Latest / The Original Self Podcast / Episode 18- The Neuroscience of Why You Eat: Stress, Dopamine & Why Willpower Is Often the Wrong Explanation

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Episode 18- The Neuroscience of Why You Eat: Stress, Dopamine & Why Willpower Is Often the Wrong Explanation · The Original Self Podcast

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Welcome to the Original Self podcast. I'm Evet
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DeCota, the owner of DeCota Life Coaching and
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a psychology-informed life coach. I explore
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resilience, mindset, and the courage to become
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your authentic self. This is a space for honest
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conversations about growth, identity, relationships,
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and all the messy moments in between that shape
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that we become. Between the salon chair and coaching
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sessions, I've watched people move through life
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in patterns they rarely notice. Patterns that
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are subtle or familiar, but incredibly hard to
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see from the inside. Last time in episode 17,
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we talked about food noise and ended with the
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question, If the system was built to hijack your
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appetite, what does that look like inside your
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brain? Three episodes in, we turned outward.
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Now we turn inward to episode 18, the neuroscience
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of why you eat. and welcome back. Have you ever
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noticed that your decision to eat often feels
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like it happens after the fact? You reach for
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something, you open it, you take a bite, and
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only then does awareness catch up and say, hey,
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I thought we were trying to eat differently today.
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It's as though there's a conversation happening
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somewhere below your conscious awareness. And
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by the time you join in, it's like the vote's
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already been taken. I think the story isn't that
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we made a decision, a bad decision. It's that
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the decision comes surprisingly late. The explanation
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of not having enough willpower is a familiar
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one that most of us reach. We conclude with that.
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We ran out of something. we failed to hold the
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line, let's say. And that explanation carries
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real moral weight because it's an implication
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about who we are, who we are as people. I want
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to pull that explanation apart, not to let us
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off the hook for anything or everything, but
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because the story we've been telling ourselves,
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about what happened to us, why we do the things
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we do, it's incomplete. What looks like brain
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failure is often the brain doing exactly what
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it's built to do under specific conditions. It's
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the understanding of those conditions that shifts
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the conversation from blame to biology. Biology
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I can work with. Since this podcast is about
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neuroscience, let's talk about one of our favorite
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brain chemicals, dopamine. It's constantly mentioned
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in conversations about food and cravings, but
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almost always in a way that undersells what it
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actually does. In the previous episode 16, the
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engineered plate, I described dopamine as anticipation
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or the wanting, and that's completely accurate
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as far as that goes, but there's a distinction
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in the research that changes the picture considerably.
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Neuroscientist Kent Berridge spent years mapping
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out what he called the wanting system and the
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liking system. And although they work together,
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they're actually two different systems. The wanting
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system is the one responsible for your cravings,
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that pull that you feel, and the urgency to pursue
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what you're wanting. It's driven primarily by
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dopamine. But the liking system, which is the
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actual pleasure experienced in the moment of
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eating, is driven by a separate opioid system.
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What's fascinating though is that these two systems
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can come completely apart. The gap between wanting
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and liking is why you can crave something with
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genuine intensity, eat it, and then still feel
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underwhelmed. And it's why we keep eating past
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the point of enjoyment. We are searching for
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satisfaction that the food isn't delivering any
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longer. The wanting system doesn't consult the
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liking system and it doesn't wait for a signal
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that the experience matched the anticipation
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before it fires again. It just keeps reaching
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forward and the food environment that we live
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in, built around the bliss point and designed
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to hit multiple sensory systems at once, remember,
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is highly effective at keeping the wanting system
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activated long after the liking system has moved
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on. An example of this for me is this system
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goes crazy concerning pretzels. It's really one
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of the reasons I rarely eat them any longer.
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The first few, they're genuinely good. The salt,
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the crunch, everything I wanted them to be. but
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then something shifts inside me. The enjoyment
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fades, yet I keep reaching for the next one,
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almost as if my brain is trying to recreate the
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satisfaction of the first few bites. By the time
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I actually stop eating them, my mouth feels swollen
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from the salt, and I can actually begin to feel
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physically ill. Like who does this? My body has
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to get that loud before the craving finally stands
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down. That's not a pretzel problem or what I
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learned when I was younger that's a red flag
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food for me. It's truly my wanting system continuing
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to search for something my liking system has
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already moved on from. What this means practically
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is that the question of why can I stop often
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has a neurochemical answer. It has nothing to
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do with desire, intention, or even my character.
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These systems weren't designed to stop wanting
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the moment the pleasure faded. In a world of
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engineered hyper -pellability, that same persistence
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creates a gap. that feels maybe from the inside
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like weakness, but biologically, it's something
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else entirely. So then let's talk about stress,
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cortisol, and other mechanisms that drive us
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toward food, whether we need it or not. Most
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of us know that stress and eating are connected.
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But what we tend to miss is how targeted that
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connection really is. Stress doesn't simply make
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us hungrier. It shifts our appetites toward foods
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that provide quick, concentrated energy. When
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our brains experience stress, cortisol is released.
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Cortisol's job is to prepare us to respond to
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a threat. And one consequence of that response
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is a predictable preference for calorie -dense
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foods. It's a completely ancient survival strategy.
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It's not a random lapse of judgment like many
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of us think. But most of us aren't facing immediate
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physical threats. But we are dealing with deadlines,
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financial pressures, some of us caregiving responsibilities,
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health concerns, many of us with health concerns,
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and the constant demand of everyday life that
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is so fast and so digital that we could barely
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keep up. That's stressful. There's a feedback
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loop embedded in that mechanism that makes it
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really difficult to interrupt. So where the loop
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begins, eating calorie dense foods under stress
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can temporarily lower the cortisol because the
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brain interprets that incoming energy as a sign
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that resources are available and the immediate
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problem has been addressed. The relief is real.
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It's not imagined and it's not an excuse. But
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the next time the stress appears, our brain is
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a little quicker to suggest the same solution
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because it worked the last time. You see how
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this keeps happening? I also need to point out
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though what some of you may be thinking right
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now. You may know someone, maybe it's you, who
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loses their appetite when stressed. I know quite
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a few people. They can barely eat anything when
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they're experiencing a very difficult event that
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causes them stress. But if cortisol drives hunger
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toward calorie dense food, why would stress produce
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the opposite response in some? The first part
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of that answer is the type of stress you experience.
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Is it acute or chronic? In the immediate moment
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of acute stress, like a lion chasing you on the
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Serengeti. The body's first responder isn't cortisol,
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but adrenaline, also called epinephrine. Adrenaline's
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primary purpose is to increase alertness, and
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it also temporarily puts other systems on hold,
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like suppressing your appetite almost completely.
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If something is really alarming, Stopping to
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eat is not usually a priority. Cortisol follows
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adrenaline and, in short bursts, can also dampen
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hunger. The shift toward appetite and calorie
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-dense cravings happens under chronic stress,
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the kind that doesn't resolve or that constantly
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hums in the background for weeks or months, keeping
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cortisol persistently elevated. The way I know
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this is for many times in my life, but when my
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mom was dying in those three and a half to four
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years, I think my cortisol was very high. One
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time I had it tested and it was super, super
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high and all I craved were hyper palatable foods,
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very calorie dense foods. So I know what that
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feels like. The second part of the answer is
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that people respond to stress differently. Some
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people's stress systems remain more adrenaline
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-driven, even over time, keeping their appetites
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suppressed regardless of how long the stress
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lasts. But there's also a gut dimension to this.
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Anxiety creates genuine physical distress in
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the digestive systems. You can experience nausea,
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tightness, discomfort. They can all quiet hunger
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signals before they even reach your conscious
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awareness. So what I say is the person who can't
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eat when they're anxious isn't more disciplined
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than the person who reaches for food. It's just
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their nervous system is running differently.
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It's running a different program that No one
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chose, neither of them chose. The third system
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at play is the gut. We often think of the gut
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as where food is digested, and it is, but what's
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interesting is it's also in constant communication
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with the brain through what is known as the gut
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-brain axis. About 90 % of the body's serotonin.
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which is a chemical messenger involved in regulating
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appetite and digestion, is produced in the gut
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-brain axis. The gut is also home to the microbiome,
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which are trillions of bacteria and other microorganisms
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that, again, are constantly communicating with
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the brain. This will all make sense in a second.
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Research from the University of Pittsburgh suggested
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that gut microbes not only respond to what we
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eat, but also influence what we want to eat next.
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Certain bacterial strains appear to promote cravings
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for foods they need to thrive, while also influencing
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ghrelin and leptin. Those are the hormones that
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regulate hunger and fullness. So when those signals
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become less reliable, the conversation between
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the gut and the brain becomes less accurate.
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By now, you can probably see that a craving doesn't
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just come from one place. Dopamine anticipates
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a reward, cortisol directs our appetite toward
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calorie -dense foods, and then the gut sends
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its own signals about what it wants next. So
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basically, the part of you that made a plan this
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morning isn't the same system generating every
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craving later on in the day. Yet from the inside,
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they feel like the same voice, right? A craving
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emerges from a conversation between the brain,
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body, and the gut. And understanding that completely
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changes my question entirely. Instead of asking
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for years, what's wrong with me? Why can't I
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stop doing this? I think we can all start asking,
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what is my brain and body responding to right
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now? What strikes me about all of this is how
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quickly we turn a behavior that we are doing
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into our identity. We don't just say I eat when
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I'm stressed. We say, I'm the kind of person
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who has no self control. We take that one moment
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of behavior and let it become our story, who
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we are. I know that science doesn't erase our
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behavior, but it does change the story. So think
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about it. If all of these systems are influencing
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behavior, Where does conscious choice enter the
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picture? The prefrontal cortex is the part of
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the brain responsible for planning, weighing
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consequences, and putting the brakes on impulse.
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When it works well, it creates a pause, a pause
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between a craving and an action. It gives us
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a chance to choose differently, to respond differently.
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The catch is that it's also one of the first
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parts of the brain to struggle when we're under
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pressure, stress, poor sleep, emotional exhaustion.
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All of that makes it less effective. At the same
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time, we know that stress drives our brains towards
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calorie -dense foods. Those aren't two separate
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problems, right? It's a stress response that
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presses down on the accelerator while also weakening
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the brakes. Because if the prefrontal cortex
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is being overruled by stress and poor sleep and
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emotional exhaustion, how can we put the brakes
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on and choose wisely? How can we pause? Under
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enough stress, the brain prioritizes immediate
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needs over long term goals. The voice looking
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for the relief gets louder. While the voice thinking
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about consequences gets quieter. That's how you're
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overruled. That's why you start off in the morning.
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I'm going to eat this way. I'm going to be good
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quotation marks. And why at the end of the night,
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no go. I think we actually understand this principle
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better than we realize. Think about your younger
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self. Most of us can look back at when we were
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in our teens, 18, whatever, early 20s, and immediately
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recognize decisions that we just wouldn't make
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today. Think about that lower back tattoo that
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you got. We accept that the state of your brain
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influences behavior. Stress works the same way.
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The conditions change and the behaviors change
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with them. The encouraging part is that the prefrontal
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cortex can be engaged deliberately, even if it's
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only for a few moments. There's a UCLA researcher,
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Matthew Lieberman, that found when people apply
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words to what they're experiencing, the brain
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does respond. Such as simply naming a feeling,
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like I'm having a craving right now. It quiets
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some of the brain's more reactive systems while
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bringing in the prefrontal cortex to be more
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fully present. So imagine this, you're sitting
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on the couch watching television. And as soon
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as the commercial comes on, you get up, walk
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into the kitchen, and open the pantry or refrigerator
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or freezer. You weren't hungry a minute ago.
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You may not even be hungry now, yet you're still
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standing in front of the food. Now imagine if
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you just paused right before reaching for that
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pint of ice cream. And you say to yourself, Interesting.
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I think I'm bored. Or I think I'm stressed out
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right now. Or I'm not really hungry. You may
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still grab the ice cream. You may not. I don't
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know. The point is, is that for that brief moment,
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you saw the pattern instead of becoming the pattern.
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And that's big. That's a milestone. I believe
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the goal isn't to win every craving battle. It's
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to stop letting the same pathways win automatically.
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Every moment of awareness gives the brain another
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route to practice. Over time, the new route becomes
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easier to travel, while the old one slowly loses
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its grip. That's a the biology of habit change.
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There was a version of you before any of this
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became so complicated who had a much simpler
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relationship with hunger and satisfaction. The
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same brain that learned those patterns can also
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learn different ones. Remember that. It just
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needs different conditions and a little more
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understanding of what is what the brain is actually
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responding to. I think if we keep this neuroscience
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information in the front of our brain, we might
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be less likely to just be super hard on ourselves
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or criticize ourselves or others because just
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having the knowledge, having the understanding
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of what our brains are doing and a possible way
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to pause that automatic reflex I think it's pretty
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exciting. We can try it. In the next episode,
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we're gonna move further back, before the stress
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patterns were established, before the neural
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pathways were carved, and before the years of
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eating shaped the gut microbiome. Episode 19
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is born into it, and... we'll examine what is
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already in place before you were old enough to
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make any choices about it. It's about the epigenetics,
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the family food patterns, the inherited biology,
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and the psychological conditioning that arrived
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before you had any framework to question it.
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If this episode answered the question of what
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the system does inside our brains, episode 19,
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questions where it started. Thank you for spending
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your time with me. If you'd like to learn more
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about working with me, you can find all of my
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contact information in the episode notes. I hope
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you have a wonderful day and I'll see you next
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time.