Image by Yinan Chen from Pixabay
Our body multi-purposes. When we’re in pain, it produces natural painkillers that are comparable to the opioid morphine. These same opioids also help to regulate the body’s energy balance.
We’re talking about food. We know that natural opioids are released when we eat the food we like, but surprisingly, the brain releases even more when we eat food we don’t enjoy. Why?
Because the brain likes a full stomach and it dumps more opioids to make up for the reduced pleasure so that you eat more.
Eating triggers the opioid system whether or not we like what we’re eating. It’s Nature’s way of keeping weight on us.
People who are obese release less opioids when they eat because they have fewer receptors in their brains. The brain doesn’t want them to eat much. When they lose the extra weight, their receptors recover.
It’s all about balance between pain, feeding and pleasure.
Claudia
Join me on Facebook at Dr. Claudia McCulloch.
