The human brain has a homeostatic set points for food and liquid consumption that are nutrient based.
The reward system is activated when highly nutrient-dense foods which promote primitive species survival by rapid fat storage. This reward system activation of the primitive endorphin system occurs by dopamine production in the nucleus acumens, similar but not exactly the same as other addictive substances.
One of the cornerstones of any healthy lifestyle change is increasing the amount of real food consumed and limiting the amount of processed food. Real food increases satiety, the feeling of fullness, and limits overeating.
What exactly is processed food?
When we talk about “processed food”, we are talking about:
- cookies
- crackers
- chips
- donuts
- pizza
- cereals
- granola bars
- bars of any kind
- juices
- energy drinks
Anything you find in the aisles of a grocery store is typically “processed food” if it is shelf stable and doesn’t require refrigeration. Processed food doesn’t spoil easily.
The perimeter of the store is usually stocked with “real foods,” which include:
- eggs
- meat
- fish
- poultry
- seafood
- dairy
- nuts
- vegetables
- fruits
Putting things in boxes or cans usually requires them to be shelf stable for an extended period of time. By contrast, real food quickly goes rancid because it contains perishable fats. The manufacturers fool the palate and switch to unhealthy Omega-6 oils in place of healthy Omega-3. Rancid Omega-6 really is hard to identify from nonrancid Omega-6. Rancid Omega-3, however, stenches of dead fish. Of course, this doesn’t fool the inflammatory cascade in your body.
Processing of food allows the big food manufacturers to produce extremely cheap food that is often deficient in micronutrients and minerals due to monocropping and soil nutrient depletion.
Megafarms, which use monocropping, deplete the soil of beneficial microelements in order to maximize production. By 1967, American corn farm was growing nearly three times as much corn as it had thirty years earlier. The monocropped surplus was shared with livestock to increase production; the average dairy cow now produces more than seventy pounds of milk per day, and the top-performing Holsteins produce two hundred pounds per day, a 1,200 percent increase over the 1948 average. Similarly, a typical potato farmer produced about 63 sacks of potatoes for every acre in the 1930s, but by the mid-1960s, it was up to 200 sacks. Maximizing food quantity came at the cost of nutrient density, though, and food began to get blander.
Normally, humans would consider this food bland and disgusting and would reject it. However, the food manufacturers fool our taste buds by engineering flavors and colors that make our palate think that the food is fresh and nutritious. This area of food engineering is highly sophisticated and is designed to evoke emotional responses. The field of flavor engineering combines organic chemistry with engineering, neuroscience, psychography, psychophysics, ethnography, demography, molecular biology, finance, botany, economics, and physiology to produce flavors that specifically increase craving. Eating is a behavior driven by an expectation of pleasure — we crave flavors.
Food palatability, engineering, and increased food variety stimulate appetite, thus delaying satiety and promoting excessive energy intake. There is a robust effect of food palatability and variety on short-term food intake, and increased variety and palatability also cause weight gain in animal models. Food combinations high in sugar, fat, and flavor are hyperpalatable (extra tasty).
- highly palatable meals were 44% larger than the average meal
- activates hedonic motivational pathways
- over time, consumption of a highly palatable diet may lead to reductions in brain reward response capacity
The brain is hardwired to look for the most nutrient dense food, which typically is also the most flavorful. The food engineers have corrupted the natural order of things, though, presenting the palate with nutrient-poor food that simulates nutrient-rich. Once your body realizes what happened an hour later, it’s demanding nutrients and your satiety immediately vanishes. Interestingly, a recent study by Dr. Kevin Hall, from the NIH, demonstrated that a processed-food diet lead to an increased daily intake of about 500 calories when compared to a real food diet, despite similar overall satiety scores.
Processing foods for product standardization by grinding and homogenizing increases the glycemic index of food, even if it is re-configured from a powder into a pellet, because the absorption of finely processed particles is faster. This increased absorption occurs earlier in the gut, presenting less for distal bacterial fermentation. Additionally, global glycemic load is also higher, due to a reduced thermic effect of food (TEF) (the amount of energy expenditure above the basal metabolic rate due to the cost of processing food for use and storage in the body, which is absent if the food has been industrially processed).
- Carbohydrates: 5 to 15% of the calories are burned during digestion.
- Fats: 5 to 15% of the calories are burned during digestion.
- Protein: 20 to 35% of the calories are burned during digestion.
Eating real food is an easy way to eat more nutrient dense food that is more satiating.
Hippocrates is attributed with the concept of food as medicine. “Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food.” But in today’s society, can food be medicine?
Many traditional medical physicians are quick to judge other clinicians who claim that food can “improve the symptoms of mental health disorders,” or when clinicians say that a good diet can “reverse” or even “cure” disease.
Let’s take a look at some of the literature to see what the “evidence” tells us.
Does food/glycemia/nutrition affect mood, including depression or anxiety?
There are quite a number of studies implicating various nutritional disorders with mental disease, namely B-12 deficiency, diabetes, and high-glycemic diets.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3317401/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5532289/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11375373
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3022608/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-05649-7
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3856388/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4515860/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5154680/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29189904
What about Food Quality and Food Security?
It seems as if food quality and food security play an intimate role in anxiety and depression.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30588894
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30269866
Is there any evidence that a well-constructed, ketogenic diet could be beneficial?
I can tell you that many of my patients have been able to taper their anxiolytics and antidepressants with weight loss and diet improvement. There does seem to be some early evidence that a well-constructed ketogenic diet can help.
Since the 1920s, very-low-carbohydrate ketogenic diets (VLCKD) have been used as a therapy for epilepsy and can reduce or eliminate the need for medication. In fact, a recent Cochrane review demonstrated a 30–40% reduction in seizures compared with controls, “comparable to modern antiepileptic drug” therapy.
Since the 1960s and 1970s, VLCKD has been promoted widely for obesity treatment and weight loss, and it has become more commonly known as the “Atkins Diet.”
Ketogenic diets are characterized by reducing carbohydrates (usually to less than 50 g/day) and a relative increase in the proportions of protein and fat.
Insulin activates the pathways, which store energy derived from carbohydrates, causing lipogenesis and fat storage, reducing circulating glucose. In a VLCKD, there is a scarcity of dietary carbohydrates, which results in a reduced insulin level, and a secondary reduction in lipogenesis and fat accumulation.
Ketone bodies (acetoacetate, β-hydroxybutyric acid and acetone) are primarily produced by the mitochondria in the liver in a process called ketogenesis when insulin is low, and the diet is very-low carbohydrate. Ketones are then used by cells as a source of energy through a pathway that leads to formation of acetyl CoA from β-hydroxybutyrate.
Ketosis is a normal physiological mechanism described by biochemist Hans Krebs, who referred to physiological ketosis to differentiate it from the pathological ketoacidosis seen in type 1 diabetes. In physiological ketosis (which occurs during very-low-calorie ketogenic diets), ketonemia reaches maximum levels of 7-8 mmol/l and with no change in pH, whereas in uncontrolled diabetic ketoacidosis, it can exceed 20 mmol/l with a concomitant lowering of blood pH.
In individuals with insulin resistance, there is an impaired ability of muscle cells to take up circulating glucose. A person with insulin resistance will divert a greater proportion of dietary carbohydrate to the liver, where much of it is converted to fat (that is, de novo lipogenesis), as opposed to being oxidized for energy in skeletal muscle.
There is strong evidence that the use of ketogenic diets in weight-loss therapy is effective. The majority of ad-libitum studies demonstrate that subjects who follow a low-carbohydrate diet lose more weight during the first 3–6 months compared with those who follow balanced diets. There appears to be improved weight loss due to the direct appetite-suppressant action of ketosis; the increased metabolic costs of gluconeogenesis and the thermic effect of proteins, approximately a 25% conversion cost; the higher satiety effect of proteins (feeling full longer); and a reduction in lipogenesis and increased lipolysis, due to reduced insulin.
Signaling activities of ketone bodies regulate gene expression, inflammation, and metabolism, by specific signaling pathways:
- HDACs: insulin sensitivity
- HDAC3: gluconeogenesis
- BHBylation: fat metabolism genes
- HCAR2: fatty acids, inflammation
- NLRP3: adipose inflammation
Satiety of different foods is the feeling of fullness that lasts for a period after a meal, through a complex interaction between the Enteric Nervous System and the Central Nervous System.
The food choices we make determine our satiety, our sense of fullness and satisfaction with a meal. The sensation of satiety drives our downstream consumption (how hungry and how soon we are likely to eat after a meal). Processed foods lacks long-term satiety. The enteric nervous system is the home to most of the body’s serotonin and communicates directly to the central nervous system through the vagus nerve. The gut and its interactions with the presented nutrients is the basis of our “gut feeling.”
Satiety reduces decision fatigue while cravings take advantage of decision fatigue.
When you’re hungry or sleep deprived, your brain is more responsive to pictures of high-calorie food. Hungry people buy more calories when they go grocery shopping. You’re more sensitive to sweet and salty tastes when you’re hungry. If you’re going somewhere like a bar or a party where you know there will be junk food, don’t go hungry. Satiate with protein first to reduce decision fatigue.
Sleep deprivation also enhances brain sensitivity to pictures of high-calorie foods and reduces brain activity in areas responsible for deliberate cognitive control of food intake. Sleep deprivation reduces impulse control, and teenagers under experimental conditions of sleep deprivation eat more refined carbs, especially desserts and sweets. If you know that you will be confronted by tempting food, having a brain reset nap may also reduce decision fatigue.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30075165
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5357645/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5863039/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28808808
Is diet a cure for any of these disease? It is only possibly a part of the cure, but a bad diet can certainly exacerbate symptoms.
Can a well-constructed diet erase trauma, abuse or neglect?
It’s not likely, but it may help your coping mechanisms. A nutrient dense diet seems to be associated with a decreased burden of mental health issues as well as alleviating symptoms of depression and anxiety. There is plenty of strong evidence of iron excess, copper excess, folate deficiency, and other nutritional disorders that are implicated in psychiatric and mental health.
What does weight have to do with minority population and voter suppression?
We are hopeful that the title of this article gets your attention, and that this might convince you to read our comments. We are not conspiracy nuts. We don’t at all belief in conspiracy theories; we leave the interpretation of facts to you.
We are presenting the facts as we see them daily, as owners of medical practices treating severely injured and disabled patients. Our viewpoint is definitely skewed because we don’t see patients that are healthy and happy; we only see patients who are suffering from significant disease and most often have been pushed aside medically, economically, and socially. In short, they are “marginalized.”
If we told you that a completely man-made and preventable plague was spreading across the United States and would affect 75% of the population within twenty years, causing countless deaths and costing over $215 billion dollars per year, you might pay attention. Like most epidemics, obesity is accelerating, and now affects 17% of all children and adolescents in the United States — triple the rate from just one generation ago. Obese children are more likely to become obese adults and carry a significantly higher negative lifetime economic and medical burden. If you are overweight or obese, there is a 90% chance you will develop type 2 diabetes; yet, if you smoke for 30-40 years, you have a 10-17% chance of developing lung cancer. Ask yourself which you are more afraid of, being overweight or smoking, and most people think smoking is more deadly. (This is not intended to suggest smoking is beneficial; it’s intended to frame the issue in context.)
Low-income families already face high levels of stress and poor mental health (e.g., anxiety, depression) due to the financial and emotional pressures of food insecurity, low-wage work, lack of access to health care, inadequate transportation, poor housing, and violence.
The federal government spends more than $20 billion a year on subsidies for farm businesses, with the majority going to the largest producers of corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, and rice. This federally subsidized production reduces manufacturing costs for processed foods containing high fructose corn syrup. Simultaneously, consumer demand for processed foods containing high fructose corn syrup is stimulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which operates multiple food assistance programs. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) currently allows the purchase of almost any food, except alcohol, hot foods, and foods that will be eaten in the store. SNAP participants on average eat about the same number of calories per day as nonparticipants but typically consume more hyperpalatable (tasty) foods containing fructose and industrial seed oils. In fact, low-income individuals who were eligible for SNAP, but did not participate in SNAP, consumed fewer processed foods. Consumers on food stamps get about 12 percent of their daily calories from sugary drinks, compared to 6 percent for higher-income people, even as overall soda sales are declining in the U.S. SNAP households spend approximately 5% of their food assistance budget on soft drinks, and 9.3% on ‘sweetened beverages,’ which includes soft drinks, fruit juices, energy drinks, and sweetened teas. The sweetened beverage industry has lobbied aggressively to prevent SNAP from limiting soda purchases.
Some of this could be caused by lack of access to foods other than these. Low-income neighborhoods frequently lack full-service grocery stores and farmers’ markets, and many of the stores do preferentially stock heavily processed foods that are shelf-stable and less likely to spoil. Even when healthy food is available — especially fresh produce and meat — it is often of poorer quality in lower-income neighborhoods, which diminishes the appeal of these items to buyers
Low-income communities also have a greater availability of fast-food restaurants, especially near schools. These restaurants serve high-calorie, nutrient-poor foods at low prices. Low-income youth are also exposed to disproportionately more marketing and advertising for obesity-promoting products that encourage the consumption of unhealthful foods and discourage physical activity (e.g., fast food, sugary beverages, television shows, video games).
Due to safety concerns and the potential for violence, children and adults are more likely to stay indoors and engage in sedentary activities, such as watching television or playing video games, further increasing the risk for obesity and type 2 diabetes.
By 2035, less than 16 years from now, data suggests that nearly 100% of the African American female population will be overweight or obese. The real issue with this is not directly in the female population, but in their children, who are then predisposed to obesity due to a change in their genetics caused by environmental epigenetic factors. This change will cause a genetic shift for 3-5 generations. This change will shorten lives, worsen disability, reduce lifetime economic earning, reduce academic performance, and increase rates of incarceration.
Placating the masses with hyperpalatable non-nutritious subsidized food maintains generational poverty and generational obesity through changes in genetics. Poverty reduces a population’s economic participation through both disability and a shortened life span. The end result of specifically targeting low-income minority communities with processed food messaging is reduced political participation. Reduced political participation then reinforces the cycle of economic poverty. This is what weight has to do with political participation and voter suppression.