[quote=jpinpb]LOL. eavesdropper – Thanks for that very lengthy explanation. If there isn’t a connection between food and chemical reaction in one’s body, then I am at a loss to explain his happiness. But as I was reading your first post, I was thinking maybe the chocolate had something to do w/it. Then you posted the second post about chocolate. [/quote]
Sorry for the length, jp, but that’s what I get for not checking in on Piggs on a regular basis. When you get into a thread involving discussion of brain chemistry that’s been going on a while, it’s tough to know where to start.
There absolutely is a mind-body connection. Scientists are learning more about it every day and, more important, their curiosity about it keeps growing and fuels some incredible research.
However, the basics of biological function at the cellular level provide the underlying structure for homeostasis, the maintenance of the body’s internal equilibrium. With the advances in biochemistry over the past 40 years, particularly in that of the brain, and the concomitant development and marketing of neurosychological medications, it can be difficult to remember that the human body is an amazing machine. The design boggles the minds of the world’s leading physicians and scientists from a multitude of disciplines, and it is capable of a number and variety of functions that make the most intricately programmed computer look like a 10-key adding machine. Every step of each and every function of the body is a result of a nerve impulse, and requires neurotransmitters like serotonin. So before we mess with the brain’s chemistry, we need to know what we’re doing. Fortunately, the human body, despite its very function-specific design, has the ability to maintain homeostasis not only at a specific point, but across a wide range of values, and very often, can compensate for losses, shortages, and surpluses. However, health care practitioners will tell you that, every day, they see patients who have “improved” their bodies to unhealthy, and sometimes life-threatening, levels via natural methods. After all, what can be the harm in increasing levels of a substance, already existing in the human body, that is known to play a beneficial role in the health of the mind?
[quote=jpinpb] But as I was reading your first post, I was thinking maybe the chocolate had something to do w/it. Then you posted the second post about chocolate. [/quote]
The odds are very good that the chocolate could have played a part in your husband’s “happy” reaction to the cake, roles that may be based on both physical and emotional triggers. Unfortunately, I still don’t have the time to go into it, but will try to provide you with some interesting and instructive material on the subject. In the meantime, beware of what you find on the Internet, and take everything with a grain of salt (the low-sodium variety, if that’s a problem).
[quote=jpinpb] There must be something that happens from the time your taste buds get the flavor of certain foods that triggers something in the brain. Your explanation was detailed, yet I still think there’s more to it other than people just willfully and knowingly eating badly or lacking will-power.
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Again, you are spot-on in your assumptions, but the research is very lengthy, and is incomplete. But it is fascinating, and there are many very good sources of information out there that detail some of the research that’s been going on in the last several years. The choices of what to eat, and the resulting effects, come from physical and emotional impulses, and can vary depending on cultural (thank you, Brian!), genetic, environmental, age, and other factors.
As mentioned, the research is far from complete, and the value of much of what is out there is in what research can be built upon it. But you have a natural curosity and, I suspect, the intellect to go with it, and I think you could really get into some of the available material.
[quote=jpinpb] Certain foods seem much more satisfying than others that are lacking nutrients. Probably more nutrients in an apple than chocolate cake.[/quote]
Depends what you mean by “satisfying” and it depends upon what you mean by “nutrients”. I firmly believe that there are times in a person’s life when a large piece of sinfully rich and delicious chocolate cake will provide them with much more important nutrition than the apple will. Those occasions are rare, but they do occur, and I think that it is important to recognize and respond to them as part of a well-rounded health regimen.
