However deterministic biochemistry at first appears, that is not, within broad bounds, the case with behavior. We are not wholly slaves of neurochemistry. "Neurons are plastic. They change. We can therefore educate the neurons" explains Leibowitz. "You can say that God dictated this biochemical pattern. But we are here to mold ourselves and train ourselves."
The secret to modifying neurons is to introduce a very gradual shift in their sensitivity to the neurochemicals of appetite--to down-regulate them s-l-o-w-l-y.
Given the plasticity of neurons, early experience is heavily weighted in shaping the behavior of brain cells for life. Early exposure to a certain nutrient--say, a high-fat diet--will bias neurochemistry--it will up-regulate sensitivity to galanin and prompt production of greater amounts of it, aiding and abetting the appetite for fat. "Your training, your habits, all have an effect," says Leibowitz. "We don't know how much is permanent and how much is reversible. It may be like the case with fat cells in the body; if you overeat when young and get fat cells, you may not be able to get rid of them." The bottom line is, we may be remarkably adaptable but not infinitely malleable.
Taste Tests for All?
The ideal, then, is to start the neurochemicals of appetite out on the right foot, "to modulate them before an eating disorder sets in, or any disturbance in dieting. It's got to be preventative. What you eat is going to affect production of these peptides." At some point in the future, it may be possible to determine the right calorie and nutrient mix even to dampen the genetically outlined production of the appetite hormones.
Leibowitz would bypass the dismal enterprise of dieting altogether with a taste test at age two. "We're aiming for the goal of trying to characterize people at a very early age, just as we can now do with animals. We can predict adult height at two years of age. We may also want to predict adult eating behavior and weight gain."
Then, with nutrition and planning and behavioral therapy she would set out to educate the appetite. "I'm not thinking drugs, but there could be drugs. If we could do this ahead of time, we could prevent the development of eating disorders," disorders that now affect, by her calculation, 30 percent of the population.
"The question is, can we find some specific dietary situation, different foods at different times, that might help us to reduce neuropeptide activity without depriving ourselves. The whole point is, we can't deprive ourselves. But if we know that what we eat and when we eat it affect the production of neuropeptides, we can modulate what we eat and work the appetite so that we can get a new routine in."
Gastronomy may never be the same again.
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