Pieces from Jan24 revisions to Philosophy of Food

Kessler, The End of Overeating, Chs 1-7 pp. 3-45

[Kessler's basic argument:

• Explaining overweight and obesity:

• Highly palatable foods (high in SFS, little chewing, slurpable...) can overwhelm our homeostatic system, which would otherwise maintain consumption levels that sustain normal weight.
• This leads to overconsumption.
• The Food industry understands this and uses food science to created and market highly palatable foods.
• C: This provides a good explanation for overweight and obesity in the US.

]

• Some comments about approaching "unhealthy eating patterns" (expand list), some baseline data, and Kessler's basic theory.

C1

• obesity trend of the 1980s. by late 80s 1/3 of pop bt. 20 and 74 overweight. (2017: 42.4% obese (note: not just overweight). J

• Historic comparisons: 1960-2000, average weight of women in their 20s goes from 128 to 157. Also other deciles. Data also revealed that some people were gaining a lot more than the average. In other words, the distribution was changing. Overweight people became disproportionately overweight. More outliers.

C2

• obesity is the result of eating too much food. Confusing to separate metabolism, etc. People underreport consumption. Studies to support claims. P.8 [Note some criticisms here: microbiome effects. Others argue that metabolic changes do occur to make significant weight reduction difficult.]

• Homeostasis: tendency of body systems to maintain bodily states within a particular range of variation. Communication occurs throughout the body to this end. But homeostasis can’t explain weight gain. Homeostasic system can be overwhelmed by the “reward system”. Anticipations of reward motivate exertion.

• Some animal studies show direct stimulation of reward seeking behavior. Stimulate the far-lateral hypothalamus” and animals overeat. Even to cross electrified floor. [Note basic explanation here.]

• Can some kinds of food stimulate us to keep eating?

C3

• Palatability - def. a food with an agreeable taste, but in food science - a food that motivates more consumption.

• Palatable foods engage sugar, salt, and fat, but also sensory cues. Research (13) on combined effects of sugar and fat (Drewnowski). Underlies many palatable features of food. Combinations of fat and sugar chosen over other mixes. Can make food hyperpalatable. Example of "hyper-palatability" in industry and as a research concept in food science.

• 15: Research (rat study) showing that consumption of SFS optimized foods increases further consumption. Both obesity prone and obesity resistant rats over ate high SF foods.

• Sclafani research. Neat fruit-loop lab detail. Just chillin' with his rats.: feeding rats a supermarket sample of palatable food makes them obese.

• Some palatability research not in the reading:

• Can the Palatability of Healthy, Satiety-Promoting Foods Increase with Repeated Exposure during Weight Loss?

C4

• Food industry experts corroborate Kessler’s point about SFS foods and overeating. It’s their strategy.

• ”Layering” SFS: examples of foods that layer S F and S. (Gordy's lemon chicken, much like p. 20 "Chicken Pot Stickers"). List: White Chocolate Mocha Frapp, Bloomin’ Onions, Salads with high SFS dressings (“fat with a little lettuce”). [Remember, restaurants don’t have to provide nutritional information.]

C5

• Critical of “set point theory” more interested in version he calls “settling point” theory. A kind of equilibrium between appetite (which both a drive to eat and capacity to be satisfied and expenditure - physical work and body that burns calories effectively. Constant access to highly palatable foods drives up settling point. (Kind of acknowledges that there is wide variation in the hold (capture) of high SFS foods.

• p. 25: Discussion with other people who find weight control challenging. note descriptions. Sight of favorite SFS foods causes salivation and tingling sensations. Important qualification: Food cravings are not unique to overweight people.

C6

• More theory: Reinforcing foods

• Rewarding foods are reinforcing. Reinforcing measured by willingness to work for substance and whether other stimuli can become associated with it. (Shepard’s account helps show how this works.)

• SFS Foods can be an effective reward even in the absence of hunger. Animal studies to show this. Research: rats will press levers to get SFS foods. A lot. P. 30. Confirms the idea that combinations of fat and sugar increase willingness to work for reward. Approaches reward structure of cocaine.

• “Conditioned place paradigm”. — tendency to prefer the location in which a reward was experienced. Party food at sport viewing events, for example. Rat study involving more and less preferred spaces. High SFS foods can override location preference.

• Other influences: portion, concentration of rewarding ingredients, variety.

C7

• Neural account of high SFS / palatable foods. Neuron encodes when it fires more often from a stimuli. Complex patterns can be encoded from food experience.

• Taste is predominant. “Orosensory self-stimulation”. Opioid circuitry stimulated by food. P. 37: mechanisms of the reward system. Imp of nucleus accumbens - a neural structure that governs reward.

• Claims there is a mutually reinforcing effect between highly palatable foods and opioid circuits. Explains how emotional eating can reduce the pain associated with stress and depression.

• Some evidence (Wooley p. 38) that highly palatable foods interfere with or override taste specific satiety tendency to get sated by a single taste. SFS combinations can override taste specific satiety. Stimulation of the opioid circuits in animals overrode boredom with single taste.