https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/...-obese-BMI.html

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2314224121

To me that sounds a lot like just more proof that people who don't have a weight problem "just aren't thinking about food".


Please correct me if I've misinterpreted, but it sounds like they were told to think about cake, then told to switch to thinking about a healthy snack instead. The ones who don't really care much about food just followed "orders" to switch from thinking about cake to thinking about something healthy without any real effort.

The ones who think about food aren't thinking about carrot sticks or an apple, they're thinking about something they crave: cake. Switching from cake to carrot sticks is a struggle.

If the people I've known who are naturally thin are any indication, they still eat junk food, but to them if they're hungry, they eat what's available. If carrot sticks are what's available they eat that. If cake is available, they'll have cake. They just don't have any kind of trigger that prioritizes cake over carrot sticks.

I interpret this to mean that most of their thoughts are about eating junk because that's how junk food works. I appreciate the glimmer of how these are emotionally driven decisions.

If all one's emotional handling is dependent on this dangerous method, it would be bad enough. Without adding the fake food onto it.

Lately, some articles have the caveat "this is only a mouse model" which they used to not even say in the capsule version for the public. I don't pay any attention because a grain eating animal is probably not a good food model for ME.

Calianna rightly pointed out the emotions involved shaped the brain. The brain reward from junk grows the appetite center because if we are eating food that is poor in nutrients, we must eat more of this low quality food.

A "malnutrition model" makes much more sense, because if we meet hunger with the Frankenfoods, that only increases our body's alarms. And now the organ we do our thinking with doesn't have the right stuff to do any thinking with.

My two cents.

ADHD brains like a hit from dopamine. Some say this science is changing.

My brain loves cake, pudding and ice cream. Abd cheese.

Like an addict, it wants another hit. Refusing such foods is nearly impossible. Only when extra effort is put in place or a long time into ketosis helps.

None of these studies seem to delve into different brains.

A reward perspective presented thru a couple studies..
https://youtu.be/9QiE-M1LrZk?si=EOvjKRR3q9_1RSk1

Why we reach for another piece of cake.

I don't think it's so much emotion that shapes what food you eat. I'm not sure what to call it. Habit? An addictive personality? Because we know there are definitely addictive qualities to cake, donuts, candy and such.

But whereas I could eat cake/donuts/cookies/chips until I was half-sick on them, then want more an hour later, the naturally thin people I have known would eat an apple OR one donut OR a small piece of cake OR a green salad (with a teaspoon of dressing on it) - and not even think about eating anything again for half a day.

To them, food is food is food. It's all interchangeable. They tend to gravitate towards "healthy" foods, but junk food serves the purpose of filling their belly just as well. They might think "oh that was really good", but it never continues in their mind as "I'd like more of that", whether it's a filet mignon, a fancy dessert, a donut, or a green salad.

At least that's been what I've observed among those who are naturally thin, which is why I think it's at least partly an addiction problem.

I agree. But it would seem, with the naturally thin being food-indifferent, that the new weight loss drugs can mimic that natural variation, only more so.

Yes, I believe that's exactly the purpose of the new weight loss drugs.

Just like how it was a revelation to Oprah that she finally "got it" when she started the drugs "You weren't even thinking about the food".

From what I've observed with the naturally thin, the need to eat is almost an inconvenience to them. They have better things to do with their time, even if it's just watching TV.

It's not as if they don't ever have a craving for a certain food (or even junk food), but when they do, a very small amount of it is sufficient to satisfy their craving, and then they probably won't want it again for a year or two - and there will probably not be any other cravings during that time frame either. Just the inconvenience of needing to eat a little something once or twice a day as a social obligation, or so that they don't waste away.



This story - I couldn't believe it when a naturally thin friend told me what had happened. Her DH had taken her to one of the many huge smorgasboards in this area. He of course filled up plate after plate to eat. She wandered around the entire smorgasboard (hundreds of items available, all freshly prepared - nearly 50 items on the salad bar alone, and there's hundreds of other items available of every type - baked goods, vegetable dishes, fruit dishes, meats, desserts, there's even a custom made omelet bar) and didn't see a single thing that appealed to her. Nothing at all. She went back to their table with an empty plate. (To the credit of this smorgasboard, they ended up not charging her since she didn't eat anything that day)

It was a long time ago she'd told me about that incident - I can't recall if she eventually got hungry that day or not. But she just wasn't thinking about food because if you were at all hungry and faced with that many choices available for the taking, you'd find SOMETHING that would at least ease the hunger pangs.