My philosophy of life is that a heroic person should be able to withstand about ten years in solitary confinement without getting terribly annoyed
- Ed Cooke, Moonwalking with Einstein
- Ed Cooke, Moonwalking with Einstein
The more common pattern, however, relies on rapid intake. Human beings are subject to what scientists call a “fat paradox.” When food enters your stomach and duodenum (the upper portion of the small intestine), it triggers stretch receptors, protein receptors, and fat receptors that signal the hypothalamus to induce satiety. Nothing stimulates the reaction more quickly than fat. Even a small amount, once it reaches the duodenum, will cause a person to stop eating. Still we eat too much fat. How can this be? The reason is speed. It turns out that foods can trigger receptors in the mouth which get the hypothalamus to accelerate our intake—and, again, the most potent stimulant is fat. A little bit on the tongue, and the receptors push us to eat fast, before the gut signals shut us down. The tastier the food, the faster we eat—a phenomenon called “the appetizer effect.” (This is accomplished, in case you were wondering, not by chewing faster but by chewing less. French researchers have discovered that, in order to eat more and eat it faster, people shorten their “chewing time”—they take fewer “chews per standard food unit” before swallowing. In other words, we gulp.)
Apparently, how heavy one becomes is determined, in part, by how the hypothalamus and the brain stem adjudicate the conflicting signals from the mouth and the gut.
- Complications, by Atul Gawande
Apparently, how heavy one becomes is determined, in part, by how the hypothalamus and the brain stem adjudicate the conflicting signals from the mouth and the gut.
- Complications, by Atul Gawande
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
[Matthew 13:45-46]
[Matthew 13:45-46]