Fantastic job on this series! Thanks!

This also explains another observation: sometimes you can get full from reading cookbooks, or rather looking at food porn triggers satiation (your brain expects you to eat the picture the next moment). This of course doesn't induce real satiety.

Also, cooking food yourself rather than having it prepared for you, makes you eat less of it: more sensory contact and increased satiation 'braking' (less novelty/surprise is also a factor of course).

Thanks again!

Great post, JS. Some very important conclusions and great paper finds!

A masterful series! You will no doubt incur the displeasure of some folks, but having facts and reasonableness on your side should blunt the criticism. And I'm quite certain you won't be defending your positions alone!

Highest Regards,
Wayne

Wow. I nominate this: "we can easily understand why certain foods are hyperpalatable: they combine a meaningful amount of hedonic reward with an inability to produce satiation or satiety, resulting in incentive salience that doesn’t decrease as you eat." for concept of the year!!

Thanks again for continuing this series! This is such good stuff, but I'm afraid it's going to go over most folks heads. I do like the "food with no brakes" analogy. I'll be trying that one on folks I know.

I'm loving this series, JS. Keep it up!

I look forward to my Gnolls.org updates each week.

BTW, any chance you will be extending this series to the darker side of reward and hyperpalatability? Seems to me that much of compulsive overeating and/or food addiction can be explained by "learning" run amuck.

nice job JS--no wonder you're so tired...you've pretty much beasted the whole food reward thing.

steak and eggs, man. bloody ass steak. panacea.

one thing i find interesting is how different people react differently to certain foods. for me, if i eat anything sweet it starts a snowball effect that buries me under cartons and carton of ice cream (or whatever). my wife, she loves sweets, but does not EVER EVER overeat. but she doesn't overeat anything.

i think an often overlooked area (even in the paleosphere) is circadian rhythm disorders (disruptions). there are many "clock genes" and "clock cells" in the body and any disruptions to their functioning probably has myriad negative effects that we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of yet. and it's particularly interesting in light of all the studies connecting sleep deprivation with obesity. i've read quite a bit and while there are many theories as to why that might be, i have yet to come across many mechanistic explanations outside of the whole cortisol thing. the entire subject, IMO, has merely been broached, even with the paleosphere's emphasis on sleeping and light exposure. i feel there is more lurking beneath the bedsheets...

i'd also like to see better links between dopamine, reward, and obesity. so far, the literature sucks. there may be a connection but i really dont think it has one single thing to do with this series or maybe even this blog (or others like it except maybe Emily Dean's). there is a huge difference between evolutionary factors that use the dopamine reward pathway to enforce behaviors to propagate a species and being a food addict. the dopamine pathway is also activated by negative behaviors which leads me to believe that we just dont know enough about it to draw any solid lines. one side effect of dopamine agonists (methylphenidate, cocaine, etc.) is appetite loss and weight loss. OTOH there have been many reports of anti-Parkinsonian agents (also effecting dopamine) actually increasing addictive behaviors especially gambling and sex addiction. oh, that dopamine!

it seems redundant to add my own kudos to the ones that went before, but you've certainly earned them! looking forward to the next installment, when you've rested up.

That's what I'm talking about, JS!
Now I want some traditional, home made chocolate mousse which btw. contains ample amounts of SAFA from eggs, cream, dark chocolate, moderate amounts of sugar and a small amount of complete protein from the eggs.
But if I think about, doesn't this study show that protein+fat(CC) is less satiating then fat+sugar(CM)?