The Hungry Brain by Stephan Guyenet
The Hungry Brain: Outsmarting the Instincts That Make Us Overeat is now out; since about yesterday, I believe.
Just a heads up for all who want to jump on it.
For the first time in some time, I’m actually anxious to read a book in the general diet sphere. So much what’s come out over the last years is re-hash and re-package of the same stuff over and over—or yet another cookbook, when 5 minutes of Googling yields a half dozen recipes for anything and you can use one or synthesize your own with elements from several.
Well, people have to make livings, I guess, and for the newbies, they’re probably going to be more enticed with a book that’s recently published, so there’s that.
I hope to have a review posted within a week or two, if not before. About a forth of the way through in just a few hours and so far, loving it.
WHAT IT'S ABOUT AND HOW IT WORKS
Free The Animal is an eclectic writing project about everything since November 2003. 23 years, 5,500 posts, 5 million words.
It's a paid membership blog. Most posts are free and public, but only paid members can comment. What determines whether it's free or paid is when I publish. Monday through Friday, free and public. Saturday and Sunday, for paid members. That's it. Membership info here.
Finally, a Reddit worth reading:
Great questions (and answers).
Haha, my favorite!
Why is the potato diet so insanely effective, and the potato so goddamn satiating? any theories on this?
permalinkembed
[–]StephanGuyenet[S] 5 points 9 hours ago
This is one of my favorite topics because I grow and eat a lot of potatoes and I think they don’t deserve their bad reputation. We harvested 500 lbs of spuds last summer and fall, and 800 lbs the year before. Potatoes come up a few times in the book, including a more detailed discussion of some of the topics I’ll mention here.
Susanna Holt and colleagues found that plain potatoes were the most sating (on a per-calorie basis) of 38 common foods they tested in a research setting. Potatoes are very sating because they’re not very calorie-dense and not that palatable (if eaten plain, not fried or covered in butter and cheese). There may also be other reasons that we (or I) don’t yet understand.
The potato diet works in part because it has so little variety, since food variety is a major driver of total calorie intake (the “buffet effect”). Potatoes are one of the few foods that contain a complete enough complement of nutrients that you can eat them exclusively for months and remain healthy. There aren’t very many other options for one-food diets that almost completely eliminate variety.
I also wonder whether the extremely low fat content of the potato diet contributes. The brain seems to cut back appetite when we eat diets that are at a macronutrient extreme. This is observed on very-low-carbohydrate (ketogenic) diets as well as very-low-fat diets. This is consistent with the observation that almost any type of nutrient deficiency cuts the appetite (e.g., vitamin or mineral deficiencies). The brain/body may perceive the super low fat content of the diet as a nutrient deficiency. To be clear, this is my personal speculation.
He does a very fair treatment of it in the book, too.
Long time lurker first time poster. I think Tim nailed it, I’ve come through the the ranks as many others have and as far as the many dietary approaches discussed the past decade. I tried a low fat approach fairly recently as an experiment and same results, lowered appetite as when I was low carb. I was convinced that wouldn’t be the case and I would be ravenous. Another experience under the belt, look forward to the book.
I should correct myself and say Stephen nailed it
The book is so good and echoes what I have been thinking, that protein is far more important. So always repleate protein and either higher carb and lower fat, or the inverse.
Last few days I’m been dabbling in that. 100-150g daily of protein via lean meat (and I often do braises and soups where I can use my fat separator), seafood, oysters, sardines, water-packed tuna, LF cottage cheese, etc., coupled with potatoes, carrots, onions and garlic in various forms. No calorie counting, simply an emphasis on lowish fat protein and whole starches, plus, 3 eggs, a little whole grain bread (no butter cause I dip in eggs or meat dishes). No supplements (I’m becoming more and more skeptical of all of them).
One additional thing I found is two new products produced by Dr. Gundry, the heart surgeon guy. Vital Reds and Primal Plants. One scoop of each in a smoothies with a raw egg and 6 oz water and 4 oz whole milk. Delicious, first think in morning, huge appetite suppression.
Final thing is eating window. 16-18 hours fasting daily. Super cinch.
Anyway, fun results in just a few days (trying to shed about 15 pounds). But to reiterate, of all these measures, I think lean protein is way king for a more sustainable deal. Potato hack is great, but my preference would be to have a regular eating way that incorporates a good amount of potatoes daily.
Don’t forget the fasting…….the diet thing is driving me crazy.
Almost zero to do with what the book is about, Hap. Your comment is literally as meaningless as a comment that says, don’t forget about the carbs or, don’t forget about the fat. Protein, on the other hand, is quite different, neurologically.
This is a neurology not-a-diet-book “diet book.”
I’m into chapter 7. Can’t put it down.
Yes…the comment was intended to be stupid……sort of.
However, I am actively involved in neuroscience research, so I welcome the good Dr’s book which Amazon says will reach me Saturday. I even went for the print version because a Kindle White paper is useless for really looking at tables and figures. Right now I am engaged with a colleague at UCLA in a lively , spirited, discussion regarding the effects of ketosis on cognitive sparing/compensastion in AD. He agrees that ketone bodies help in AD (at least on FDG brain scans) compensate for metabolic dysfunction in glucose metabolism….and ketones increase blood flow to brain regions affected by AD (all this is good and probably therapeutic to a degree). He won’t agree with me that there is evidence that ketones are “neuroprotective”…..at least not yet. I’m working on him.
However, even though not a diet book, things do “boil down” and I have come to embrace the “fasting” element as not only a dietary “procedure”…..but an essential element of a an overall health habit for life, including effects on cognition and preservation , thereof. 16:8 or one day/week seems reasonable. I would not recommend a full on ketogenic diet at this point. You are welcome, Tim. In fact, if I were in position to recommend a “diet”…..I would be paralyzed….or nobody would pay me because I would dispense common sense…..and that is not necessarily what the “faithful” wish to hear. I am just about through with diet books. It’s become too convoluted.
I’ll be interested to read your comments when done.
Good enough, Hap.
I can tell you that all the excellent figures come through very clean on the iPad Mini in the Kindle app (you can enlarge, too). Can’t speak to the white paper versions of Kindle.
Yes….I should probably read on iPad app. I just generally go for the little Kindle. Even Stephen mentioned it on Reddit that he preferred the print version for the reason I stated.
Here’s some grist for your Vital Reds choice. The same UCLA MD (see above) just published a paper in a Gerontology journal pointing out that consuming grapes (presumed resveratrol and other polyphenols) produced improvements in cognitive function. I will be watching carefully to see if your thoughts become sharper and more artfully articulated…….
I’m honestly very, very disappointed in this book. Really.
There were some really good bits, but nothing really new under the sun for anyone who’s been reading Richard and Tim and Sisson and Pollan and Ray Peat, et. al, for any length of time: eat real whole food, whole carbs, and protein. Don’t eat processed crap because it’s the combo of fat and carbs with low fiber and high calorie density that make us fat. Protein helps with satiation. Carbs and particularly sugar attenuates the stress response. Etc.
That said, I liked it okay until I hit Chapter 11, supposedly the “practical” recommendations on what we can do to fix things. WHAT a let down.
Basically, a lot of the same ol’, same ol’. Guyanet had a real opportunity here to work in some ideas incorporating the cutting edge science that’s been going on with regards to using cognitive techniques to retrain the limbic system (amydgala, hypothalamus, the “reward system” Guyanet refers to) with reference to food rewards, stuff like Norman Doidges is writing about, or Joe Dispenza. Brain retraining progams like Gupta or DNRS. He could have at least offered up some tasty, nutritious alternatives to the processed crap, that can thereby help us ease out of relying and craving the processed crap. Potato chunks lightly coated with coconut oil and baked crispy will utterly kill a jones for fast food fries, for example.
But instead instead he totally devolved into the most common Lefty Progressive tropes of using taxation as a way to modify behavior, government restrictions on advertising, and biking and walking to work.
He does throw other ideas in there, but those are the standouts that he devotes a lot of time to, and otherwise there’s really nothing original that hasn’t been said in almost every other diet and weightloss book any of us have ever read.
I expected better from him.
Most disturbingly, his stance on food advertising sounded creepily like Michelle Obama’s campaign on children’s “nutrition” and her war on school lunches.
IMO Guyanet is now in the Leftard celebrity bubble. Look for skewed science and recommendations from here on out.
TL;DR summary: if you’re fat, it’s not your fault. It’s your brain. And maybe your genes. You can’t control it much, because eeeeevvvviiiiillllll corporations want to keep you eating. So we must expect the government to regulate the food industry for us. Plus, walk to work and throw junk food out of your pantry and don’t watch food commercials and don’t let your kids watch food commercials and that will go a long way towards doing what little you can to solve your own problems.
And finally…the references take up 30% of the printed volume of the book. Which is both bad and good. Good cuz it’s well-researched and we need to be able to find the references if we want them. But basically we’re paying $5.00 for a bunch of references most of us will never look at.
Anyway, disappointed. Very.
Ha.
Well, interesting how we can have such different takes, even though I can give some weight to most of your critiques.
Yeah, I did like a lot of it. But chapter 11 TOTALLY left me cold. Read it again if you don’t completely see what I mean.
But maybe I need to re-read, too.
And maybe mood will improve tomorrow. ;p
Have you read anything by Norman Doidge or looked into any of the “neural training” techniques? Really interesting stuff. Mindfulness and meditation repackaged, on steroids, with scientific validation. Dovetails perfectly with most of what Guyanet went on about in the majority of his book, and then he almost completely leaves it out. Certainly his references to meditation aren’t nearly as compelling as what’s really going on with the neuroscience.
Dude, I live in the pines at 4,200 feet, deal with dogs who hate rain but find snow curious (perhaps because they get to see their pee).
I really only get out much for essentials and most screen I watch is streaming movies and series with no ads.
This IS my neural reprogramming.
…Oh, and I did like the first half of the book better than the last.
Didn’t care much for the circadian rhythm and the following chapter much.
That doesn’t sound like neural retraining, that sounds like heaven. Plus being able to see what’s been pee’d on before you touch it is icing on the cake. LOL
Seriously, the scientifically supported theory that we can resolve problems arising from a damaged limbic system (limbic system encompasses most of what Guyanet calls the rewards system) and make it more functional via deliberately directed and disciplined thought is truly a game-changer. It’s not just the purview of some special, spiritual few, we can all do it. But it involves a lot more directed, mindful, conscious thought than most activities. Even writing, for example. Even serious writing. Using that as example because writing is one of the most deliberate disciplines I know of. It’s kind of tough, especially if one is severely brain damaged.
“Damage” being a catch-all term than can include mildly congenital damage (e.g., fetal trauma causing a sort of “pre-birth PTSD”, not necessarily birth defects although more serious cognitive birth defects can be beneficially affected, as well), childhood abuse or trauma, “regular” PTSD, chronic stress, or actual injury to the brain tissue. Etc.
Anyway, Guyanet missed a great opportunity here to give people new, useful advice instead of promoting the same tired old suggestions we’ve been seeing for the last decade or two, or pushing dreary Lefty/anticapitalist talking points. I was really looking forward to chapter 11 and by the end of it I was like “WTF??!!”
We’ve had the worst winter in many years, took me 2 hours to get to work, and 2-3 to get home. But i did I throughly enjoy taking my puppy in the snow! Loved it. He’s a Jack-chi. Looks like a cousin to your Rat Terriers. :-) He’s been a real comfort to me while lots of bad things happen. I put a coat on him for the first few storms as his fur was pretty light. Gradually we both toughened up.
I’ve been keeping my fat low, and enjoying all the starches. Forgot about potato hack! (That how stressed I’ve been). I truly need potatoes daily. Especially with a farm egg…
I’ve got my animals on raw meat (with bone, organs, blood, vegetables and berries). Amazing that when they are on a non kibble diet, they don’t need tonnes of water. The dog drinks some, the cat never drinks unless he is given some dried fishies. The dog is higher energy and seems hungry so I’m giving him some cooked and cooled potatoes. Also frozen mixed veg. He loves his green beans! Still experimenting.