Gateway Foods

http://todayhealth.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/08/11058654-first-bite-warning-foods-that-make-you-do-bad-things?lite

By Danielle Braff 4/8/2012

It's a common slipup: After weeks of eating well, hitting the gym, and skipping dessert, you're on track to lose those five pounds. You deserve a reward, some candy, a (non-diet) soda, or a side of fries. But hours later, the scene around you looks like "The Hangover" meets the Food Network.

In the same way that some drugs pave the way for even harder ones, a weakness for a certain food can open the door to an avalanche of bad eating choices, says Gary Wenk, Ph.D., author of Your Brain on Food. Some foods are like gateway drugs," he says. "From your brain's viewpoint, there is no difference." These so-called gateway foods make you feel out of control, maybe even physically unable to stop reaching for more, in part because of their addictive effect on your mind and body, according to research. But rehab is probably easier than you think.

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Tasting food engages all of your senses (and may be felt more intensely in women than in men, for unknown reasons). Your nervous system responds by secreting insulin (which drops blood glucose) and relaxing your stomach muscles, which makes you feel like you need to eat more to be satisfied, says Susan Roberts, Ph.D., a professor of nutrition at Tufts University and coauthor of The "I" Diet.

There's a reason this tends to happen almost exclusively with fatty and sugary foods and not, say, lettuce. The saturated fats in foods like bacon and cheese impair your brain's normal ability to regulate appetite and cravings, so you don't realize you're full until you're completely stuffed, says Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., a health psychologist at Stanford University and author of The Willpower Instinct. What's more, that effect on your appetite can last for up to three days, the length of time it takes to flush those fats from your system. So one unhealthy indulgence can end up triggering a major relapse.

Add sugar to the fatty food, ice cream, cake, doughnuts, and you have a double whammy. High-sugar foods increase your levels of ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates appetite and increases cravings. "So you may tell yourself 'Just one bite' but find yourself wanting more and more, the more you eat," says McGonigal.

Sugar also has been shown to enhance memory storage, which may explain why you want it in the first place, and so much of it on special social occasions. As a result, your brain has evolved a system of rewards that gives you a real high when you eat sugar.

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[See original article on how to combat these problems.]

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