The Pleasure Factor

If I ever saw rationalization of overeating before Sarah Kliff takes the cake (is that a pun?). One thing we can say with certainty is that there are kook studies all over the place, and to excuse your overeating and weakness by quoting a study that says you can't help it, you are genetically predisposed, is the the worst kind of rationalizing ever. Just put the frickin twinkie down Sarah and blame the person responsible, yourself.

Just as an FYI, I do NOT eat junk food every day. I hadn't had a Twinkie in over 20 YEARS when I discovered they were disgusting and I have had no more than ONE milkshake in the past year. It has nothing to do with "continually eating junk food".

What is not really indicated by this article is the debate good old chicken before the egg debate... meaning does low dopaminergic receptor activity cause obesity, or as with many drug addictions does over stimulation of dopamine mediated receptors lead to less response in those areas. This article does a terrible job of parsing out this ambiguity and does readers a bit of a disservice.

Porceline, I'm not surprised at all! My parents raised me under a VERY Spartan diet. As a young child, I rarely ever ate out. I remember the days when I would hope upon hope that my dad would announce we were going to eat out at a restaurant or at a food court! At the dinner table, I would long to see some beef or chicken. My face would fall each time I saw numerous vegetable side dishes laid out alongside the occasional dish of fish.

Now at the age of 22, I have no problems eating a traditional Asian dish that???s composed mainly of tofu, vegetables, and maybe a touch of beef! Unlike most of my friends in American, I???m not a big fan of steakhouses, and I enjoy balancing out my breakfasts with some fruit here and there. It???s almost as though my parents trained my brain from day 1 to not crave beef or fatty foods too much.

did anyone notice that the studies show that overweight people expect to get more pleasure out of the food than they actually do. it reminds me of the conditioning studies done on pidgeons where when the pidgeons didn't get the seed that they expected they became frustrated and pecked at the button repeatedly. Am I the only one who sees a possible connection? Maybe obease people as well as drug addicts take a hit and get frustrated that they don't get the high they expect and therefore take another and another. Maybe the way to counter obeasity is to retrain the brain not to expect that the food will taste that good. I notice that people who like bland tasting food are rarely overweight and those who like flavourful food typically are obease. It really does sound like a case of conditioning.

Well there is the genetic factor, for instance a long time friend of mine who all her life has been rather large, just as her mother. Though they are on the heavy side they are perfectly healthy. Then there is another long time friend who as a child and adolescent was rather thin, but now is overweight, and her children are overweight. They eat tons of fast food and junk food wondering why they are the way they are. As far as child obesity is concerned, you have to look at today???s forms of recreation. When I was growing up it was playing outside and ridding our bicycles. Today it???s playing games, getting on the computer, and watching television. With the amount of homework they have that doesn???t leave much room for active play. I believe the biggest problem today is ignorance.

Well there is the genetic factor, for instance a long time friend of mine who all her life has been rather large, just as her mother. Though they are on the heavy side they are perfectly healthy. Then there is another long time friend who as a child and adolescent was rather thin, but now is overweight, and her children are overweight. They eat tons of fast food and junk food wondering why they are the way they are. As far as child obesity is concerned, you have to look at today???s forms of recreation. When I was growing up it was playing outside and ridding our bicycles. Today it???s playing games, getting on the computer, and watching television. With the amount of homework they have that doesn???t leave much room for active play. I believe the biggest problem today is ignorance.

Animals produced for human consumption are often given growth hormone stimulants that make them grow faster and fatter to get the meat to market faster. Have any of these research doctors looked into the affects these growth hormones have on humans as a result of eating the meat? I???m not a vegetarian!

Animals produced for human consumption are often given growth hormone stimulants that make them grow faster and fatter to get the meat to market faster. Have any of these research doctors looked into the affects these growth hormones have on humans as a result of eating the meat? I???m not a vegetarian!

In simple terms, this like a couch potato vs a physically trained person, the first will only be able to take a bit of exercise , while the second could carry on way more. I believe that obese people have trained themselves to overeat, sadly society is always looking for an excuse, and pharmaceutical companies always for a way to make more money, even if that implies giving people false hopes. As a fitness trainer I've trained morbidly obese people who are always looking for a reason to their obesity, other than their eating habits, even thogh is clear as daylight. peopleth

As we shape ourselfs around our inventions,this could be evolution,just compare our lifestyles to our ancestors...

typo i meant their - line three

is this really a genetic predisposition? or could it be genetic enhancement or cultivation of a pattern of behavior that shapes brain physiology and neurotransmitter levels? think about it. we stuff our children with high fat, high calorie meals from a very very young age while they're brains are making critical developmental leaps (through late teens). undoubtedly this is having a significant impact on the findings of this study. i find it troublesome that pharmaceutical companies/media continue to promote this way of conceptualizing the 'problem' -- it clearly benefits big pharma because, according them, the treatment is almost always medication. this also furthers the 'victim' mentality; that we are victims of our genetic makeup which is rarely the case. we have to hold ourselves more accountable for our lifestyle and behavior related to individual/family food preferences and eating patterns. in doing so, we will see dramatic changes in population body compostion. we can no longer rely soley on the 'scientific community' to provide answers to rather common sense problems. there are explicit and implicit motives for the people who perform these studies to continue viewing it from the 'genetic-pharmacologic' pradigm -- it creates lucrative and sustainable business. circular reasoning at its best. taking personal responsibility for our/our families lifestyle is a more efficient and effective and healthy way of addressing the major problem of obesity.

I believe there is a confound here that is being ignored. I do not think that we can claim that lower release of neurotransmitters to pleasurable food is the CAUSE of obesity or overeating. I would argue, rather, that it is the result of overeating. For instance, those who are leaner more than likely do not have chocolate milkshakes very often, and thus drinking one would constitute a treat. However, someone who is very overweight or obese might have sweets on a regular basis, and so drinking a milkshake would be no big deal and therefore less pleasurable. People who abuse cocaine or heroine deplete their stores of dopamine and serotonin, and thus less and less of these neurotransmitters are released when they take their drug of choice. But no one would argue that this lower level of release is the CAUSE of their addiction. It is simply a classic example of tolerance, which results for their substance abuse. Based upon this evidence, I would argue that the lower activity in the fMRI scans for overweight people is a result of their overindulgence, rather than the cause of their obesity.