Seminar Learnings

I spent all day Thursday at a seminar on Food, Stress and the Brain. It was interesting and detailed, but did not cover much new ground for me. Which made me realize that I'm very plugged into all the current research on this stuff. I learned quite a bit in my Advanced Pathophysiology class on this topic - probably enough to fill up an entire lecture, scattered over the semester - and I read the Health section of the NY Times daily, pay attention to national news on this topic. You get the idea. Working out, wellness, and health is my hobby and I'm just lucky that it fits into my profession.
So not a lot of new details -- here's some of that stuff I already knew. There is a lot of current research into epigenetics, which means that our environment literally shapes the expression of our genes. If you repeatedly eat unhealthy food, it can "turn on" genes that make you fat. If you are sedentary, it can turn on genes that make you fat. Really. The hormone leptin plays a large role in appetite and weight set-point, and the drug companies are searching hard for a leptin analogue that they can give to people as a medication that will cause weight loss. There is an interplay of serotonin and dopamine neurotransmitters that create mood, which has a correlation to appetite. People with mood disorders frequently medicate with food, although I've rarely seen a severely depressed person("MDD" - major depressive disorder) that hasn't lost weight because they've lost interest in virtually everything. Mildly depressed -- oh, they eat all right. Frequently, and the wrong stuff, and then they feel better for 10 minutes. It's not a mystery to scientists that psychotropic drugs create problems with all our pleasure receptors -- they interfere with appetite and sexual desire or function. That's because we don't have the knowledge yet to target the drugs to only the proper receptors -- we're basically hitting them all with a big hammer. But it's getting better all the time. Newer SSRI's have less of those side effects than the original drugs that were introduced back in 1990.

High fat and high sugar combined in the same food should basically be regarded as a nuclear weapon to make you fat. Natural food can't compete with that stuff. They cause your brain to release chemicals similar to both marijuana and opiates. It's not a lie that you can feel addicted to that stuff. The message was, think hard before you eat something like that. Now, I believe in an inclusive diet with no bad foods, but I now think that these specific foods are just not going to be in my realm of choice after hearing that. It's interesting -- the speaker mentioned early on that of course, a primarily plant-based whole foods diet is the best choice. And that's about all she said about what exactly to eat -- the evidence is so overwhelming and so obvious on that point, all the health professionals in the room knew that and didn't need further instruction.

High calorie liquids give you about 1/3 the satiety effect of the same foods in their whole state. So if you eat a 900-calorie smoothie, you feel like you only ate 300 calories. They really shouldn't be part of a weight-loss plan if feeling hungry bothers you. There's no chewing, no bulk felt in the stomach, no fiber. And those things - the action of chewing, the bulk - set off hormone effects that cause you to feel full. If you eat too fast, you end up eating too much because you're outpacing the response. Another thing is that variety is not your friend when it comes to your regular diet. Lots of variety causes you to eat more. We find variety more palatable. This is why you feel stuffed, but can still fit in dessert.

So I realized that the overarching themes of the seminar taken as a whole was really what was new to me. The main thing was that what you do with the rest of your life (when you're not eating) is more important than adherence to any particular diet. Exercise is so obviously required for normal function that it shouldn't be regarded as an option. It's simply what the human organism has to do if you want to grow old without a heavy disease burden. Meditation, which can be in the form of yoga, properly balances neurotransmitters. People who are overly stressed are high in cortisol and low in serotonin. Meditation has been shown to balance these to normal levels. The speaker also talked about having goal-directed activities in our lives. Watching TV and going out to eat will not create a sense of accomplishment. We need things like knitting, art, volunteering. Live your life in a meaningful way and eating twinkies doesn't hold much appeal.

So at first I just dismissed the seminar, thinking to myself, Oh I learned nothing new. Not quite. The information was presented to me in its totality in a new way, a more holistic way. When I think back to the many NYT articles I've read over the years, then yes, certainly these themes emerge. Sometimes it's nice to have it all put in front of you. I'm thinking more about my anemic meditation practice and how to fit more yoga into my schedule. And about avoiding the cake balls at Whole Foods. Ha.

I walked Crabby today. She did the best ever, I think we were outside for 10 minutes. She did run up to the door 3 times but I just waited and then she went back to exploring. This stuff is working. Dani has her winter formal tonight and about 20 teenagers will converge on my house at 6:00. Pictures later. Austin's Star of Texas Tattoo Art Revival is tomorrow and we'll be there. It's a fun last weekend before school.