Placebo Effect!

Expectations change our sensory system and alter the way we experience subjectively and objectively.

We may be laughing at people who believed in the effect of snake oil and think we are different now but Placebos still work the magic on us.

Placebos are effective in two stages to shape our expectations. Imagine that we first see the health claims all over the box of a new product, we believe in them and we decide to try. Great expectation makes us feel better after having it. Our faith results in positive initial experience and we are confident to go on. Sooner than later, we are conditioned to expect positively after repeated experiences and release chemicals to prepare us for the next pleasant outcomes, just like Pavlov's dogs salivated at the bell rings.

This explains why it's so hard to stop eating the junk food that we know is bad for us.

When we allow ourselves to reach for the convenient junk foods while feeling most hungry, sad, tired, stressed and frustrated, we are totally vulnerable to expect something good to lift us up, and boy, they are good! They are ingeniously designed and engineered so! Of course they cure all our ailments and we are hooked. We become emotional eaters of this cure-all.

We just went through the most effective Placebo process, thinking it's not much more than merely spoiling our appetite for the next meal, without knowing that it might be far more difficult to strip away the preconceptions and its self-enhancing Placebo effect once when our brains are primed and conditioned.

My point? If you have to, have it early in the day, when you are happy, full, and share it so you don't have to finish the whole bag by yourself.

Notes:

Hormones such as endorphins and opiates can block agony and produce exuberant highs and dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the brain's pleasure system when you expect a rewarding experience.

The Power of Expectations!

When we believe something will be good, it generally will be good. Studies show that it doesn't just change our beliefs psychologically, it also changes the physiology of the experience itself.

It turns out that knowledge doesn't merely inform us of a state of affairs, it actually reshapes the sensory perceptions to align with the information we received. That is, the knowledge of what we are going to eat actually modify the neural activity underlying the taste itself, so that when we expect something to taste good or bad, it will actually taste that way.

Interesting, don't you think?

What you know modifies your taste, changes the way you perceive and appreciate the food!

This will be quite useful when you invite people for dinner or encourage people to try something new.

However this is also how branding and marketing get us hooked on a product. We expect the product to be good because of the name, the artful presentation, the video clip or the well-designed box that suggest benefits, cultural images or social connections, and we experience greater pleasure from the product and the process of consuming it.

Don't believe that expectations change the experience? Check this out.

Coke versus Pepsi.
It's all in the head.

Escape from Freedom!

Do you have a hard time making choices or decisions? Do you feel overwhelmed or even anxious when you have to pick out of several options presented to you, because of the fear of missing out the others?

You are not alone, my friend. Quite the opposite, you are just the same human being as the next one.

Erich Fromm said in his book "Escape from Freedom" that we are beset not by a lack of opportunity, but by a dizzying abundance of it.

We keep telling the kids we can do anything and be anything we want to be.

That is all good, only that I see two problems, if we forget to read them the fine print.

Let's make the case within the realm of food.

We have talked about our brain and how evolutionally ancient it is (our food brain). When it comes to food, when our brain is primed to believe "do anything we want, experience everything", when we believe that without the knowledge of what's in our best interest and about the food system we have today, it is (in fact, it has been) a recipe for disaster. In a nut shell, if the food system doesn't work for you, you can't just take everything and every opportunity when the food is presented to you. Do you know whether that is real food or just edible food-like substances, how it is produced or manufactured, and what it does to your body and mind? That is the first problem.

The second problem is in living up to it.

I know, you are going to say, "didn't you just say we should not eat everything we could? So, is experiencing it all a bad thing to avoid or a good thing to live up to?"

Exactly! If you do it right, it's a good thing. If you do it blindly, it's beyond bad.

In my opinion, a good thing that's worth living up to, is something we must develop ourselves in every possible way so we can discern the nuance, truly appreciate the expression and consume the offering responsibly. The development of the capacity to perceive will enhance and maximize the experience, making it a lot more meaningful and substantial to you and to the planet.

Moreover, when you have the capacity to distinguish real from fake, your craving will be geared towards food that is naturally good to you. That is how you reclaim your freedom in choosing what you eat and trust me, when it comes to deciding what can touch your body, you want the sole ownership of that right.

On the contrary, if we ignore to build up our understanding around it, we, as human beings, tend to spread ourselves too thin, eating everything we could unselectively, trying the newest product with the most health claims, running from one hip place to the next but never quite feeling enough or satisfied. Do you know that the processed food today, is meticulously and scientifically engineered to make us "insatiable" and always want more of it. How can you stay in control of your appetite and palate without knowing it? You have an illusion of freedom in your food choices but as a matter of fact your brain and palate have scientifically been hijacked.

Problem two in a nut shell: if you don't know what you are eating, it's bad, beyond bad. Build your food skill from tasting it and then preparing it.

Can You Tell?

You must have played this, right?

Which of the circles in the center is bigger?

Which line is longer?

Which red line is longer?

Are the shades of these 2 patches the same or different?

Enjoy!

Trivia Time!

This has absolutely nothing to do with food, not quite, but I figure we could all use some fun trivia facts at dining table, especially when we eat with friends and family and we need to change the subject quickly after we eat too much of that delicious chili (Check out why beans hate us here).

We share 98% of our genes with our close relative bonobos and chimpanzees.

We share 99% of our genes with other human beings.

We share 99.5% of our genes with our mother, yeah, the other 0.5% is from our father.

No surprise that identical twins share 100% of the same genes.

Isn't that interesting?  Well, it is for me.

Enjoy!