For the past several decades the American public has been fed the same useless advice, “eat less and move more.” But this certainly hasn’t prevented the obesity rate from skyrocketing among all segments of the population. Many well-meaning nutrition professionals also gave the same inaccurate advice to their clients. The common thought has always been that a calorie is a calorie, so as long as you eat fewer calories and move more you should be able to keep your weight under control. Unfortunately, when it comes to your brain on food, the amount of calories involved is really the least important factor.

Your Brain on Food

The past decade has been a very exciting time for brain researchers because new technologies have enabled them to see exactly what’s going on in the brain and which areas are activated by food, drugs, or just thinking about food and drugs. Recent studies have validated what most of us proponents of a whole food diet have been teaching for years; not all calories are created equal.

In fact, a recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported that sugary foods and highly processed carbohydrates activate the same region in the brain, the nucleus accumbens, associated with cravings and rewards that are also activated by drugs and alcohol. Consequently, each time you eat these foods the brain releases dopamine, a chemical that mediates pleasure and reward. The end result being that over time you will unconsciously be drawn to these same foods like an addict seeking his next fix.

This is a process that can often spiral out of control very quickly because highly processed high glycemic foods often cause a spike in blood sugar. The body then secretes insulin to remove the excess sugar from the blood, which quickly leads to low blood sugar (you crash). Each time you have a bite of these processed foods your brain will light up like a Christmas tree and your pleasure centers will be activated. In addition, the brain will store this little “chunk” of information for future usage. And guess when it is most likely to use it? Yes, you’ve got it. After you’ve crashed and is experiencing low blood sugar.

The bottom line is that the more you eat highly processed sugary foods, the more you will crave them because your brain will push you to eat more of them. The end result is that you are often unconsciously drawn to those foods, not because you lack willpower, but because your brain is like a three year old sugar addict with the power to compel you to do its bidding.

Add sugar to high fat foods such as ice cream, cupcakes and doughnuts and you are doomed to junk food heaven because there are so many powerful hormones working against you. First, sugary foods increase your levels of ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates appetite and increases cravings. Secondly, the more sugar you eat the more dopamine your brain releases. And dopamine is a neuro-hormone that regulates pleasure and memory, which explains why people become addicted to sugary high fat foods.

The “trick” to eating better

The beautiful thing about the brain is that the same mechanisms that it uses “against” you can also be trained to work “for” you. I put “against” in quotes because your brain can’t tell the difference between good and bad. It acts based on the information it gets from a myriad of neurotransmitters.

So how do you “trick” your brain into doing what’s in your best interest? Simple, by using the same food triggers it uses to develop cravings for sugary foods.

In a study published in Nutrition Action Canadian newsletter, one of the researchers reported that the first foods that someone sees at a buffet usually influences what he/she takes, even if they don’t end up taking that particular food. For example, if you see a bowl of fruit first, you are more likely to eat more fruits and less eggs and beacon. On the other hand, if eggs and beacon are the first things you see, then you are more likely to eat more eggs and beacon than fruit. Is that crazy or what? And you thought you had free will and willpower, think again, your brain is in charge.

So here’s the simple trick or “hack” that you can use to eat healthier with very little effort. Serve the healthiest foods first. Not with or after the other stuff. Start your meal with a fruit or vegetable salad. Then eat the other stuff.

To trigger healthier choices throughout the day, keep a bowl of fruit on the coffee table, at your desk, or anywhere you can see it often. You should also keep the healthiest options at eye level in the refrigerator and pantry.

The bottom line

I hope now you have a better understanding of how your brain controls your habits and the fact that your brain responds to food in the same way that it responds to drugs and alcohol. Fortunately and unfortunately, it is very easy to “hack” your brain into doing what you want. You just have to know how to do it.

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Over the past twenty-five years my clients have lost thousands of pounds. Some of them were able to keep it off for many years, and others, well, let’s just say, life got in the way.

I talk with many people every day who are on different diets. And the truth is that you can lose weight with any diet, after all, that’s what they were designed for. Diets are designed for you to lose weight. So you will lose weight with practically any diet out there. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people who lose weight by dieting end up gaining it back.

This is because diets were designed for you to lose weight, not keep it off. So most people will lose the weight, then gain it back. And they end up repeating this process over and over again as if they’re trapped in a vicious cycle.

This is what I call the weight loss trap.

People who are trapped in this never-ending cycle of dieting and weight gain, because they haven’t changed the fundamental reasons why they gained weight in the first place.

The same is true of most chronic diseases. There are no cures. However, they can be reversed, by changing your lifestyle.

So if you’re currently following a particular diet, I want you to ask yourself, is the way you’re eating sustainable over the long term?

In other words, will you be able to sustain your way of eating ten years from now?

If the answer is no, then it is just a short-term diet.

If it’s a short-term diet, you’ll probably lose the weight, but chances are you will gain it back because you haven’t made enough lifestyle changes to be able to sustain the results you will get.

If you want to be healthy you have to live a healthy lifestyle. If you want to lose weight and maintain it, then you have to develop a lifestyle that allow you to easily maintain that weight without constantly dieting.

In other words, you have to break free of the weight loss trap. The easiest way to do this is to slowly change one habit at a time.

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I talk to a lot of people every day who are actively working on themselves trying to get healthy, fit and strong. Unfortunately, when most people try to change their eating habits they start by asking themselves how many calories of protein carbohydrates and fat they should be eating daily.

This is old thinking from yesterday’s diet mentality and what I call the “Calorie Trap.”

In fact, most people have been conditioned to think that knowing the ratio of protein, carbs and fat is a very important thing in order to lose weight or change your body.
The truth is you don’t need to know any of that because there is a lot more to food that its protein, carbohydrate and fat content.

So you don’t have to waste your time thinking about how many calories you should be eating every day. You don’t need to be trapped in that protein-carbs-fat conversation because there are so many more nutrients in food than just protein carbs and fat.

Instead, think about how can you devise a meal plan where the majority of your meals every day come from the most nutritionally dense whole foods like fruit and vegetables, and other plant foods like beans and legumes, whole grains, like oatmeal brown rice, wild rice, quinoa, millet, buckwheat, and healthy plant-based fats such as nuts, seeds, and avocado.

Here’s a secret about plant-based food many people neglect… they’re very dense in nutrients and very low in calories.

This means if you’re trying to lose weight isn’t that the ideal food group to choose from? Foods that give your body an abundance of nutrients but are very low in calories?

Making this choice allows you to eat as much as you want without having to count calories.

Doesn’t that sound more attractive that counting calories everyday? Obviously, over the long term, this is the most sustainable approach.

So if you’re tired of being caught in the calorie trap, there is another way, a simpler, healthier and more sustainable way. Start by getting rid of the junk that you eat and

If you strive to get 90% of your meal from plant sources, you would never have to count calories again.

You can go from obese to your ideal weight in less than a year.

You could reverse health conditions like diabetes, coronary artery disease, insulin resistance, as well as prevent strokes and many cancers.

So don’t get caught in the Calorie Trap. Change your mindset, change your habits and change your life.

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