Junk!

October 24th, 2020| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

Have you ever snuck into your kitchen for a late night snack attack? In fact, you don’t even turn the lights on: you know exactly where all the tasty stuff is located. You could do it asleep (and some of us do). It is the hunt, the pursuit, the chase.

Well, now we know why. Researchers from the Division of Human Nutrition and Health at Wageningen University in the Netherlands discovered that this isn’t at all about your sharp memory. Rather, your brain is actually hardwired to hound and stalk your quarry and prey: high-calorie food. Read about it in “Human Spatial Memory Implicitly Prioritizes High‑Calorie Foods,” published in Nature Scientific Reports recently.

In short …

Humans are significantly better at remembering where junk foods are kept than they are with healthier options.”

Your brain, believe it or not, has evolved that way. Our authors speculate that this allowed our hunter-gatherer forbears to survive in food-scarce circumstances.

This may have helped human ancestors survive in environments with fluctuating food availability.”

512 subjects were put through a food-memory “maze.” They had to follow a fixed route through a room were foods were strategically placed, tasting and smelling and rating these as they went along. The foods included apples and cucumbers to potato chips and brownies. The 512 were then given a surprise quiz on the location of the goodies.

The group was 27% more accurate at picking the locations of the chips and brownies. You’re right, it didn’t seem to matter whether the snack was sweet or savory.

These results suggest that human minds continue to house a cognitive system optimized for energy-efficient foraging within erratic food habitats of the past, and highlight the often underestimated capabilities of the human olfactory sense.”

Of course, it is one thing to have had this hardwired skill in the jungles of the Amazon or the steppes of Russia 5,000 years ago. It is another to be exercising this inherited ability in Kroger, Safeway, HEB, and Whole Foods in 2020.

This memory bias towards high-calorie foods can create dieting issues for many people.”

And there you have it: high-calorie memory bias!

But you know what?

The young lions do lack and suffer hunger;
But they who seek the LORD
shall not be in want of any good thing.
Psalm 34:10

Indeed! It is in God that true, lasting, eternal happiness can be had. It is in a right relationship with one’s Creator—not in food—that fulfillment is found. It is in getting right with the King that His blessings are bestowed.

And the first step towards that end is taken when we place our trust in Christ, believing that He died and rose again, paying the full, final penalty for our sins. Jesus said:

“I am the living bread that
came down out of heaven;
if anyone eats of this bread,
he will live forever.”
John 6:51

And not just eternal life. Life-purpose in His plan. Joy in His presence. Security in His protection. Peace in His providence.

For He has satisfied the thirsty soul,
And the hungry soul He has filled with what is good.
Psalm 107:9

From His hand comes everything that is good, even food. Therefore, we give thanks to God …

… who gives food to all flesh,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting!
Psalm 136:25

And for believers who continue to seek and to serve God, walking with Him, the promises of God are even more potent.

No good thing does He withhold
from those who walk uprightly.
Psalm 84:11

No good thing withheld! No need for any high-calorie memory bias! Just remember: God gives!

SOURCES:
Nature Scientific Reports; Study Finds