Our brains exhibit a disconnect between wanting and liking. Liking refers to the actual pleasure response when consuming something, like how tasty it is. Wanting, on the other hand, is the level of obsession and desire for something. Surprisingly, our brains don't always link these two aspects, leading us to want things that we may not necessarily like. This disconnect challenges the assumption that we would only want things that we genuinely enjoy.
For our ancient ancestors food was just another thing they needed to survive - like sleep, shelter or warmth. But in the modern world, food has become a source of anxiety. Do we eat too much, or too little? And are we feeding ourself the "wrong" things?
Dr Laurie Santos has plenty of thoughts on our complicated relationship with eating and shared them on a recent episode of the PRX podcast Food, We Need to Talk. The show turned out great, so we thought we'd give you the chance to hear Laurie's chat with the hosts Juna Gjata and Dr. Eddie Phillips.
Just like The Happiness Lab, Food, We Need to Talk relies on the latest science to tackle issues like body image, nutrition, exercise and addiction. You can listen to other episodes of Food, We Need to Talk wherever you get your podcasts.
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