neuroadaptation

[Lyndzie]

Hi again.

I'm teaching a WFPB cooking class next weekend and was trying to find the stats for how long it takes to get used to dietary changes, specifically lower sodium and lower fat. If I remember correctly, it takes about 2 weeks to get used to lower sodium, and longer for fat, but I can't get the google terms right to find what I'm looking for. Anyone have a link for that info?

Thanks!

[MikeyG]

This may help:

https://www.fabresearch.org/viewItem.php?id=11709

The study highlighted in this article appears to show that participants became more sensitive to the taste of fat in as little as four weeks, and the figure would suggest that the increased sensitivity begins to happen almost immediately.

Interestingly, in the low-fat diet group, participants also lost weight and BMI, despite being told to try to maintain the weight they were at when they began the study. Thus, just as we have learned from Dr. McDougall and Jeff Novick, and as your audience would probably be interested to learn, this study seems to confirm that eating a lower-fat diet both prevents passive overconsumption of calories and promotes satiety.

Further confirmation of this effect is that the high-fat diet group was also shown to consume significantly more calories than the low-fat group during the study.

Here's the full study:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 2028544#f3

... and the PubMed entry:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29659658/

..., which also has links at the bottom to similar articles and articles that cite the study. I would think those citing articles could have similar research focuses and thus might have some of the information you're seeking.

Potentially helpful for your audience is that the authors identify that the taste for both fat and sodium shows low heritability, thus suggesting that our environment (via our food choices) is much more influential on how sensitive we are to fat and sodium than any inherent genetic preference for those tastes.

In addition, based on the known contributions of both fat and sodium diets to overconsumption of calories, I would hope that someone getting used to a lower-fat, lower-sodium diet could at least be comforted in knowing they're likely going to be less prone to overeating almost immediately upon making the dietary changes, even if it may take a little while to get used to eating with less added fat and sodium.

I hope that helps

[JeffN]

I'm teaching a WFPB cooking class next weekend and was trying to find the stats for how long it takes to get used to dietary changes, specifically lower sodium and lower fat.

turns out the old adage of 21 days is not accurate. I will have to find it but I remember posting about it here. Bottom line was it was individual with quite a variance of something like 14 day to 3 months or more depending on the item and the person.

If you ask me, I am much more concerned with the environmental influences and their impact on our choices then neuro-adaption. We live in a highly toxic food environment which has a huge influence on our choices. The other day someone was told that it takes ~4-5 days to beat a craving and asked if I agreed. I said what I just said, that there is a wide variance.

However, even if it was true, after the 4-5 days you are still living in a highly toxic food environment, specifically set up to effect consumer choices and trigger cravings and that is not going anyway after 4-5 days or anytime soon.

And that is one of the major problems with long term adherence.

Jeff

[Lyndzie]

Thank you both! I was thinking from the angle of how long takes to adapt to new flavors, but the point about the constant barrage of outside influence is a major challenge long term. It takes a lot of resolve to turn down temptation.