Are you “hooked” on certain foods? Do you find it virtually impossible stop eating them? Did you know that food manufacturers use precise combinations of ingredients, tastes, and textures to override self-control?

It’s true, and in this episode of the BioTrust Radio podcast, we’ll talk about how processed foods are perfectly engineered to hit this “bliss point” and drive overeating. But that’s not all, as we’ll give you 9 key strategies to nip food cravings in the bud. Enjoy!

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There’s more talk than ever about the addictive power of food. While that topic is heavily debated, there’s no question that people experience food cravings. And by and large, people crave high-calorie, high-sugar, high-fat junk foods, which obviously do little good for your health or waistline.

What drives food cravings? Why do we find it so difficult to stop eating certain foods? What combinations of ingredients, tastes, and textures are most likely to make us overeat? How do we figure out which foods hit this “bliss point”?

What are the best—and worst—foods to eat if we want to limit our food cravings? What are some other strategies that we can implement to combat food cravings?

In this episode of the BioTrust Radio health and fitness podcast, we’re going to tackle all these questions and more, including a question from BioTrust VIP Member BilleJo Baxa): “What is the general consensus on peanut butter? Too much fat? Ok to have on occasion?”

We hope you enjoy the show, and if you have a question of your own that you’d like to hear answered on the podcast, please feel free to share it in the comments section below. Enjoy!

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Have a comment or question on this episode? Comment below.

And remember…you’re just one decision away from better health and a better body

Additional Resources:

• What Drives Us to Crave Food (and how to stop food cravings)
• What Peanut Butter Does to Your Body (Not Just Peanuts—Bliss Point)

Food Cravings

Shawn: All right. We are back on BioTrust Radio. We’ve got a great topic today. And we are your hosts, Shawn Wells and Tim Skwiat. And we’re happy to be back. We’re going to start by answering a question. We’ve done some shows where we answered a bunch of questions from the VIP group on Facebook and the blog, but now we’re going to try answering one question and maybe it will lead into our topic, our 30-minute topic, and we’ll do a blend, if you will.

So this is a really great question from a VIP group member. BillieJo Baxa says, “What is the general consensus on peanut butter? I mean actual peanut butter. Too much fat? Okay to have on occasion?” This is a great question. I think something that comes up a lot. And we also see all these different things like almond butter and body builder nut butters. They’ve got whey added to them and fiber and all this stuff, like PB2. There’s just like a million of them now. Muscle butter and all these things. So this is a great question.

And then, even at the grocery store, there’s the high fat, the low fat, the smooth, the creamy, and the heartier ones, the ones like Peter Pan that have a ton of sugar, and the ones like Jif that have very low sugar. So it’s a great question. Some have certain oils added to them, potentially. I guess, I’d like for Tim to jump into this one first, maybe.

Tim: Instead of a scientific answer, I’m going to give you my personal opinion on this one.

Shawn: Oh. Wow. Okay.

Tim: I love peanut butter.

Shawn: Me too.

Tim: I’m a big peanut butter fan. The general consensus, as far as Shawn and Tim are concerned, four thumbs up.

Shawn: If I was to pick one favorite candy, it might actually be Reese’s.

Tim: Oh, yeah.

Shawn: Peanut butter is just good.

Tim: Yeah, it’s just good. And actually, that’s my problem with it, is that it’s very palatable to me. Like you’ve already alluded to, a lot of the peanut butters out there have some added sugar, added salt, and even added oils. And all those things together combine to make it really tasty and really hard to eat. I mean, some people can eat a lot of peanut butter in one sitting, myself included. But even for the average person, it’s easy to take 1, 2, 3 big scoops of peanut butter and just kind of eat it like a lollypop. And generally speaking, that’s more than you would if you took like a handful of nuts or something like that.

Shawn: Right. Is a serving like a tablespoon or something?

Tim: A serving is a tablespoon, yeah.

Shawn: That’s probably a lot less than most people. It’s kind of like cereal. It’s like one little cup. You eat those little cereal things, the single-serve cereals. No one eats just that amount of cereal, ever.

Tim: Yeah, exactly.

Shawn: All right, so the peanut butter, I agree. It’s easy to really dig into it. And we’ve talked about this before, there’s a reason. So we’re going to make this show about food cravings and the bliss point. And when I say “bliss,” I’m not talking about the holy wedded matrimony. I’m talking about the “bliss point,” which is a food science term. And it’s something that’s done, sometimes it occurs naturally in foods, like I think when bacon was first cooked up, people were like, “Oh man, this is delicious. It’s crispy, it’s got this oily mouth feel. It’s got salty. It’s incredible.” That’s a bliss point, and that’s the reason almost everyone loves bacon.

But there’s a lot of foods that are engineered to have the bliss point and to manipulate your brain into being addicted to them. We’ve talked about this before, that when you go into a convenience store, that convenience store is the store of addictions. It’s all about impulse. You walk in that store and you’ve got sugar, you’ve got caffeine, you’ve got tobacco, you’ve got lottery tickets, you’ve got colors, alcohol, and it’s all about addiction. And these things are powerful.

You even just go up to the register to pay for something and you’re just literally inundated at the register. You can’t avoid it. There’s things right at your feet, there’s things right at your eye level, all these colorful packages, and they’re filled with things that are just impulse. It’s just a quick little bite of something, right? But it’s what? These candies are often they’re crunchy and they have like this caramel type texture. And then they have sweet and they have salty, and they have acid.

It’s like you go down the line and that’s the bliss point is, when you start getting into multiple textures or multiple palates and you really hit this overwhelming impact on your dopamine and serotonin, where literally, it’s the same effect as having cocaine or something. Not obviously in terms of physiological impact on you long-run, but I’m talking about the addictive portion of your brain. Like what it’s doing to dopamine and serotonin and a lot of these recreational drugs, it’s similar. So when people say it’s addictive or it’s hard to get out of that convenience store, it is. It really is. It’s physiological and it’s very difficult. What do you think?

Tim: Yeah, Shawn. Awesome points there because the reward-response to these hyper‑palatable junk foods is real. It’s very real. It lights up the brain center where the reward pathways, like you said, where a drug might have the same effect. What’s really interesting about that is the reward center in the brain is right next to the habit‑forming center in the brain, so we get this positive reinforcement for this behavior. So, that’s how it can become repeatable. Like we get these food cravings because our brain is like, “I need this. I need this.” Like we talked about before, the more that you have these junk foods, the more that you feel like you need them. And actually, a lot of times the more of them that you need to repeat the same type of response, almost to the extent like a drug, right?

Shawn: Right.

Tim: Like a habituation type of thing where you need more of it. You know, if you find that you have these food cravings, maybe cold turkey isn’t the way to go for you. Maybe it’s just like trying to back off of it for a single day and see how you do. And then if you can do it one day, maybe you try two days, because what I’ve noticed is that when people remove them, even for short periods of time, they feel like they need them less and less. And so that kind of snowballs into not having those food cravings or needing that junk food as much.

Shawn: And maybe replacing it with something that can elevate your dopamine or serotonin in and of itself. Let’s say, obviously exercise, or going to an amusement park and getting on a roller coaster. Just whatever it is, literally trying to replace that addiction of food. Now you don’t want to get into other types of addiction. There are definitely scenarios that people that have predisposition towards addiction, that they can trade one addiction for another. I’ve seen that before with overeating or people that are addicted to junk food, that they turn to drugs, turn to sex, turn to gambling, all these different things. So you don’t want to do something that’s a destructive behavior.

But certainly finding a healthy behavior, like exercising or going to an amusement park, or just playing board games, or whatever it is for you that’s going to be enjoyable and maybe doesn’t get you just dwelling on it. I find that probably the times that you want these things is maybe when you’re bored or you’re tired. And if you’re doing something, you’re not bored or tired, right?

Tim: Right.

Shawn: And so just getting up and maybe walking around sometimes can help. Like if you’re at your desk and you’re like, “I need something. I’m going to go to the candy machine.”

Tim: Absolutely, Shawn. That was a perfect segue there because we’re talking about factors that drive us to eat or that drive food cravings, and certainly boredom is one of the big triggers. You brought up a really good point right there, in terms of not only identifying triggers, but just being more mindful of what may cause you to want to eat those things. And so the big first step in dealing with food cravings or dealing with overeating things like that is really just becoming aware of your habits.

And I think a classic example is sitting at the TV. Like how many times do I see people sit down to TV and just eat.

Shawn: And just eat.

Tim: And usually it’s mindlessly, so usually they’re overeating. Rarely are they eating like baby carrots.

Shawn: Right. I used to do that. I’d get home from school, watch cartoons, or something like that. You start eating, like have some cereal or whatever.

Tim: Yeah.

Shawn: It’s very easy to just sit there and zone out. And it feels like you can’t wait to get off the school bus because not only do you get to watch cartoons but you get to have sugar cereal. It becomes like the thing that you anticipate, right?

Tim: Right. Habit.

Shawn: But what happens when I started playing sports or something. That replaced me sitting there watching TV and having the junk food. So now I’m playing sports after school and that has some positive effects, and I look forward to that, and it’s exciting.

So certainly I think trying to find some ways to replace those. But it’s interesting you said “cold turkey.” It just actually made me think of kind of like the Paleo-Ancestral Whole Food thing like where eating cold turkey. I mean, that’s a thought. So, like almost all these foods, the reason that they’re hitting this insane bliss point is because there’s salty and they’re sweet, and there’s a certain texture in foods. But how often do we eat a whole food that has a slew of all things.

Tim: All of them. Yeah.

Shawn: It really doesn’t happen. If you have an orange. It does have sweet and acidic, but it’s not like it has tons of these things where it’s just like so addictive. If you have turkey. Watch what happens with nuts. So you have plain nuts and they’re good. It’s like you’ll eat a handful and you’re like, “Oh, that’s enough.” But watch what happens. They put cottonseed or peanut oil on it, right?

Tim: Right.

Shawn: But they say that so that the salt can stick. But then they also put maltodextrin on there or some kind of spicy thing along with the sugar thing. And it’s like it’s honey habanero or something like that. And now you’re getting into the bliss point again, and how many peanuts can you eat when they’re covered in oil and salt? How many peanuts can you eat when they’re honey habanero or whatever? A whole lot more than when they’re not, right?

Tim: Absolutely.

Shawn: When they’re just plain, unsalted peanuts.

Tim: Yeah. Even the way you prepare foods, right? Because roasting the nut probably brings out a little bit of sweetness in them. But the three pillars of processed foods are sugar, salt, and fat, right?

Shawn: Right.

Tim: That’s what they talk about in the bliss point book. I mean, those things work together to enhance the mouthfeel, to light up the brain, and just to drive overeating really.

Going back to the boredom thing, I love what you said about finding other things to replace that time, because I can think of probably at least five or six things that you might be able to do that would be healthier for you. Things like maybe it’s reading a book, maybe it’s doing yoga, maybe it’s doing a bodyweight workout, maybe it’s writing a thank you note, maybe it’s playing with your kids, maybe it’s actually having a discussion with your partner.

Shawn: Yeah. Yeah.

Tim: There’s a lot of things you can do with your time instead of just mindlessly eat, which drives food cravings. And the boredom, we talked about that being a trigger. Another trigger is stress.

Shawn: Yes, great point.

Tim: I think it’s like 70-75% of people tend to eat when they’re stressed. In that sense, stress drives food cravings.

Shawn: Yes. Some people don’t eat when they’re very stressed. I think with me, it’s somewhere in-between. Like at a certain level of stress, I’ll eat, but at high-high stress, I will not eat. But I think it’s obviously different for different people. Yeah, that’s a great point about stress.

Tim: And think about the types of food cravings, again, that people have when they’re stress eating or emotional eating. Under that same umbrella of stress, I would put emotional eating. So whether you’re feeling blue or sometimes even if you’re happy, you might.

Shawn: Right.

Tim Most the time, the food choices people are making are not very good. They’re highly palatable, high caloric, high sugar, high added fats, and usually poor quality fats in those foods—that bliss point we’ve talked about. So that’s driving even more food cravings, driving overeating, driving this vicious cycle of gaining weight and then probably losing weight. The process of losing weight involves undereating, which drives food cravings and hunger, right?

Shawn: Right. So I’ll ask people out there, “If you were to drink water and you were to drink food that isn’t heavily processed and doesn’t have a lot of salt and oil and whatever added to it. Let’s say if you were to have water, fresh raw broccoli, some raw carrots, maybe some turkey that doesn’t have salt on it. How much of that stuff do you think you could eat?

Tim: Yeah.

Shawn: And you’d probably eat what you need and what your brain says, “Okay, we’re good. We’re full. We have enough.” But if I put potato chips and I put Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and I put ice cream and cookies, obviously some people think those are obviously bad foods. But there’s foods like these TV dinners that are supposedly healthy like Weight Watchers and whatever. They still have all these spices and things added to them—again, hitting that bliss point—that manipulate you and make you say, “Oh man, this is so delicious. I need to keep eating more,” and maybe that portion is small enough in that package, but you’re still hungry.

So, I would say one thing to do is try and start pulling your foods apart. Start eating whole foods. Maybe just be cognizant of all these things when put together are meant to manipulate you. And be frustrated with that and say, “I’m not going to be manipulated. I want my whole food. I want my healthy food. I want to drink more water.”

I was mentioning water because there’s studies that have shown if you have a meal with soft drinks, like sweet tea was popular when I was in North Carolina. Everyone just has it on the table. And I can tell you, man, I could pound probably three times the calories if sweet tea was on the table next to me.

Tim: Really?

Shawn: If some people have coke or whatever it is. And by the way, the fizzy is part of the bliss point in these sodas, because I don’t know if you’ve ever had a flat soda? Do you realize like how much sweeter it is?

Tim: Yeah.

Shawn: Big-time, right? But you don’t sense as much sweetness when there’s the fizzy. And it’s like it’s all very manipulative, but it’s making you overeat all these things. So these sweet liquids, these bliss point foods, these highly processed foods are making you overeat, they’re driving food cravings. And this is why there’s data on things like diet sodas and diet candies and gum and things that you think are low-calorie and potentially good for you, but people are still gaining weight. Why? Because they’re sweet, because it’s leading you into wanting to eat other things, and there’s a number of reasons that that may be happening.

We’ve talked about leptin and some other things that may be the reason, but at the end of the day, these things, these processed foods, these things are still delicious. These diet sodas and these gums, and whatever, that have acid and sweet, even if they’re low calorie, make you want to eat more. You just have to be aware of these things creating food cravings for you. It’s really like the diet sodas and the diet gums or whatever are like gateway drugs, so to speak. And then you find yourself eating ice cream and all of a sudden you’re like, “How did I get here?”

Tim: Yeah, right. There may be some compensatory action there, too. Like a classic example is the person who goes to a fast food joint and gets the double big sandwich or whatever it is, but orders a Diet Coke. So there’s sometimes some compensatory. But I like what you’re saying because there may be some trickeration going on inside the body where you’re bringing in this sweetness without calories and so the body’s like, “You’re not fulfilling the need that I expect,” because evolutionarily speaking, our bodies are kind of driven to seek out sweet things and fatty things because we need calories.

Shawn: Right.

Tim: And so, sweet things.

Shawn: It’s an energy storage.

Tim: Exactly.

Shawn: To survive. But now we’re definitely in an energy surplus.

Tim: And that’s a perfect segue into another factor that I think we’re just constantly bringing up here, and just to call it out is the environment. We’re just surrounded by some people call like an “obesogenic environment” because these foods, these highly palatable, bliss point foods are just all around us.

Shawn: It’s difficult. It’s a war. There is a war going on around you.

Tim: Yeah.

Shawn: And like I said, you walk into a convenience store, you are a strong person to be able to walk out of there without getting lottery, cigarettes, alcohol, sugar, caffeine. If you can walk out of there without buying something like that, you are strong person. You’re a strong-willed person. It’s difficult. There is a war on for your money and your addiction.

Tim: I agree with you completely. An example came up, we were traveling this past weekend on a little road trip and we stopped in this small town in Texas and there’s really not any restaurants or anything like that. People go to the convenience store to get fried chicken, fried tacos, all this stuff. It just made us sick to see it, that this was all that they had available to them, but that’s all that they knew. That was their environment. It had bliss point written all over it. It was a self-fulling prophecy of food cravings.

Shawn: Right.

Tim: You could tell by the people that were walking in and out of there that this was all they had available to them. And so a good nutrition mentor of mine, Dr. John Berardi. he once said, and this is stuck with me for a long time. His first law of good nutrition is that if a food is available, if a food is around, you or someone you marginally tolerate or someone in your family is going to eat it, “If it’s there, you’re going to eat it.” And the opposite of that is, “If it’s not there, you’re not going to eat it.”

Shawn: Right.

Tim: So, one of the first things is to create a friendly environment. We talk about with a lot of our coaching clients, kitchen makeovers, getting rid of stuff.

Shawn: Take back control.

Tim: Exactly. And having healthier foods, energizing foods available to you.

Shawn: Remove the temptation.

Tim: Exactly. So having a basket of fresh fruit readily available. Things like bananas that are easier than maybe like an orange. I mean, oranges are super healthy, but most people don’t want to peel an orange. Apples, bananas, grapes, and things like that that can be eaten are a little bit easier transition for a lot of people. But getting the boxes of cereal off the counter and getting the sodas out of plain sight, and getting the cookies and chips out of plain sight.

There’s studies where they put a bowl of M&Ms on someone’s work desk and within arm’s reach, and they eat 50% more, or something ridiculous, than if that bowl of M&Ms is out of my arm’s reach but still on my desk. Like we’re lazy people. So if food is here, we’re going to take it. But if it’s not, we’re not going to go for it. So get as much junk out of sight as you can. Remove the food cravings. Create a bliss point FREE environment.

Shawn: Right, and you know I do keto and this makes me think there’s a lot of people. One, there’s some cool keto snacks that are very quick. You can do that to replace some things that might be junky. You can have, again, nuts that don’t have all that other stuff on it. Just eat the plain nuts. You can have a boiled egg. You can have cheese. Some things like that. And again, I prefer whole food.

I think even in keto it’s very easy to potentially, like someone says, “I can’t lose weight and I’m doing keto. Why is that?” I bet I know why. I bet I know why. Because even though keto is great at reducing your appetite, and by rule, it removes a lot of food cravings. But what’s happening potentially is that they’re still eating processed foods or they’re using a lot of artificial sweeteners and salt, and it already has probably oil because it’s higher in fat. And so you’re eating these things that are making you overeat. You’re overriding your brain. Your brain has satiety signals that says, “Enough, enough, stop eating.” But you’re overriding those signals with this sweet, salty, oil, like you talked about, this bliss point. And now you’re in a situation where, even in keto, you’re overeating.

So you need to take the power back and you need to think about what you’re eating and get, like Tim’s saying, it’s kind of like surrounding yourself with the right people, surround yourself with the right foods. But people is another one.

Tim: Big time.

Shawn: You talked about stress before. It is a good thing to surround yourself with people that have healthy habits. People that are eating healthy, that are exercising. Who do you have around you? Are you surrounded by people that have poor eating habits, that are addicted, that are saying negative things that’s making you want to shame yourself, or maybe just eat because of the stress? There’s a lot of things that are going on around you.

Have you thought about the places you’re going, the people that are around you, what’s available? Try and avoid that convenience store. Maybe you go an extra mile so you don’t go in that certain store that set up a certain way. Think about those things.

Another big one that we’ve talked about they can lead to a lot of food cravings—and there’s a ton of data on this now—is sleep.

Tim: Sleep can definitely affect appetite and food cravings, and more often than not, it’s going to leave you reaching for those foods that hit the bliss point.

Shawn: And most of you listening are not getting enough sleep. You have poor sleep hygiene. We have whole shows on this and we get into it very deeply, but I’ll just say that if you’re not getting enough sleep, I think even 6 hours, the studies have shown, 6 hours still is not enough. And those people that are getting 6 hours versus something like 7‑1/2 or 8 are still deprived and have food cravings for junk food, crave more of these foods that hit the bliss point to compensate. Why? Because your brain’s low on energy, and it’s quick energy.

And evolutionarily, it says, “Hey, sweet means I can get something quick. I can get a quick burst of energy,” but the problem is a hyper-availability and it doesn’t stop there and we just keep eating. So you kind of open that door because you’re needing something. Your brain’s saying, “Hey, we need energy. I’m running low here, guy.”

Tim: Yeah.

Shawn: Then that’s a downward spiral, too, especially if you’re consistently sleep-deprived as many people are because of blue light, because of long work hours, because of watching stressful TV shows at night like Game of Thrones and whatever, that are like really dramatic and work you up and now I can’t get to sleep. I think, actually, exercising too late at night, that is one for me. I’ve had to switch to exercising first thing in the morning because I get very alert from my exercise. So it’s great first thing in the morning, but it’s bad late at night for me.

Tim: Yeah. Just to piggyback on a few things. That all powerful. I probably should have just dropped the mic right there. But actually, with lack of sleep, it actually affects hunger hormones. So when you’re not sleeping enough, you see an increase in the hunger hormone, ghrelin, and you see a decrease in leptin, which is the satiety hormone that helps you feel full and satisfied. So physiologically, your body’s working against you from that sense.

Another thing that I think, too, with lack of sleep is that just being tired we have a limited capacity to make decisions. So in this world of choices, food choices, if my habit is to typically go towards poor food choices, I’m not going to really want to go out of my way and make the healthier choice. I just have limited resources, so I’m going to tend to gravitate towards my habit and I’m going to tend to do what feels good.

One other thing with sleep, typically, if you’re not getting enough sleep, it’s not because you’re waking up earlier than normal. It’s probably because you’re staying up a little bit later than normal.

Shawn: Totally.

Tim: And by far, research shows that the later people stay up, the more calories they consume, which makes sense. But those calories typically come from junk foods or poor foods—those foods that are synonymous with the bliss point.

Shawn: Right. People usually aren’t staying up super late because they’re exercising even more.

Tim: Right.

Shawn: It’s probably because they’re watching TV or they’re stressed. Yeah, exactly. And they’re playing video games or watching TV, movies, whatever, and then that leads to food cravings, more eating, and staying up even later, because now you just ate. Yeah, it’s a downward spiral. So, great points.

I was actually reading an article just recently that brain fog you feel when you haven’t got enough sleep, they’ve actually shown that the neurons are functioning less optimally. That they actually are conducting slower. So that brain fog is quite literal.

Tim: It’s real.

Shawn: It’s real, like you’re neurons are not functioning optimally in your brain, so they’re actually functioning tired. It’s a bunch of your cells didn’t get the sleep they need and they’re functioning that way.

And another thing that happens when we sleep is your brain actually gets cleaned up. You get rid of some of these toxins and things that are in your brain that may lead to maybe poor decision-making. So there’s something to be said for the physiological connection to the psychological connection.

Tim: Right.

Shawn: So when you’re sleeping is when your immune system is doing what it needs to do, when your brain is being cleaned up and memories are being stored in certain ways, and there’s a lot of things that happen when you sleep. That reset button is hit, so you need to get that sleep. Otherwise, you can make poor decisions. Not just with—we were talking about food cravings—but again, addictive behaviors. So, you could be more likely, when you don’t get enough sleep, to be gambling, to be sexually addicted, to be all these different things that may be negative health habits, that are certainly not healthy for you long run, as you’re looking to live a longer, healthier, happier life.

Tim: Yeah, I mean sleep is important for everybody, no matter what, but I love that you pointed it out that way because I think it’s even more important when you’re trying to make healthy lifestyle changes, because your capacity to make the choices is limited. Some people call it willpower or things like that, but that capacity is limited. And when you’re tired, you’re going to have less capacity.

Shawn: Right.

Tim: Less capacity to make important decisions. So, if you’re faced with the decision to: Am I going to do what I’ve always done, this “bad habit” or am I going to make the choice, the difficult choice to adopt a new habit today. If I’m tired, more often than not…

Shawn: …you’re not going to make the difficult choice.

Tim: Right.

Shawn: And you’re going to feel like you’re on autopilot, go for what you know. You’re going to give into your food cravings. You’re going to be tempted by the bliss point.

Tim: Right. Go with what you know. Exactly.

Shawn: You’re not going to do something more difficult. So, yes, you need to be rested. If you’re going to battle the war of food cravings and bliss points that’s going on around you with all these colorful packages that you’re getting inundated with, assaulted with, I’m telling you people, this is a war that’s on for your money. Ultimately, they want you to be addicted because it comes down to money. And there isn’t an addiction to raw broccoli, but it’s healthy for you, right? But there’s certainly an addiction to those Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups or ice cream or potato chips. You can’t just eat one.

Tim: Yes.

Shawn: I mean, it’s in the saying on the bag, like “You can’t eat just one.” Like they’re saying we’ve got to you, buddy.

Tim: They’re laughing at you.

Shawn: We’ve got you. You’re going to destroy this bag and you can’t do anything about it. Once you start, you can’t stop.

Tim: That’s another tagline, “Once you pop, you can’t stop,” right?

Shawn: There you go, they’re Pringles.

Tim: All these chips.

Shawn: Oh my goodness. And that’s another good last point I’ll make before we wrap up, is that if some of these addictive foods, think about like the volume they’re providing. And it’s amazing, the calories they’re providing in so little volume. If you smash down those chips, if you smash down those Cheerios or whatever, you’re left with a little cup full of dust, right?

Tim: Yeah. Right.

Shawn: That’s it. But if I try and smash down that broccoli, I’m still left with a lot of broccoli.

Tim: Volume, yeah.

Shawn: These things are very calorically dense with very little volume, so it’s easy to just keep crushing them.

Tim: Yeah. Just because that’s such a powerful point, I think it’s important to point out that our bodies respond to the volume of food that we consume on a daily basis. We have stretch receptors in our digestive tract that signal to our brain that we’re full. So the more calorically dense, volume deficient foods you’re eating, the more you consume; whereas, for example there’s a whole diet on low energy dense foods that Barbara Rolls from Penn State published. It’s all about consuming more low energy dense foods because you feel fuller. You basically get to eat more food by eating less calories. So these are fruits, vegetables, broth-based soups, and even certain dairy. And a lot of properly prepared whole grains fit in the category, as well. There’s definitely a complete discussion on volume of food, as well.

Shawn: We’ll have to cover that on another BioTrust Radio if that’s what you want to hear, because this show is here for you, driven by you. We love you giving us direction. It’s all about the community. So head over to the BioTrust VIP Facebook area or to our blog, ask us questions, give us direction, give us feedback, say you’re terrible, whatever you want to tell us. Hopefully that isn’t the case. Hopefully you’re listening because you like us. But we’ll take listeners anyway we can get them. But we really appreciate you and we love the experience of getting to do this show, and hopefully you appreciate it too. So we’ll be back soon. Thanks everyone.

Tim: Thanks, guys.