An ode to yesterday’s fun with mis-heard lyrics!It was inevitable. Sleep deprivation from finishing my book manuscript and the Jelly Bean combined with a very weight intensive P90X workout and the fact that jelly bean season is now in full throttle found me slumped over my table this afternoon in a sugar coma. I downed an entire bag of SweeTart jelly beans. And I’m not talking the little portion-controlled bag. I ate the whole 300 (or whatever) serving bag. By myself. Today. Man those jelly beans go down easy.
As I sat nursing a sugar headache and regretting every last high-fructose bite, it made me remember some research I read recently about how eating sugary and fatty foods becomes a self reinforcing cycle. (Of course I only remember this after the jelly beans have been eaten.) The authors of the study postulated that there is a tipping point with these foods and once you pass it an internal fat switch is flipped and your body goes into crazy fat-storing mode. Basically, the more you eat it the more you want it, hunger cues be darned. Nobody eats an entire bag of jelly beans because they’re hungry. And it takes a lot of hard work and time to reset that switch once it’s been flipped. So how did scientist discover this switch? With rodents, of course!
Does your liver glow in the dark? These mice are genetically engineered with firefly juice to have livers that glow when CRTC2, also known as the fasting switch, is turned on. It all gets very techy but here’s what you need to know:
Our bodies run on fat and sugar (glucose). When we eat, we have a rise in our blood sugar. When we aren’t eating (like when we are sleeping or starving), our bodies primarily burn fat as fuel. All well and good except that the hothouses that sit on our shoulders (our brains) require a measure of glucose to function. It’s the reason that you feel all foggy and confused when you are carb depleted. So when you aren’t eating and your brain needs glucose, a little switch in your liver (CRTC2) starts pumping out the glucose stored in your liver. Hurray for the little Star Wars dude in your gut!
The problem arises (and the mice with the glowing livers get involved) when CRTC2 gets activated and, like a 12-year-old with a cell phone, won’t shut up – causing excess amounts of glucose to be constantly circulating in your blood (known as high blood sugar). How does this happen? Insulin resistance, primarily from overeating and obesity. From insulin resistance comes the dreaded diabetes and the host of ills that comes with it.
The mice with the glowing livers were not just for the researcher’s entertainment (although, admit it, you really want to see one now). The researchers fattened up a bunch of firefly-mice and then waited until their livers lit up like your check-oil light. When their livers turned on it meant that the switch was no longer functioning and sugar was being pumped out 24-7. This allowed the researchers to identify exactly how and when the switch gets permanently stuck in the on position.
So the question becomes both for the lit mice and their human counterparts of lesser organ brilliance, is how do you know when your switch is about to flip? And moreover, how do you flip it back?
Leaving the actual science portion of this post and venturing off into the part where I spout random theories that I make up (my favorite part, naturally) I think that some people have touchier switches than others. One uber-healthy friend of mine said that she has learned she can eat badly for about 3 weeks before she starts to notice serious deleterious effects and so she knows to cut herself off around 2.5 weeks. Myself, I think my internal switch gets flipped at closer to 1 or 2 days of eating crap. Heck, even one good candy binge – like today – seems to set body into cravings overdrive. The only solution I have found for this is to white-knuckle it for 3 or 4 days until my switch goes back.
For those of you good at pattern recognition, you will realize that my switch flippage (actual scientific word, that one is) corresponds neatly to the days of the week. I eat like crap on the weekends, feel like the crap I ate, resolve to do better, white knuckle it Monday through Thursday and then as soon as I start to feel better it’s the weekend again! I’m so tired of this cycle (and add in my other “cycle” for more fun!).
Any of you get thrown off your healthy eating by the weekend? Have you discovered when your switch flips? How do you break the cycle? Anyone else now want a liver that glows in the dark??
glowing liver? sounds like i'd be the life of the party haha!
i don't really know what my flip-swtichy tolerance is. i guess i'm lucky in that i don't ever really break my "healthy" eating. i eat junk every day but make sure to balance it with all the good stuff. yes i am boring like that 🙂
but i do notice when i eat the "junk" all together or spread out through the day. when it's all at once i feel awful: just lethargic and slow and grouchy. but when it's spread through the day i feel fine.
As a chemist who both designed lasers and did brain surgeries on rats during my grad school career, I am very much saddened that I never combined the two. Maybe the rats with glow-in-the-dark body parts could have a rave with the rats with lasers attached to their heads…
I'm not sure about the cycle, but I know that very bad things happen when I don't get enough carbs. Me and South Beach don't hang anymore.
Love this post!! Weekends are hard and its hard to go all or nothing. I think the best is to try and not be "perfect" all the time by telling yourself it's o.k. to have a few jellybeans every day is a way to ward off the jellybean binge. But hoestly, your starburst jellys are only out for a month or two and then the temptation goes away for the rest of the year. I love it when you find cool research- thanks!
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I want a glowing firefly liver!
So glad to hear that I am not the only one with the weekend overeating-cycle problem. It became painfully obvious when I was working with Lindsay and keeping caloric intake journals, that I was blowing my weekends.
Once my switch is flipped there is no eating "just a little" of anything. I made cookies (a batch of 36) Saturday morning and my husband came home from work that evening and he thought I was joking when I said they were all gone. Ahem.
I think that this is really interesting. I do think that your friend is onto something regarding the actual phyisiological affects of such decision making. (the 21 day rule) However, for those of us who struggle with food issues the mental demoralisation of having an 'off' day is what impacts us more than the fact that we ate this or that.
I love science. I am a nerd-o-saurus
I soooooo agree with everything – cycles (generally weekly), switch flippaging and so on…GYM is the only thing that saves me…particularly when alcohol is thrown into the weekend routine too!!
I found some sugar-free chocolate (honestly, it tastes good!) in Sainsburys (London, UK) last week – it's genius…you can eat it without the switch-flip, easier to stop and feel satisfied (but how very boring!!!) 🙂
Wow, I thought it was just me who had trouble getting back on the healthy eating bandwagon once I fell off. I can soooo relate to your sugar-coma headache!!!! Whenever I partake in a donut (a single donut) I instantly get a headache!!! I know this but it doesn't stop me from eating them when the girls bring them in for our weekend hospital shifts. Ughhhhhh……it literally takes me DAYS to get back to healthy eating. (Whenever I've mentioned the donut=headache to my co-workers, I get some serious "I don't believe you vibes" Is it just ME???
I definitely recognize the cycle you describe, but I'm not sure what the time frame is for me…I'll have to start paying closer attention! But yes, weekends (or any time I am home, rather than at work during the day) are the hardest for me.
I'm the same way– certain foods, once I start there is absolutely no off switch and I keep eating and eating. The only way for me to prevent that is to avoid those foods, but sometimes the only thing that fixes a day is that jelly bean or whatever so I'm with you! I agree with the person that said the gym helps– sometimes when I fall off the wagon there, I fall off everywhere.
Love your scientific articles!! I'm like that lab rat that can't hit the lever fast enough.
Go Go Glow!!
I stay on track 24/7. I also pity the poor lab rat 🙁
KUrunner – "Maybe the rats with glow-in-the-dark body parts could have a rave with the rats with lasers attached to their heads…" I will be giggling over this one ALL DAY! I love you!
BJbella – This: "Once my switch is flipped there is no eating "just a little" of anything. " is ME TOO.
I eat like crap on the weekends too, and then do pretty well during the week. I don't really crave sugary stuff like jelly beans though. Our weekends consist of a lot of eating out so a lot of salt and fat. Honestly come Monday I welcome the better eating schedule, but I do enjoy eating out too. I just hate how I bloat like a balloon due to all that salt!
Alice – whoa – stop the train! Sugar free chocolate? Does it have artificial sweeteners or is it just not sweetened? What's it called??
Anon – nope! You're def. not alone! I'd be right there in donut-headache land with you.
For me it’s sweets, too. I can’t just eat one cookie. And once I move past, say, four, I’m to the point where it’s increasingly hard to pass up numbers five, six, and seven. Weekends, too, are the worst for me. It’s like all my weekday healthy eating goes right down the toilet.
Great post, very interesting read!
It's funny for me because I used to have uncontrollable cravings for all things sweet. I just couldn't handle it- so I ate. I would be cramming a cupcake down my throat and thinking "Oh, it's just one cupcake, it won't do any harm". The problem was, that went on for a really long time.
What turned me around was when I had to leave home for 5 weeks and spend eating meals at a homestay. This meant that I couldn't eat everything out of their pantry/cabinets because it wasnt my house! At first I would crave sweets but after about 3 weeks I just stopped thinking about it. So for me, I guess 3 weeks is the trick. It was damn hard though.
Now I don't eat processed foods. I eat sugar in their natural form- fruits…in moderation of course.
The fear of turning back to my old self is so tremendous that I don't dare touch a sweet. But occasionally I'd have some and I find that it's not much tastier than the stuff I'm eating now. So I'd much rather go for a juicy apple than a brownie. My body has adjusted.
Thanks for a great post!
Shelly's fun fact of the day: the firefly juice you speak of is called GFP (green fluorescent protein) and I used to work with it in Grad School. 🙂
If I eat stuff with white flower/white sugar- my cravings start up in like a day or two. I am a cookie monster. 🙂
But if I eat other unhealthy stuff (i.e. fried shrimp poboys) I just feel full and kind of ill from all the salt and go back to my regular eating habits pretty quickly. I have to eat that sort of garbage for a few weeks to get stuck in a bad eating rut.
So sweets do it for me when fatty foods don't. And if I combine sweets with some fiber and or protein, the effect isn't nearly as bad.
Yes, I want a glowy liver! I want to go to the rat rave!
And I'm JUST starting to get my massive sweet tooth under control. (It's roughly the size of Neptune.) But now I have trouble with certain carbs: I know I ought to stay away from that warm, crusty sourdough, and that I'll bloat up like a Macy's day float if I eat it, but I WANT IT!!!!!
Being an adult stinks.
KUrunner,
I didn't design any lasers in grad school, but I did make some fluorescent green transgenic mice *and* I did brain surgeries on them that left them with what looked like little antennae. Give them some tiny little pacifiers and it seems like they might have fit right in at your rave!
"Shelly's fun fact of the day: the firefly juice you speak of is called GFP (green fluorescent protein) and I used to work with it in Grad School. :)"
Slight correction: GFP is from jellyfish. Luciferase/luciferin are from fireflies.
I love this post! Partially because I got really excited about the research part of it (as I snorted and pushed my glasses up), but also because I have been swearing I have a "fat switch" forever and my friends thought I was crazy!! Little did I know there was actually research to back me up!(so they will all be emailed shortly after posting this comment) 🙂
And for me it's definitely a day or two of "crap eating" which ALWAYS occurs on the weekend… boyfriend+couch+blue bell= FAT SWITCH.
I try not to buy sweets cause if they are in the house they will be eaten. So if I have to make an effort to go get something then it must be a really bad craving. But right now is a bad time….its Girl Scout Cookie time and who can resist a thin mint? And those dang girls are selling cookies in front of the grocery store, so its so easy to buy. I always think, I can only get these one time a year, so it shouldn't hurt right? I guess not depending on how many I eat in one sitting!
Yup, eating badly affects what I want for my next meal. I actually just had two days of "not eating so well." Plus, I didn't get any exercise in. I think it was a combination of sleep deprivation (sick toddler), bad food, and lack of exercise (and happy hormones!) that made me want more bad stuff and left me hungry. Interesting research!
Wow – am on the downhill right now from a sugar/carb binge this week. I feel a bit better knowing the it was just not my brain pushing me to eat badly but my 'switch' too (mine seems to be just a couple of days). I had more bread and sweets than usual over the weekend and just lost it on Monday and Tuesday. It was like I was possessed by a crap-eating monster. Trying to white knuckle it now. This never happens to my husband – darn him.
— VaMomof2
Fast Food Restaurant flick my switch and I can't stop. Eating it for lunch will make me crave it again by dinner and then for lunch the next day and so on… Throw alcohol + 2am into the mix and I have no willpower. And you're right, once the switch is flicked, it's SO HARD to stop… AVOIDING is (or will be – not quite there yet) the key I think. By NOT eating those foods anymore, the switch won't get flicked. And after a few months, if I have been really avoiding it and not replacing it with someother flick switcher, I'll be WAY healthier than I am now. I am thinking of switching to primal for this reason alone. To stop having the crazy cravings. By not breaking the chain, I won't have to white knuckle it and suffer through withdrawls… they just won't exist anymore… (*I HOPE*)
SweeTart jelly beans?
Man…I didn't know such a delicious sounding thing existed…
With me it's usually salty things (and sweetarts…ahem…) and I can't start, or I don't stop. I just don't have them in my house. I find if I stay eating clean I'm fine, but as soon as I have one or two things that are way off…I crave more. It's hard to not "reward" myself with these things…because there's not "little bit" I can't do that. I'm all or nothing.
FYI – The firefly juice is a chemical actually luciferase.
GFP is green fluorescent protein…it comes from jellyfish.
Yes. Nerd here…use them both in the lab.
Booya.
That is so me. But I'm not TOO extreme. But I def eat worse on the weekend than during the week.
Actually, my challenge to myself, if you want to join me is, for the next week (starting tomorrow) I am eating moderately ALL week. No ups and downs. It will be hard for the first weekend. But I'm hoping that I can break this cycle.
I used to take a free day on Friday or Saturday. What I found was that by the end of that day I either A. was unable to stop and continued to eat bad for a few more days or B. regretted that day and went hardcore for another 6 days. What I also found was that the closer I was to having started working out again since my last failure the more I went to B … but the longer I was on my program the more I went toward A.
So how did I fix it? I instead limit myself to a single free meal per week. It's controlled, has yet to expand beyond that meal, and satisfies my glowing stomach 😉
Charlotte, it's this:
http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/groceries/index.jsp?bmUID=1268350258986
I lied – it enticed me with its dull, listless and calorie-lacking packaging so I read it as 'No Sugar', not 'No Added Sugar'!!! The dream is over…!
(tastes good though – GYM tomorrow!!)
Charlotte, I think a lot of people have this weekend prob. I eat really pretty clean M-F. On the weekends, I don't work out Saturday & Sunday has no weights so I have it planed to eat less on the weekend BUT I do plane for my special treats, one each day! I make sure all the other meals are pretty healthy too. I just plan ahead & if I decide to eat something not as good for me, I am aware & then there is the plan to make up for that the next day! 🙂
I still have my moments & if the emotions get the better of me, yes, I get PO'd at myself but I just get back to business right away!
I ate a very low fat diet for years. Then I started eating full fat dairy. When I eat a pizza, I have an appetite that feels like a furnace. I'm more muscular and thinner now. I need the fat. More importantly, a lot of low fat dairy has hydrogenation to make it behave right (not milk but cheese, ice cream, etc.). I prefer to eat the fat and work out hard.
For me, candy are the worst. Last May, as the first step to eating better, I gave up candy cold turkey. I used to eat a lot in the weeks I had exams or important papers to hand in. It wasn't as hard as I expected it to be, since in May there is no exams and summer brings me cravings for fresh fruit and veggies. When I had to have something sweet and less healthy than an apple, I ate dark chocolate.
It really helped me; I stopped craving sugar most of the time. But when you are sleep deprived (hello insomnia!) you can't help yourself. Not having candy in the house really helped, and when I needed sugar that badly I just added a bunch to my coffee. It's still less than a bag of candy!
I ate healthy all summer; then I got sick and didn't eat as well, but still no candy. I bought candy once or twice this semester, but now I find it too sweet it gives me tooth aches!
Now I just need to get the fat/calories under control, eat more veggies, less meat, lower my cholesterol, eat more fibre, ….. 🙂
My switch is broken. One sugar laden cookie, and all I can think about is eating the whole batch.
oddly I don't do anything worse on the weekends, but I was just eating too much sugar in general. So right now I'm trying to keep it…well much more contained!