cravings

[rafonly]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/health/23well.html

"In The End of Overeating, Dr. {David A.} Kessler finds some similarities in the food industry, which has combined and created foods in a way that taps into our brain circuitry and stimulates our desire for more.
"When it comes to stimulating our brains, Dr. Kessler noted, individual ingredients aren't particularly potent. But by combining fats, sugar and salt in innumerable ways, food makers have essentially tapped into the brain’s reward system, creating a feedback loop that stimulates our desire to eat and leaves us wanting more and more even when we’re full.
"... In fact, he offers descriptions of how restaurants and food makers manipulate ingredients to reach the aptly named 'bliss point.' Foods that contain too little or too much sugar, fat or salt are either bland or overwhelming. But food scientists work hard to reach the precise point at which we derive the greatest pleasure from fat, sugar and salt.
"The result is that chain restaurants like Chili's cook up 'hyper-palatable food that requires little chewing and goes down easily,' he notes. And Dr. Kessler reports that the Snickers bar, for instance, is 'extraordinarily well engineered.' As we chew it, the sugar dissolves, the fat melts and the caramel traps the peanuts so the entire combination of flavors is blissfully experienced in the mouth at the same time.
...
"One of his main messages is that overeating is not due to an absence of willpower, but a biological challenge made more difficult by the overstimulating food environment that surrounds us."

memes?!?

see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memes
"Meme-theorists contend that memes evolve by natural selection (in a manner similar to that of biological evolution) through the processes of variation, mutation, competition, and inheritance influencing an individual entity's reproductive success. Memes spread through the behaviors that they generate in their hosts. Memes that propagate less prolifically may become extinct, while others may survive, spread, and (for better or for worse) mutate. Theorists point out that memes which replicate the most effectively spread best, and some memes may replicate effectively even when they prove detrimental to the welfare of their hosts."
...
"The discipline of memetics, which dates from the mid 1980s, provides an approach to evolutionary models of cultural information transfer based on the concept of the meme. Memeticists have proposed that just as memes function analogously to genes, memetics functions analogously to genetics. Memetics attempts to apply conventional scientific methods (such as those used in population genetics and epidemiology) to explain existing patterns and transmission of cultural ideas."

diet?!?

see:
http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2009/06/fatty-liver-reversal.html
"The quality of fat you eat has a very large influence on health, and especially on the liver. Excess omega-6 is damaging to the liver. This type of fat is found primarily in refined seed oils such as corn oil, soybean oil, and safflower oil... Sugar {found in fruit for ex} is also a primary contributor to fatty liver. Reducing your sugar intake will go a long way toward reversing it. Omega-3 fats also help reverse fatty liver if an excess of omega-6 is present. There was a clinical trial using fish oil that was quite effective. You might try taking 1/2 teaspoon of fish oil per day."
...
"Pre-changing my Omega 3:6 balance I had a reasonable diet by most standards, not much sugar, but quite a lot of high sugar (unsweetened) fruit juice (eg apple), and was reasonably slim."
"A lot of the liver damage caused by 'sugar' is due to the fructose component."

[Cosmo]

Wow! Great info about fatty liver, I've learnt something new today. Thank you!

[rafonly]

good for you, cosmo

the point is that cravings & the "cheating" propensity may reflect physiological &/or cultural factors

[Cosmo]

rafonly, I think that anyone who's been eating only raw foods for 7-10 months, wouldn't have a reason to cheat/ eat cooked meals because they are too heavy to digest. I felt tired and sad every time I had cooked food so why would I cheat again? Do I really want to feel tired and sad?  No, I don't. I'm so used to feeling great after every meal, and I'm used to being in the good mood and full of energy all the time that's why I don't need any extra stimulants (opiods in dairy or gluten) People must learn that pizzas and cheescakes are not food! But obviously it takes some time to realise...

[rafonly]

your raw fish & meat foodstyle, cosmo, sounds like natural for you

the book author & the reviewer, however, sound like talking to the majority of the planet's population, for whom raw carnivorism is certainly not their natural inclination & many of whom seem both biologically & culturally programed to be overly attracted to over burden themselves w/ entropy
{been there, done that myself}

"overeating is not due to an absence of willpower, but a biological challenge made more difficult by the overstimulating food environment that surrounds us" says the reviewer