Neurophysiological Pathways to Obesity: Below Awareness and Beyond Individual Control

A global obesity epidemic is occurring simultaneously with ongoing increases in the availability and salience of food in the environment. Obesity is increasing across all socioeconomic groups and educational levels and occurs even among individuals with the highest levels of education and expertise in nutrition and related fields. Given these circumstances, it is plausible that excessive food consumption occurs in ways that defy personal insight or are below individual awareness. The current food environment stimulates automatic reflexive responses that enhance the desire to eat and increase caloric intake, making it exceedingly difficult for individuals to resist, especially because they may not be aware of these influences. This article identifies 10 neurophysiological pathways that can lead people to make food choices subconsciously or, in some cases, automatically. These pathways include reflexive and uncontrollable neurohormonal responses to food images, cues, and smells; mirror neurons that cause people to imitate the eating behavior of others without awareness; and limited cognitive capacity to make informed decisions about food. Given that people have limited ability to shape the food environment individually and no ability to control automatic responses to food-related cues that are unconsciously perceived, it is incumbent upon society as a whole to regulate the food environment, including the number and types of food-related cues, portion sizes, food availability, and food advertising.

[1]  E. Donnerstein,et al.  Children, Adolescents, and the Media: Issues and Solutions , 1999, Pediatrics.

[2]  B. Rolls,et al.  Increasing the volume of a food by incorporating air affects satiety in men. , 2000, The American journal of clinical nutrition.

[3]  D. Southgate,et al.  Nature and variability of human food consumption. , 1991, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[4]  Steven M. Shugan.  The Impact of Advancing Technology on Marketing and Academic Research , 2004 .

[5]  Michael P. Lynch.  A Comment on Curhan's “The Relationship between Shelf Space and Unit Sales in Supermarkets” , 1974 .

[6]  T. Chartrand.  The Role of Conscious Awareness in Consumer Behavior , 2005 .

[7]  P. Kris-Etherton,et al.  Provision of foods differing in energy density affects long-term weight loss. , 2005, Obesity research.

[8]  B. Wansink,et al.  Shape of glass and amount of alcohol poured: comparative study of effect of practice and concentration , 2005, BMJ : British Medical Journal.

[9]  K. Ozelli.  This is Your Brain on Food , 2007 .

[10]  C. Erlanson‐Albertsson.  How palatable food disrupts appetite regulation. , 2005, Basic & clinical pharmacology & toxicology.

[11]  D. Levitsky.  The non-regulation of food intake in humans: Hope for reversing the epidemic of obesity , 2005, Physiology & Behavior.

[12]  J. Brunstrom.  Associative learning and the control of human dietary behavior , 2007, Appetite.

[13]  N. Volkow.  This is your brain on food. Interview by Kristin Leutwyler-Ozelli. , 2007, Scientific American.

[14]  R. Wing,et al.  Long-term weight loss maintenance. , 2005, The American journal of clinical nutrition.

[15]  Michael A. Hogg,et al.  Social Identity and Perceptions of Media Persuasion: Are We Always Less Influenced Than Others?1 , 1999 .

[16]  G. Rizzolatti.  The mirror neuron system and its function in humans , 2005, Anatomy and Embryology.

[17]  Nora D Volkow,et al.  Similarity Between Obesity and Drug Addiction as Assessed by Neurofunctional Imaging , 2004, Journal of addictive diseases.

[18]  Adrian C. North,et al.  The influence of in-store music on wine selections. , 1999 .

[19]  T. Chartrand,et al.  Beyond the Perception-Behavior Link: The Ubiquitous Utility and Motivational Moderators of Nonconscious Mimicry. , 2005 .

[20]  N. Christakis,et al.  The Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network Over 32 Years , 2007, The New England journal of medicine.

[21]  J. Bargh,et al.  Automaticity of social behavior: direct effects of trait construct and stereotype-activation on action. , 1996, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[22]  Gurdv Khush,et al.  Productivity improvements in rice. , 2003, Nutrition reviews.

[23]  D. Wigboldus,et al.  The Unconscious Consumer: Effects of Environment on Consumer Behavior , 2005 .

[24]  H. Berthoud,et al.  Neurobiology of nutrition and obesity. , 2007, Nutrition reviews.

[25]  Pierre Chandon,et al.  The Biasing Health Halos of Fast Food Restaurant Health Claims: Lower Calorie Estimates and Higher Side-Dish Consumption Intentions , 2007 .

[26]  M. Nestle.  Increasing portion sizes in American diets: more calories, more obesity. , 2003, Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

[27]  B. Schwartz.  The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less , 2004 .

[28]  Markus Perola,et al.  Sweet taste preferences are partly genetically determined: identification of a trait locus on chromosome 16. , 2007, The American journal of clinical nutrition.

[29]  Steve Wing,et al.  The contextual effect of the local food environment on residents' diets: the atherosclerosis risk in communities study. , 2002, American journal of public health.

[30]  R. Baumeister,et al.  Ego Depletion: A Resource Model of Volition, Self-Regulation, and Controlled Processing , 2000 .

[31]  B. Wansink,et al.  'Bottoms Up!' The Influence of Elongation on Pouring and Consumption Volume , 2003 .

[32]  R. Baumeister,et al.  Ego depletion: is the active self a limited resource? , 1998, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[33]  B. Rolls,et al.  Portion size of food affects energy intake in normal-weight and overweight men and women. , 2002, The American journal of clinical nutrition.

[34]  Yu-Shin Ding,et al.  Brain dopamine is associated with eating behaviors in humans. , 2003, The International journal of eating disorders.

[35]  B. Popkin,et al.  Stunting is associated with overweight in children of four nations that are undergoing the nutrition transition. , 1996, The Journal of nutrition.

[36]  O. Maller,et al.  Ingestive responses of human newborns to salty, sour, and bitter stimuli. , 1975, Journal of comparative and physiological psychology.

[37]  Adrian C. North,et al.  The Effect of Music on Atmosphere and Purchase Intentions in a Cafeteria , 1998 .

[38]  Anthony Winson.  Bringing political economy into the debate on the obesity epidemic , 2004 .

[39]  A. Drewnowski,et al.  Food choices and diet costs: an economic analysis. , 2005, The Journal of nutrition.

[40]  B. Wansink.  Environmental factors that increase the food intake and consumption volume of unknowing consumers. , 2004, Annual review of nutrition.

[41]  B. Shiv,et al.  Heart and Mind in Conflict: The Interplay of Affect and Cognition in Consumer Decision Making , 1999 .

[42]  B. Popkin,et al.  Nutrition in transition: the changing global nutrition challenge. , 2001, Asia Pacific journal of clinical nutrition.

[43]  Peter D. Bennett.  Dictionary of marketing terms , 1995 .

[44]  A. Bandura.  Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory , 1985 .

[45]  R. Sturm,et al.  Weight gain trends across sociodemographic groups in the United States. , 2005, American journal of public health.

[46]  B. Caballero.  The global epidemic of obesity: an overview. , 2007, Epidemiologic reviews.

[47]  John M. de Castro,et al.  The amount eaten in meals by humans is a power function of the number of people present , 1992, Physiology & Behavior.

[48]  B. Popkin.  The nutrition transition: an overview of world patterns of change. , 2004, Nutrition reviews.