What Properties Make a Food "Addictive"?

Although the concept of food addiction remains controversial, there's no doubt that specific foods can provoke addiction-like behaviors ...

Why Do We Overeat? A Neurobiological Perspective

I just posted a narrated Powerpoint version of my talk " Why Do We Overeat? A Neurobiological Perspective " to YouTube.  Here'...

Is Refined Carbohydrate Addictive?

[Note: in previous versions, I mixed up "LGI" and "HGI" terms in a couple of spots.  These are now corrected.  Thanks to...

The Neurobiology of the Obesity Epidemic

I recently read an interesting review paper by Dr. Edmund T. Rolls titled "Taste, olfactory and food texture reward processing in the b...

Food Variety, Calorie Intake, and Weight Gain

Let's kick off this post with a quote from a 2001 review paper ( 1 ): Increased variety in the food supply may contribute to the develop...

Book Review: Salt, Sugar, Fat

Michael Moss is a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist who has made a career writing about the US food system.  In his latest book, Salt, Sugar...

Your Brain on Potato Chips

Or, more accurately, a rat's brain on potato chips.  Last week, PLoS One published a very interesting paper by Dr. Tobias Hoch and colle...

Salt Sugar Fat

I'd just like to put in a quick word for a book that will be released tomorrow, titled  Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us , ...

Food Reward Friday

This week, Food Reward Friday is going to be a little bit different.  I've received a few e-mails from people who would like to see me w...

Food Reward Friday

This week's "winner"... the Banana Split! Read more »

Food Reward Friday

This week's lucky "winner"... an unnamed hot dog-laden Pizza Hut monstrosity with tempura shrimp and mayonnaise! Read more »

Why Do We Eat? A Neurobiological Perspective. Part VIII

In the (probably) last post of this series, I'll take the pieces that I've gradually outlined in previous posts, and put them togeth...

Why Do We Eat? A Neurobiological Perspective. Part VII

Welcome back to the series, after a bit of a hiatus!  In previous posts, we covered the fact that humans eat because we're motivated to ...

Why Do We Eat? A Neurobiological Perspective. Part VI

In previous posts in this series, I explained that the brain (primarily the mesolimbic system) integrates various factors to decide whether ...

Why Do We Eat? A Neurobiological Perspective. Part V

In previous posts, I explained that food intake is determined by a variety of factors that are detected by the brain, and integrated by circ...

Why Do We Eat? A Neurobiological Perspective. Part III

In the first post, I explained that all voluntary actions are driven by a central action selection system in the mesolimbic area (the reward...

Why Do We Eat? A Neurobiological Perspective. Part II

In the last post, I explained that eating behavior is determined by a variety of factors, including hunger and a number of others that I'...

Why Do We Eat? A Neurobiological Perspective. Part I

As with all voluntary movements, eating food is an expression of activity in the brain.  The brain integrates various inputs from around the...

Food Reward Friday

This week's "winner"... the KFC Double Down sandwich! Read more »

Food Reward Friday

This week's "winner"... the Heart Attack Grill's Quadruple Bypass Burger! Read more »