This will be a slightly different post today. No Politics or chatting about affairs of the mind. It’s a book review – something that I’ve never done before. I figured it’d be easier for me, considering my last post.
Why a book review? I cannot hear you ask 😊
Well, I’ll let you all into a secret – I am a little overweight. I am not going to tell you how much, but I wear stretchy bottoms and there’s a lot of X’s in my t-shirt size! Along with the craziness, losing weight and getting fit are important to me and something I have battled with for years, with little success.
So, it was with some interest that a book called The Hungry Brain by Stephan Guyenet came up as an Amazon offer at .99p. I read the blurb and thought it sounded interesting, so I brought it. And, for practice, I thought I would review it. Non affiliate link to it is here.
This is not your ordinary diet book. It does not tell you that you should not eat nice food but live on lettuce leaves and thin air instead. Nor does it ask you to follow crazy diet plans while power walking yourself into oblivion.
It explains to the best scientific knowledge available at the time of writing, why you are fat. Why, despite the best intentions, you always fall back to eating chocolate. Stephen explains in an accessible way, detailed information on how the brain and body regulates our appetite to keep us overweight. We are fighting the entire 2.5 million years that it has taken for the Homo species to reach where we are now – our brain hates us!
Unfortunately, even though we are surrounded by all the calorie dense delights of the modern world. Our brain, and in particular, the basal ganglia, still thinks we are still being chased by dinosaurs and do not know where our next meal will come from. Mine is the Co-Op, in-case you are interested.
It uses dopamine to drive us to eat and adiposity to keep us fat, aided by leptin to boost our appetite when we are in danger of losing weight.
Without giving too much detail, let me explain briefly.
We are driven by triggers, not conscious will. Dopamine, often called the pleasure hormone, is released by the brain to drive us to action. Stephen tells us of mice that just by removing dopamine from them, lose all drive to do anything, even eat. They will starve to death. When you eat something, you get a dopamine release, and this reinforces the I want to eat trigger. This gives that precedence over other triggers. It is strongly triggered by calorie dense, sweet or artificially fatty foods. This makes sense as I know of no-one that gets excited by celery
“Life is too short for self-hatred and celery sticks”
Marilyn Wann
Then, as we eat more, our body lays down fat. As we get bigger it becomes our new normal; our adiposity increases. So, when we try and lose weight, even if it’s back to a weight that we had previously held for years, our primeval brain kicks in and tells us we are in danger of starving. It’s like turning up the thermostat to get warm and not being able to turn it down again.
Why is this? A few reasons and I’ll try to explain the key ones. We have two brains, a very old, primitive brain, and a more rational forebrain brain. And they work against each other. The new brain is the rational one, understanding concepts such as “I don’t need ten apple pies as there will be more coming”. But the older brain, the one still hiding from dinosaurs, worries there will be no more apple pies and pushes us to eat more. According to Stephan, in a battle between the two, the old brain will generally win unless you have massive will power!
It also uses a chemical called leptin that helps hit those triggers. You lose weight, leptin levels drop and your primeval brain sends you running to the fridge!
So, how do we fight evolution?
There’s a few things Stephen says we can do. First, eat bland foods – such as potato and meat. Think of the paleo diet. Simple foods with minimal added fats and other artificial nasties. I won’t explain why this is the case as it’s quite complex and is covered in depth in the book. But it is backed by studies.
Well, okay, I’ll explain a little. Those bland foods have high satiety – they are filling. It’s thought that this tricks the brain into releasing energy from fat stores and keeping Leptin levels up. Especially if you eat plenty of protein, at least 40% of your diet.
Exercise is also key as is sleep and relaxation. Stephen explains that a lack of sleep and stress makes us hungry and it’s all down to a confused brain!
So, to summarise
I found this book to be an excellent, easily accessible read. Yes, it does go into some depth about biology, but he supplies pictures and good explanations for those who haven’t studied. What I found astounding was how little we know about ourselves. There were many times in the book where he makes it clear that he is talking about theories and not fact! Don’t worry too much though as the key ideas are proven. It’s the little bits that are theories.
After reading it I felt better knowing that I am fat because my very soul is fighting for me to be so. However, interestingly, I also felt despondent as I worked through the text as Stephen doesn’t give any hope for a thinner future until the end of the book
Despite that, it’s well worth the read if you are tired of normal diet books.