Category Archives: Welcome to Your Brain

Regular readers know that I am retired and have been taking courses from The Great Courses for some time. Lately, I have become fascinated with the brain and how it functions.

The latest class I am studying is “The Neuroscience of Everyday Life” taught by Sam Wang, Ph.D, Associate Professor of Molecular Biology and Neuroscience at Princeton University. Additionally, Professor Wang is the co-author of the best-selling book Welcome to Your Brain which has been translated into 20 languages.

Here is the best-selling book Professor Wang co-wrote

I have only just begun reading the book, but I ran across a passage on page 36 that I thought would interest and benefit readers of the blog. The following is from a two-page write-up titled Tricking Your Brain Into Helping You Lose Weight.

This is the conclusion of those two pages:
“Early food exposure influences dietary preferences in adulthood, and eating habits formed in childhood follow many of us around for the rest of our lives.

“Contrary to popular belief, eating correctly doesn’t involve deprivation and hunger. If you are constantly hungry, you are probably not eating right. Your brain’s hunger sensors respond to stomach fullness and to fat and sugar in the bloodstream. To reduce hunger, try combining a large amount of low-calorie food like salad or vegetable soup with a small amount of fat.”

This sounds like a really worthwhile technique. Getting to understand how the brain hunger signals work can be very useful in fighting the battle of the bulge.

“Finally, find some passion in your life beyond eating. It’s much easier to keep your weight down if you have other interesting things to think about. Trips between the television and the refrigerator do not count as exercise or a hobby.”

From the chapter heads, I expect to have more ideas from the book to share with readers. If you can’t wait for snippets from me, I suggest buying the book. It came out several years ago.

Tony