The Hunger Fix

The author of New York Times bestseller Body-for-Life for Women presents a groundbreaking, neuroscience-based program to rewire your food-addicted brain and get the body you deserve

 

The body’s built-in reward system, driven by the chemical dopamine, is a fascinating adaptation: It  tells us to do more of the things that give us pleasure. Creative energy, falling in love, entrepreneurship, and even the continued propagation of the human race are driven by this system . . . just as is, unfortunately, the urge to overeat.

In The Fix , Dr. Pamela Peeke uses the latest neuroscience to explain how unhealthy food and behavioral “hooks” have gotten us ensnared; indeed, she shows that dopamine rushes in the body work exactly the same way with food as with cocaine. Luckily, we are all capable of rewiring, and the very same dopamine-driven system can be used to reward us for healthful, exciting, and fulfilling activities. The Fix makes this possible by laying out a lifelong, 3-stage plan that starts with a 3- to 4-week jump start to break so-called heinous hooks and replace them with healthier actions. Fitness guides, meal plans, and recipes are constructed to bolster the growth of new neurons and stimulate the body’s reward system. Gradually, healthy hooks like playing games, meditating, having sex, going for a run, laughing, and learning a new language will replace the junk food, couch time, and other bad habits that leave us unhappy and overweight.