February 2023
OUR INSATIABLE LOVE OF EATING
You know the feeling. You lean back in your dining chair in a mild food coma, as glazed and inert as a honey-baked ham. You can’t eat another bite. You may never eat again. And then someone says the magic word: “pie”. That golden crust, the tantalizing aroma of brown sugar and pecans: yes. You’ll have some pie!
There is a scientific term for what you’re experiencing, and it’s not gluttony. (That’s the judgy one.) It’s called hedonic hunger: the desire to eat for pleasure, as opposed to consuming the calories your body needs for energy. Why are we so drawn to foods our systems don’t need? Because the fatty, buttery, creamy, sweet-and-savory deliciousness has a powerful effect on the brain’s reward system so our heads nod yes even when our stomachs say no. Remember the last time you ate so much steamed broccoli you could barely get off the couch but just kept going back for more? Probably not. Hedonic hunger tends to be activated by calorie-dense foods that are pleasurable to eat; in other words, anything fatty, fried, salty or sweet. When our ancestors were scrambling for nuts and berries, hedonic hunger wasn’t a thing. But then someone figured out how to turn milk into butter, and someone else figured out that potatoes taste amazing when you cut them into sticks and drop them into a vat of hot fat, and everything changed. Over the course of our evolution, our taste range has gone from ‘This tastes awful but will keep me alive’ to ‘This tastes good’ to ‘Holy cow, this is so delicious.’ It makes it more difficult for us to hold back. Hedonic hunger is different from homeostatic hunger which stems from your body’s need for energy (i.e., that rumbling in your stomach when you haven’t eaten for hours). When we eat delicious food, we get a surge of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is part of the reward system in our brain. It makes us feel good, so we keep eating the food to get that feeling. This may help explain our time-honored impulse to try to fight sadness with brownies. Eventually, the brain changes, so even anticipating eating the food causes a dopamine rush. This is why it’s called hedonic hunger. It’s a hunger for more pleasure, not for more calories.
Unlike eat-to-live homeostatic hunger, which our bodies alert us to, hedonic hunger is largely prompted by external cues, like the sight of glistening chocolate sauce, the scent of a fresh pizza, or simply plopping down in front of your TV with ice cream, if that’s your favorite place to chill. Smell and taste perception influence diet and weight gain, as do cooking shows, fast-food signs and enticing commercials. You have almost omnipresent triggers for cravings. What else makes us more inclined to eat for pleasure? Having a bounty of options on hand. The more we can choose from, the more we’re likely to consume, a phenomenon known as the variety effect. And working alongside it, like a skillful sous chef, is sensory-specific satiety. Imagine you eat all the brisket and green beans you can hold, and the sheer delight of the first few bites has faded, but then cheesecake shows up, promising to tickle a different set of tastebuds and then suddenly you have “room.”
Most of us are surrounded by the same sensory cues, but some of us are compelled to follow through on our hedonic drives. That has nothing to do with a lack of willpower. When offered more appetizing food, people who reported that they often experience hedonic hunger showed more activity in the reward areas of their brain than their peers who were less compelled by the cravings. There is a complicated interplay between dopamine, the hunger hormones ghrelin and leptin, and our endocannabinoid system, a vast collection of neurotransmitters that help control eating as well as functions like memory, emotional processing and sleep. The fact that some people have a greater neural response than other seems to be partially due to differences in DNA. It’s clear that someone’s genetic makeup can predispose them to problems controlling food intake. One thing that is not necessarily tied to hedonic hunger: body mass and weight. High hedonic activity isn’t linked to a particular level of BMI. There is a slight correlation between experiencing hedonic hunger and being overweight or obese but it is less than expected.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with hungering for delicious food. By all means, rejoice and be grateful to enjoy your meals. But if you’re consistently wishing you could reduce the cravings a bit, here are a few ideas that may help soothe the neurochemical urge to eat.
- Aim for 7-8 hours of sleep. Reward regions of the brain become more sensitive to cravings when people are sleep-deprived (getting less than 6 hours a night). So, the more tired you are, the more easily you’ll give in to foods high in sugar and fat. Just one night of sleep deprivation left subjects more susceptible to the siren song of tempting food.
- Manage stress. (Easier said than done, I know.) Though an isolated high-stress episode, like a bad break-up, can reduce hedonic eating, chronic stress has been shown to do the opposite. If you think stress is leading you to eat more than you need, consider passing up the vending machine for a walk; a session with a meditation app or a yoga class. It may not give you the same immediate kick as a bag of Funyuns, but Future You will feel better for it.
- At the moment of craving, picture yourself wherever you would love to be. The idea is to imagine engaging in something that’s not related to food but equally pleasurable.
- Ask yourself why you are enticed by high-calorie foods. Is it certain people, or certain situations? Mindfulness can be difficult to accomplish but it has been shown to be a really effective strategy for managing hedonic hunger and overeating.
- Regular moderate to vigorous exercise helps to lessen the desire for high-sugar and high-fat foods. It can help with overeating as well. Around 190 minutes of moderate exercise per week (a little less than half an hour daily) can reduce the desire to eat calorie-laden foods.
- If disordered eating is interfering with your daily life and happiness, consider something called cognitive behavioral therapy, which has been shown to be effective with binge-eating disorders. Other types, like mindfulness-based dialectical behavior, and acceptance and commitment therapies, can help you learn not to impulsively respond to strong urges and emotions.
Naomi Barr