Food as addiction

From the Bitten blog on the side - interesting study on rats reported Oct 20 at Society for Neuroscience. Rats offered cheeseburgers and ho ho's ate more food and got fatter than rats eating rat chow. Well that's a surprise - I bet I'd lose weight too if I were limited to rat chow. And eating good tasting food (to a rat anyways) stimulated their brain pleasure center. Again, big whoop. But there WAS a surprise in the next two manipulations - the rats apparently developed tolerance to the pleasure provided by the food and ate increasing amounts of it to get the same pleasure stimulus and, unlike rats faced with ho ho's for the first time, the "addicted" rats were willing to tolerate foot shocks to keep eating it - in other words they did it even when they knew it would result in bad things happening to them. Tolerance and withdrawal are hallmarks of physical dependency (they didn't say if the rats had to go cold turkey on the ho ho's or had symptoms) and continuing a behavior even when you know it's bad for you is a part of psychological addiction. The question posed but NOT answered by the researchers is whether the experience caused permanent brain alteration. In other words if I stop eating sweet potato fries will they get less attractive?

DO we get addicted to certain foods or are we wired that way? (eg in an earlier age, high fat to avoid starvation, high sodium because it was hard to come by, sweet things both because breast milk is sweet and because we needed quick energy to get away from those marauding saber tooth tigers).

Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian

Wow, this is my new favorite cookbook. I'm trying very hard to switch to a predominantly plant-based diet (like Lorrie; Mai, see the comment I left under your post) and I just bought this cookbook. It is fabulous! Can't wait to start trying some of the recipes.

Japanese Salad Dressing

Here is a recipe for that yummy carrot ginger dressing you get on your salad at Japanese restaurants. Click on the title to view the link at recipezaar.com. I made it for the first time tonight and it was awesome! Torn lettuce, tomato, this dressing - instant, tasty meal. You can get away with just chopping the carrots into chunks if using a food processor or turbo blender like Vita-Mix. If using a regular blender, grate the carrots first. I definitely had to add water to this recipe to thin it out to pourable consistency. I probably added 1/4 to a 1/3 cup of water. Still tastes great and fewer calories. This was so awesome. I've always loved those salads and always order them when I go to Japanese restaurants but could never find a good recipe for the dressing. Now I have. Enjoy!

The Omnivore's Dilemma

I started reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma" this week. It's on Nicole's recommended reading list along the side here. Really very interesting so far! My husband and I carpool to work most days, and I've been reading it during the commute. I've found myself reading a lot of the passages out loud to him.

Making Habits Stick - Enjoy Yourself!

Here's my new blog entry (click above) and my new weekly topic, which is about enjoying your new behaviors. I really think it's the only way you can hope to sustain them.

Piano Stairs

I also posted this in my blog, but I thought it was too good not to share with you guys. It fits right in with what I was going to write about next. Which is if you want new habits to stick, you have to embrace and enjoy them. The Piano Stairs in Stockholm, Sweden are a perfect example of how fun helps people change! Click on the heading for a link with a video clip. It's really great.

19 Behaviors I've Changed This Year

My newest blog entry (click on the heading to get there). I'm sure some of you will recognize some of these behavioral changes in yourself. It's really amazing how MANY change I've made in what really is a fairly short amount of time.

And even if you get out of the habit of a few of them for a while, try to think of all the other ones that you still do. It might surprise you!

American Cancer Society's More Birthdays Cake Contest

Click on the title to go the site and click on the link below to download the ACS birthday kit, which contains several healthy recipes for party fare.

http://www.morebirthdays.com/morebirthdays/download_kit.asp

The Soy/Breast Cancer Conundrum

Click on title to view article.

Clock Turned Back on Aging Muscles, Researchers Claim

Click on title to view. 

Interesting article on how if you don't use it, you'll not only lose it - you may have difficulty gaining muscle tissue back altogether, with scar tissue developing rather than muscle in some older, inactive individuals following sudden bursts of activity. One more reason to keep active...