The Rational Brain: Wired for Survival

  • Body fat is much less metabolically active than other body tissues, and its heat production accounts for only a small part of the BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate).
  • In one study, for example, body fat accounted for nearly 14 percent of body weight but only 4 percent of the BMR.
  • In contrast, the brain, liver, heart, and kidneys, which together constituted 6 percent of body weight, accounted for 58 percent of the BMR.
  • The human brain is responsible for roughly 20 percent of our total calories burned each day.
  • The hypothalamus is responsible for regulating all aspects of the body’s autonomous functions: temperature, heart rate, hunger and thirst.
  • Hunger and satiety awareness are well integrated in the nerve center of the brain. One stimulates, the other inhibits. They are therefore antagonistic and function alternately.
  • The brain has high requirements for energy.
  • This energy is metabolized from 150 to 200 grams of glucose (sugar) every day – 400 to 600 calories.
  • The main goals of our programs are to make sure that the brain has proper energy, hormones function well, and metabolism is not destabilized.

The Emotional Brain: Our Heart

  • While there are many factors to anxiety, the emotional brain is often seen as responsible for a great deal of the response to stress.
  • 80 percent of the time, emotional eating is caused by a negative emotion related to fear.
  • Recent scientific research reveals how the heart sends us signals on the intuitive and emotional level.
  • The heart has neurons and produces hormones. 
  • The heart is capable of influencing and activating the brain areas of its choice.
  • The autonomous and hormonal nervous systems are immediately influenced by our emotional states.
  • When a need remains unfulfilled, the body reacts and sends a more or less intense but still negative emotional signal.
  • Because of the sensations of hunger, thirst or fear, the body’s basic needs are well recognizable. 
  • The signal becomes more confused as higher needs are encountered: something is missing, one feels an indescribable emotion: fear of emptiness, fear of abandonment, fear of shame, fear to look at oneself.
  • Result: something is missing, therefore you are afraid.
  • The body tries to compensate for this lack by selecting a specific response and trying to fill a need it knows how to satisfy that will lead to pleasure and positive emotions: hunger.

The Gut: The Second Brain

  • When all have had gut feelings. And we know what it is to feel something in our gut.
  • In Japan, the gut is viewed as the seat of the mind and soul. A Japanese business mogul was once asked how he knew whether to do a deal, and he replied, “I swallow it, and if it feels good in my belly, I do it.”
  • Your gut has a mind of its own… the “mind” of the gut talks to your brain every day. We are familiar with signals for hunger, or elimination.
  • But a new conversation is being discovered between the gut and the brain, a bidirectional conversation in which the brain speaks to the gut and the gut speaks to the brain.
  • The gut is the literal and figurative center of our health.
  • If you start by fixing your gut, many things fall into place.
  • The gut is a snakelike and smelly thing that we hope will silently do its job of digesting, absorbing, and assimilating our food.
  • We trust it will prevent toxins and bacteria from intruding into our systems, while eliminating our wastes in a timely and efficient manner without the least awareness on our part.
  • In fact, your gut has a mind of its own, literally.
  • While it is connected to the brain through an extensive network of wiring and communication systems, it is also the only “organ” besides the brain that has its own nervous system.
  • We call it the ENS (Enteric or gut Nervous System), as opposed to the CNS (Central Nervous System).
  • The small intestine alone has as many neurons as the spinal cord.
  • The gut brain actually comes from the same embryonic tissue as the “brain” brain. And it is still connected via the automatic nervous system – the sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves.
  • Acting completely independently, it has a number of important jobs: 
    • It keeps everything moving in the right direction from the top down by coordinating the contraction of muscle cells.
    • It triggers the gut hormones and enzymes to be released from cells to promote digestion.
    • It helps keep the blood flowing so that when you absorb your food it can get to where it needs to go.