Processed Foods Hijack Your Appetite

That's the conclusion of Stephen J. Simpson (academic director of the University of Sydney's Charles  Perkins Centre) and David Raubenheimer (Leonard P. Ullman chair in nutritional ecology and nutrition theme leader at the Charles Perkins Centre) in their new paper in Nature.

Their work shows that as the balance of natural to processed foods we consume has tilted more towards processed food containing more fat and sugar, our brains have been hijacked to consume more of them. From the paper.....

"As long as the animal eats the foods that it evolved to consume, this balance is maintained. The trouble comes when it eats a diet with a disproportionate quantity of a particular macronutrient, either because of a lack of appropriate foods in the environment or because its appetite control systems have been fooled or subverted. This is now happening in humans, as we live in a foodscape scarcely recognizable to our forebears."

"Many processed food products are protein-poor but are engineered to taste like protein. Many people therefore eat far too much fat and carbohydrate in their attempt to ingest enough protein. In this way, engineered foods subvert the appetite control systems that should be helping to balance the consumption of macronutrients."

Maybe we should eat to live, instead of live to eat.