Food scientists have been developing and modifying foods for years now to appeal to our taste buds and our brain. They add in unnecessary ingredients that can make our brain light up like we are on drugs from the serotonin and dopamine (check out the previous post on Brain Drugs). Industrialization and processing has allowed foods to be made more quickly, last longer and to feed more people. While these things are not bad, the engineering of foods have not always been in our favor. Most processed foods can contain chemicals that can easily change our way of looking at food. Our brain is triggered by sugar, fat and salt. Since food engineers know this, they create foods with these triggers in mind. For example, Doritos have been made to have enough sugar, fat and salt to stimulate us but not enough to overwhelm our palate. Therefore, they were engineered to stimulate our brains and keep us coming back for more. Hence why it is so easy to eat the entire bag of chips!

Here are some other examples of foods created to be irresistible:

• Potato Skins

• Soda

• Buffalo Wings

• French Fries

• Spinach Dip

• Deep fried Cheese

• Onion Rings

• Processed Meats, Cheeses and Crackers

• Cheetos

Be careful of appetizers like sliders that are packed full of sugar, fat and salt. They may contain your whole meal or even day’s worth of calories. These tricky foods can make it very easy to overeat.

Don’t be manipulated by these food scientists! Understand how people are manipulated and how our brain reacts to certain types of food. Acknowledge where you are weak, perhaps during times of pain, stress, sadness, anger or depression. Then, have a plan!

• Don’t buy these food or keep them in the house

• Cook what you like to eat with whole ingredients

• Use the apple rule: If you are not hungry enough to eat an apple, then you are not hungry… You are feeling something else and trying to mask that feeling with food.

This may be counter-cultural but it is good for you to be a little hungry sometimes, a little bored sometimes, a little lonely sometimes, a little stressed sometimes. We are made to feel these things and denying them is denying a part of us. I believe we can understand and live a more abundant life when we feel the fullness of life. Not when we numb ourselves from things.

Stimulating the pleasure center of our brain through eating makes us…

• Eat faster

• Eat more

• Make worse food choices

• Drink more alcohol

• Eat more often

• Lose the ability to realize the damage we are doing to ourselves

• Increase the likelihood of moving into other areas of triggering our reward center of our brain

Following the keys will help you have Abundant Strength in your everyday eating.
 

Read more about the extraordinary science of addictive food.