dense food along with sophisticated marketing and is designed to draw us to products that tap into hardwired cravings for fat, salt and sugar. 

 According to Dr Bradley Appelhans, an assistant professor of clinical medicine at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, our brain is actually set up to overeat in the environment like the one we have today.  Their findings suggest that dietary advice centered on willpower alone might be doomed to failure.  “We think the focus should shift from advising people to make tough choices to help them minimize the number of choices they have to make,” Appelhans says.  These strategies, gleaned from recent research on the brain and eating behaviour, can help you do just that.  The old joke about being on a “see-food” diet – whenever you see food, you want to eat it – harbours more than a grain of truth.  The pleasure and satisfaction you experience when eating delicious food becomes linked in the brain with the sight and smell of that food.  Whenever you see these sights and smells again, it activates the so-called reward circuit, a powerful neurological pathway deep within the brain.  The same circuit drives the motivation for alcohol use, gambling and smoking.  Even a picture on the menu taps into a deep well of stored associations, the aromas and the flavours, the way it feels in your mouth, the fun you’ve had while eating.”

 “The first thing I ask patients is ‘What’s on your counter or when you open your fridge,” asks Applehans.  Every time you pass by brownies in the kitchen, or a candy jar at work, you have to override your instincts, and at some point your resistance may falter.  Make it easier by tossing out the junk food and stocking your pantry, frig and desk with healthy foods.  Make sure you have to go out of your way, rather than just a few steps to your freezer.  Eat no white potatoes, especially French fries, according to a decade long study analysis of data by 120,000 doctors and other health professionals published June 23, 2011.”  Recall the standard advice of the first paragraph, “Eat less and move more.”