Welcome to the continuing diary series "Let's Read a WHEE Book Together!" This week, we're continuing with David Kessler's The End of Overeating, Chapter 9. If you're just discovering this diary series, you will find links to the previous installments at the bottom of this diary.
WHEE (Weight, Health, Eating and Exercise) is a community support diary for Kossacks who are currently or planning to start losing, gaining or maintaining their weight through diet and exercise or fitness. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are working on your weight or fitness, please -- join us! You can also click the WHEE tag to view all diary posts.
The End of Overeating, by David Kessler, M.D.
Chapter 9: Rewarding Foods Become Hot Stimuli
Reading the first paragraphs of Chapter 9, one might think one had picked up Brian Wansink's Mindless Eating by mistake. Kessler strays from his usual refrain -- "sugar, fat, and salt" -- and begins the chapter by talking about variety.
Once upon a time, there were three flavors of ice cream - chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry - sometimes all three in the same package, as a Special Treat. [In our house, the highly-artificially-flavored strawberry was eaten LAST - Ed] Now, there are dozens of flavors, often with added ingredients like Oreo cookies, candy pieces, cookie dough, etc. Kessler holds up the example of Steve's Ice Cream (in Boston) as a pioneer in mixing in these added ingredients, back in the 1970s.
He then directs our attention to the once-humble bagel, now a "tricked-out" product with savory additions like onion or garlic, or sweet flavors like chocolate, blueberry, or cinnamon sugar. In chapter 9, Kessler does not explicitly explain why additional flavors should cause us to consume more. However, back in chapter 7, he introduced the phenomenon of "taste-specific satiety," as seen in the lab animals that grew satieted on chocolate-flavored treats, but had their appetites restored when presented with banana-flavored treats. Apparently, a blueberry bagel is the human equivalent of the Supreme Mini-Treat.
He goes on to devote five paragraphs (short paragraphs, to be sure - but five, nonetheless) of food porn to a description of the delights of the cinnamon crunch bagel from the Panera Bread restaurant chain.
[Note: Panera is a Johnny-come-lately in the cinnamon bagel business. The now-defunct Bagel Factory and Bagel Fragel bakeries in Ann Arbor and East Lansing, respectively, were selling deep-fried cinnamon-flavored bagels as "fragels" back in 1977 when I went to college at MSU - Ed]
The description of the various aspects of the experience of Panera's cinnamon crunch bagel (including the soft interior contrasted with the crunchy, sweet exterior, the aroma of cinnamon, and the "bursts of flavor" from the vanilla-flavored palm oil chips) is followed by a quick look at the multisensory delights of T.G.I. Friday's menu:
One appetizer, the Parmesan-Crusted Sicilian Quesadilla, is described on the menu as follows: "Packed with sautéed chicken, sausage, bruschetta marinara, [and] bacon and oozing with Monterey Jack Cheese. We coat it with Parmesan and pan-fry it to a crispy, golden brown, then drizzle it with balsamic glaze."
Dessert is equally multisensory: Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie topped with whipped cream and a Reese's peanut butter cup, or Chips Ahoy! Ice Cream Sundae topped with Chips Ahoy! cookie crumbles, hot fudge, caramel sauce, and whipped cream.
In Chapter 9, Kessler has gone from discussing the relatively simple combinations of sugar, fat, and salt to asserting that gustatory complexity can further increase the reward value of foods. Reading the chapter in isolation, one might wonder what the basis of this assertion might be. However, in the book's endnotes for page 49, there are almost two pages of references to research studies that further develop his argument and help back up his assertion.
Kessler concludes Chapter 9 by saying,
The more someone wants to eat highly palatable food, the more activity we see in the orbitofrontal cortex. The excitement in the brain generated by these multimodal stimuli increases our desire for further stimulation.
This is not the kind of language the food industry likes to use in its advertisements. But the science helps us understand what happens when we walk into many of America's most popular restaurants. It explains how foods become hot stimuli.
If you're just discovering this series, or want to catch up on a previous installment, here are links to the story so far:
Introduction (written by me)
Chapter 1: Something Changed . . . America Gains Weight (me).
Chapter 2: Overriding the Wisdom of the Body (Clio2)
Chapter 3: Sugar, Fat, and Salt Make Us Eat More Sugar, Fat, and Salt (me)
Chapter 4: The Business of Food: Creating Highly Rewarding Stimuli (Clio2)
Chapter 5: Pushing Up Our Settling Points (me)
Chapter 6: Sugar, Fat and Salt Are Reinforcing (Clio2)
Chapter 7: Amping Up the Neurons (me)
Chapter 8: We Are Wired to Focus Attention on the Most Salient Stimuli (Clio2)
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