As Marlene Schwartz points out, one of these factors is environment. What we eat is largely influenced by where we live and what we are taught to believe about food. In this program, students learn the basics of how our bodies process and store the food we eat, the role of the brain in eating and hunger, and the impact of environment on our food choices.
Body weight is determined by the balance of calorie intake and output. Our bodies rely on calories for the energy needed to allow our organs to function. Glucose, the main source of our body's energy, is manufactured by the liver and regulated through the production of insulin in the pancreas. When we overeat, especially sugary and processed foods, the body produces an excess of glucose which gets stored in fat cells.
The hypothalamus in the brain monitors and responds to appetite hormones in the body. Cholecystokinin, or CCK, is a hormone of the gastrointestinal system responsible for alerting us to satiety and slowing down digestion. But, do these ancestral mind-body mechanisms stand a chance in today's fast-food world?
The environment is filled with cues that trigger the desire to eat. Kelly Brownell states that "the problem now is that the cues are everywhere all the time and often these highly accessible foods are also unhealthy.