Pocket Science Podcast: Are We Eating Ourselves to Death?
"People do eat in a way that looks like other substance use disorders, that looks like other addictions…so is it certain people that eat addictively, or is it certain foods that have addictive properties and what might those foods be?"
More than half of the calories consumed in the United States are ultra-processed. At the same time, food-related ailments, including heart disease and diabetes, are on the rise. Yet we struggle to resist foods that are the worst for us. Alex DiFeliceantonio, assistant professor and interim co-director of the Center for Health Behaviors Research at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC investigates our food choices, how what we eat can change our brains, and whether our relationship with food can actually be an addiction. In the naugrual episode of Pocket Science, she explores those questions, and whether we can behave our way out of unhealthy eating when major food manufacturers have so effectively stacked the deck against us.
More about Alex DiFeliceantonio, Ph.D.
Dr. DiFelicenantio is an assistant professor and interim co-director of the Center for Health Behaviors Research at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, and leader of the DONNUT Lab. She leads studies that seek to understand the basic mechanisms of food choice, by both isolating the properties of foods in our modern food environment to evaluate their effect on physiology, brain function, and brain-physiology interaction, and trying to understand how individual differences in response to these food properties can confer risk or benefit for disease outcomes.
About Pocket Science
Pocket Science is a compact guide to the human body and how it works, powered by the world-class scientists of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC. We ask fundamental questions about the human body, health, and disease, and get answers from research institute experts, who also tell us how their research illuminates these systems and how to better treat the diseases that affect them.
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