Dr. Stephan J. Guyenet has a BS in biochemistry and a Ph.D. in neuroscience. He studied the neuroscience of obesity and eating disorder as a postdoctoral fellow. He spent 12 years in the neuroscience research world studying neurodegenerative disease and the neuroscience of body fatness. His publications in scientific journals have been cited more than 2,100 times.
Dr. Guyenet lives in the Seattle area, where he grows much of his own food, uses his bicycle to get around, and brews a mean hard cider.
The Hungry Brain
No one wants to overeat. And certainly, no one wants to overeat for years, become overweight, and end up with a high risk of diabetes or heart disease– yet two-thirds of Americans do precisely that.
In his book The Hungry Brain, Dr. Guyenet argues that the problem is not necessarily a lack of willpower or an incorrect understanding of what to eat. Rather, our appetites and food choices are led astray by ancient, instinctive brain circuits that play by the rules of a survival game that no longer exists. In other words, our brain was built for the caveman who lived 10,000 ago when there was food scarcity. We craved fats and sugars. We no longer live in a world of scarcity, but our brains still crave fats and sugars.
The Hungry Brain delivers profound insights into why the brain undermines our weight goals and transforms these insights into practical guidelines for eating well and staying slim. Along the way, it explores how the human brain works, revealing how this mysterious organ makes us who we are.
Six principles to regulate weight
- Fix your food environment
- Manage your appetite
- Be aware of food rewards
- Make sleep a priority
- Move your body
- Manage stress