Molière’s quote, “One should eat to live, not live to eat,” proved to be wise beyond his time. In a time of abundance, humanity lives in a state of constant deprivation: we are overfed, and yet nutritionally, starving to death. Our brains and environment have greatly influenced the lack of nutrition and propagated the obesity epidemic.
Certain areas of the brain that link memories of specific foods to nutritional rewards are more active during food cravings. According to new research from the Monell Chemical Senses Center, the hippocampus, insula and caudate are activated during food craving episodes. Other areas of the brain responsible for pleasure and memory also contribute to food cravings by linking these memories of food consumed to past pleasure. Even certain impulsive and addictive centers, such as the opiate centers of the brain, are active when one craves foods rich in fat and sugar.
“Beyond reward and craving, this part of the brain is also linked to substance abuse and dependence, which raises the question as to whether certain foods might be addictive,” said David Ludwig, the director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center, in a study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Tracing our evolutionary history gives more insight as to why our brains have developed to lack much inhibition in regards to food consumption. Our evolutionary ancestors were hunter-gatherers who faced many times of famine; there was not a way to predict when another meal would come.Natural selection favored those hunter-gatherers who found the most nutrient-dense foods and ate enough of them to survive the next period of famine. Our brains have been programmed, quite literally, to crave certain tastes that represent nutrients that are scarce in times of famine — sweet, salty and fatty.
A sweet taste triggers the brain to recognize a carbohydrate, in the form of fruit or vegetation for our ancestors, which is essential to survival. A fatty taste triggers the recognition of an essential fatty acid, which would have been found in nuts or meat. When the brain recognizes a sugar, fat or salt, it immediately triggers the desire to consume inordinate amounts of the source from which it came — a characteristic passed to us from our ancestors over thousands of years of natural selection.
The body and brain function in conjunction to unconsciously crave the foods that are essential to life and that are lacking in times of famine. Although shoveling down carbs and fats was crucial to survival long ago, it is counterproductive in the world of abundance in which we live today.
Not only has the human brain developed to crave carbs and fats that are scarce and can be stored on the body for future use as subcutaneous fat, it has also developed a sense for craving key nutrients that required in an adequate diet. In essence, even if the brain is overfed calorically, it is nutritionally starving if the diet lacks key nutrients. Thus, a person could eat 6 Big Macs each day — about 3,300 calories — and still crave foods and remain nutritionally ravenous, even though he or she is calorically satiated. We’re all far too familiar with chocolate cravings, which can be brought on by social cues, but, in some cases are a response to a vitamin B or magnesium deficiency.
The human body is an amazing creation, ready to adapt to harsh conditions in order to survive. The brain has developed in such a way to protect the body from starvation, providing humanity with an evolutionary advantage. But in a world of abundance, excess and instant gratification, this key evolutionary attribute may actually have become a disadvantage.
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