Stoner alert: McDonald’s gets you legally high
July 5, 2011 by Amara D. Angelica
Do you want marijuana chemicals with that? (Credit: McDonald's)
Fats in foods like potato chips and french fries make them nearly irresistible because they trigger natural marijuana-like chemicals in the body called endocannabinoids, researchers at the University of California, Irvine, have found.
The researchers discovered that when rats tasted something fatty, cells in their upper gut started producing endocannabinoids, while sugars and proteins did not have this effect.
How fats create, like, a buzz
It starts on the tongue, where fats in food generate a signal that travels first to your brain, and then through a nerve bundle called the vagus to your intestines. There, the signal stimulates the production of endocannabinoids, which initiates a surge in cell signaling that prompts you to totally pig out — probably by initiating the release of digestive chemicals linked to hunger and satiety that compel us to eat more. And that leads to obesity, diabetes and cancer, the researchers said.
But they suggest it might be possible to curb this process by obstructing endocannabinoid activity: for example, by using drugs that “clog” cannabinoid receptors. The trick: bypassing the brain to avoid creating anxiety and depression (which happens when endocannabinoid signaling is blocked in the brain). I’m guessing McDonald’s won’t be adding that drug to their fries.
Ref.: Daniele Piomelli, et al., An endocannabinoid signal in the gut controls dietary fat intake, PNAS, 2011; in press
Comments (2)
by Khannea Suntzu
Seriously.
by Notborn Yesterday
“prompts you to totally pig out — [...] And that leads to obesity, diabetes and cancer,..”
Some clarification should be given here:
(1) It isn’t the FAT that leads to obesity, but the extra carbohydrate eaten, especially the white flour and potato (and, of course sugar).
(2) Good, saturated fat is twice as efficient as carbohydrate in terms of energy production. While we need a small amount of GOOD carbohydrate (eg green vegetables), we need more protein, and more fat again. In fact, a good breakfast of fried eggs (no toast), bacon with its fat (or a couple of lamb cutlets with the fat on) and a medium sized onion (for carbohydrate) will set you up for a late lunch and take away the urge to nibble on processed foods in the meantime (just try it!)
Fat will not make you fat. Excess fat to that required will burn off as energy, or be expelled from the body as ketones. Fat will not accumulate in the body as fat, but carbohydrates will! Fat has also been proven not to raise insulin levels, but again, carbohydrates will.
This way of eating is the way our healthy forbears ate – remember when obesity and cancer where virtually unheard of? Then came the monopolies of processed food and vegetable oils industry that convinced us that their foods were the healthy ones. Now, we (westerners) live with the highest levels of obesity, heart disease and cancer in the world.