Something You Should Know - What to STOP Doing if You Want to Succeed & How to Crush the Urge to Overeat

Episode Date: November 1, 2018

This episode is released a few days before most people in the U.S. change their clocks back to standard time. And each time we change the clocks, people complain about all the bad things that result from that. Well, there are some good things as well. So I begin with some of those and the reasons behind daylight savings time that you may not know or understand. http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a18011/in-defense-of-daylight-saving-time/ When you get a bad grade on your report card in school, you know that is a subject you really need to work on. But is that a good strategy in real life? Will you be more successful if you try to get better at the things you don’t like or do very well with or are you better served by focusing on those things that you are already good at and enjoy? Business consultant Marcus Buckingham, author of the book The One Thing You Need to Know (https://amzn.to/2SAJiHS) reveals why it is so important to identify your strengths and weaknesses and offers advice that will lead you to success.   Got a bunch of Halloween candy in your house? Well, you could eat it or take it to work or you could do something to help our troops. Listen and I’ll explain how – and it’s very easy. http://www.womenshealthmag.com/weight-loss/what-happens-to-your-body-when-you-eat-3500-calories-candy. The website mentioned is www.operationgratitude.com It’s a bit of a mystery why so many more people today struggle with body weight than in previous generations. With some interesting answers and strategies is Stephan Guyenet, a neuroscientist and author of the book The Hungry Brain: Outsmarting the Instincts That Makes Us Overeat (https://amzn.to/2JvirZW). Stephan explains exactly what it is that makes it so hard to resist some foods and the amazingly simple solutions to stop overeating in the first place. The instinct to eat is strong. However, you can overcome the instinct to OVER eat by following his advice.  This Week's Sponsors Hotel Tonight. Download the app Hotel Tonight to your phone and get $25 off your first eligible booking. Jet.com For a great online shopping experience go to www.Jet.com  The Lodge at Woodloch. $50 resort credit off any 2-night stay at The Lodge at Woodloch when mentioning promo code SOMETHING by calling 800-966-3562, Option 2, then Option 1 for reservations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on Something You Should Know, most of us are changing the clocks this weekend. I'll explain the real reasons we do that and the surprising things that happen when we do. Then, is success more likely to come from building on your strengths or improving your weaknesses? All of us have our areas of opportunity where we can grow, but we're going to grow the most in the areas, counterintuitively, where we already know the most. We're going to go grow most out of our strengths, not those things that weaken us. Plus, if you've got too much leftover Halloween candy, I have a great idea for what to do with it and understanding why people overeat and how to stop it. Most of us have a very intuitive relationship with food. We eat when we're

hungry and then we stop when we feel full. And so that fullness signal is very important and it turns out that certain types of food deliver more fullness than other types of food. All this today on Something You Should Know. As a listener to Something You Should Know, I can only assume that you are someone who likes to learn about new and interesting things and bring more knowledge to work for you in your everyday life. I mean, that's kind of what Something You Should Know is all about. And so I want to invite you to listen to another podcast called TED Talks Daily. Now, you know about TED Talks, right? Many of the guests on Something You Should Know have done TED Talks Daily. Now, you know about TED Talks, right? Many of the guests on Something You Should Know have done TED Talks. Well, you see, TED Talks Daily is a podcast that brings you a new TED Talk every weekday in less than 15 minutes. Join host Elise Hu. She goes

beyond the headlines so you can hear about the big ideas shaping our future. Learn about things like sustainable fashion, embracing your entrepreneurial spirit, the future of robotics, and so much more. Like I said, if you like this podcast, Something You Should Know, I'm pretty sure you're going to like TED Talks Daily. And you get TED Talks Daily wherever you get your podcasts. Something You should know. Fascinating intel. The world's top experts.

And practical advice you can use in your life. Today, Something You Should Know with Mike Carruthers. Hi, welcome. This weekend, as we do twice a year in most parts of the United States, we will be changing our clocks. And there are always articles and blogs and stories written every time about the negative effects of changing the clocks. But there is another side to the story. Dan Nosowitz of Popular Mechanics Magazine says it's time to stop complaining. For instance, one big complaint about daylight

savings time and then going back to standard time is that the rate of heart attacks goes up in the spring about 10%. But you also have to remember that they go down in the fall when we go back to standard time, also about 10%. The basic idea of daylightlight Savings Time is that we typically spend more awake time in the evenings than in the mornings and that we enjoy many benefits from being awake in the sunshine later in the day rather than in the darkness.

These include vitamin D, increased exercise, increased socializing, and other mental health benefits that come with sunlight. And we also know that crime goes down during daylight savings time. Traffic accidents reportedly go up the first week in the spring when we shift to daylight savings time, and that is true. But daylight savings time lasts eight months, not a week.

And studies prove that the net effect over that course of eight months on traffic accidents is overwhelmingly positive. It is simply safer to drive in the daylight. A question that's often asked is, if daylight savings time is so great, why don't we keep it all year long? Well, in the winter, we abandon daylight savings time because there just isn't enough sunlight to make a difference. Winter daylight savings time would give us a very, very late sunrise and not enough

light in the evening to really provide much of the effects we want. By the way, contrary to popular belief, daylight savings time was not created for farmers. They actually hate it. Their schedules are entirely run by sunlight rather than the clock. So when everybody else changes their clocks and their schedules, theirs stays the same, which throws a wrench into their whole day. And that is something you should know. Several years ago, I heard some advice that really rang true for me. You see, earlier in my life, when I was in school, I always believed that the way to get ahead, the road to success,

was all about improving and fixing and getting good at the things you're not very good at. Fix your flaws, identify your weaknesses, and get better at those things. I think it comes from that school mentality of, you know, when you get your report card and if you have bad grades, those are the subjects you need to work on. You have to get better at those things to bring your grades up.

But it turns out, at least for me, and I think for a lot of people, that advice is horrible. There's a much better way. And when I heard it, I remember thinking, aha, now this sounds right. And I've always tried to follow that advice. The person I heard it from is my guest who joins me now, Marcus Buckingham. Marcus is a business consultant and author of several books. One in particular that relates to this conversation is called The One Thing You Need to Know.

Hi, Marcus. So, what is the one thing? What is that one piece of advice that is probably going to make you more successful than fixing your flaws and finding what you're not very good at and try to get better at it? Well, the one thing you need to know about sustained individual success, and this is going to sound odd, but find out what you don't like doing and stop doing it. Obviously, the best way to succeed in life initially is to find a role that plays to your strengths. But the tricky thing about success is it brings with it more opportunities, more possibilities, some of which will play to your strengths, but many won't.

And if you're not careful, if you wind up walking through all of those doors, you might end up spending, you will end up spending, most of your day doing things you don't like to do. So the real trick to sustain your success is to identify what things really do play to your strengths, which don't, and then in having the self-discipline to cut out the ones that don't. But in every job, in every career, in every relationship, in every part of life,

there's always going to be some things that you don't want to do that come along with the good things. There's always the bad with the good that are still part of what you need to get done. Well, yeah, I think everybody's got certain aspects of their job that they don't like to do, but we've got to be mindful that weaknesses are just things you're not good at. Weaknesses are things that weaken you, that drag you down, that bore you, frustrate you. And the alarming thing is today is that most Americans don't have a few of those things in their working day. They have the grand majority of those things in their working day. If you ask Americans, what percentage of your day do you spend doing things you really

like to do? Only 17% of people can say most of the day. Now, you wouldn't expect that number to be 70% or 80%, but 17 seems really small to me. It implies that most of us are spending a disproportionate amount of time doing things at work we don't like to me. It implies that most of us are spending a disproportionate amount of time doing things at work we don't like to do. So why is that? Why are we spending so much time doing things we don't want to do? There are two reasons why we are spending so much of our time putting up with things we don't like to do. One of them is our own mindset. Most of us believe that success in life comes from fixing our weaknesses, not building on our strengths. I know that sounds odd, but if you ask Americans that question, 59% of them say the secret to success lies in fixing flaws.

So part of the problem is ourselves. The other part of the problem is our bosses. You ask people, when your manager talks to you about your performance, what do you spend most of your time talking about? Only 25% of people say strengths. So both our own mindset and those of our bosses says that you shouldn't cut out the things you don't like to do. You should really work on those things. So you end up with a whole country where most conversations between most managers, most employees are around flaws and failings and how to fix them. There does, however, seem to be some wisdom in trying to improve what you're not good at, because maybe if you got better at it,

maybe you would like it, maybe you would find that you're pretty good at it. Why not see what happens by trying to fix your flaws? I'm saying you get a very limited return on your investment. I mean, drive and passion and motivation, persistence, all those are great, but they're most great when you focus them on your strengths. All of us have areas of opportunity where we can grow, but we're going to grow the most in the areas, counterintuitively, where we already know the most. We're going to go grow most out of our strengths, not those things that weaken us. And if you think about it, I mean, a weakness, as I said, isn't just something you don't like doing. It's something

that drags you down. So it's an activity that when you're not doing it, you don't look forward to it. And when you are doing it, you can't wait to stop. Well, you're never going to learn to love that. And if you're going to excel, you've got to be involved in activities that have some, you have some appetite for them. Because with appetite comes wanting to practice, which then comes increased performance, excellence over time. So to excel, you've got to know where your appetites are and flip that around. To excel, you've got to cut out those things for which you have no appetite. That implies that you know what you have an appetite for. Do you think most people know what they have an appetite for. Do you think most people know what they have an appetite for?

No. Well, no, unfortunately. I think, and actually to say to somebody, you know, success comes from doing what you love. So what do you love? That's actually not very helpful. It's pretty hard to pluck out a thin air. Well, what do you love? What's your passion?

That's a pretty intimidating question. Much more practical to say to someone, well, what are the three or four things you know great on you? What do you know frustrates you? Let's start with those and try and cut those out. Because simply by cutting them out, you open yourself up to let your strengths shine forth. I mean, the cool thing about strengths is that they have a yearning component to them. Left to their own devices, they're going to be expressed. So probably the best advice, unfortunately, is not, hey, what's your passion? It's, hey, what do you not like doing? Okay, let's cut that out and let's free you up. What if you find out that what you don't like to do is something you've invested a lot into?

And I'm thinking of, for example, I know of some lawyers who've gone through law school and become lawyers and maybe even successful lawyers, but then they find they really don't like it. But here they are. Well, and they're limitedly successful. That's the problem. If you hate what you do and you're quite competent at it, unfortunately, you're going to plateau because you won't have the appetite to keep practicing and pushing and refining. There are some things you can, I mean, obviously you should experiment. You should feel free to try things.

Maybe you want to be a doctor. Maybe you want to be a lawyer. But if you go down that route, though, and then find that actually, if you find that the essence of the job is deeply frustrating to you, it's pretty hard to avoid the advice to quit the job. But if it's not quite as extreme as that, if there are, it's actually just to avoid the advice to quit the job. But if it's not quite as extreme as that, if there are, it's actually just that there are some activities within the job that bore you, frustrate you, or grate on you. There are some pretty practical things you can do

to work around that. Let me just give you three or four of them. If, I mean, the first thing you could try is if there's some activity that grates on you, stop doing it. See if anyone cares. I mean, it sounds odd, but stop doing it. See if anyone cares. I worked with a salesperson once who was fabulous at building relationships but hated to cold call. Well, okay, then stop cold calling. No one cares if you cold call.

Instead, try and build your business by extending your existing relationships. And that won't work in every situation, but boy, it's a good way to start. I think a second tactic is find a partner. Find someone who loves to do what you hate to do. You look out there at the most successful people around and you'll see that they're brilliant at finding just the right partner at just the right time. I was always struck by what Thomas Jefferson did. He was a fabulous president, but he hated public speaking. And so rather than bemoan that and sort of stick it out, he just changed the protocol so that henceforth all the State of the Union addresses

would be written by him, something he loved to do, but then handed off to a page who would run down the street and deliver them to Congress. That's a nice way of finding a partner, someone who's good at what you're not good at. I think a third thing you can do is gradually carve a new role for yourself. Find some aspect of the role that gives you strength, experience some success in that, and then gradually parlay that into a role where most of the job now plays to your strengths. I interviewed a doctor once who didn't like sick people. Well, a doctor that doesn't like sick people would seem to be rather seriously handicapped,

except she did actually find that she liked one discipline. She liked dermatology, because the people in dermatology aren't really that sick, and you get to see sort of immediate proof of progress right there on the surface, on the skin. Okay, then parlay that strength into becoming a dermatological specialist, which is what she did, actually. I think the last tactic is, I mean, some activities you can't not do. They are so central to your job. In which case, probably the best advice is, can you change your perspective on that activity?

Now, this involves a little more mental gymnastics than the others, is can you change your perspective on that activity? Now, this involves a little more mental gymnastics than the others, but, for example, my assistant doesn't like filing, which would seem to be a problem, except she's incredibly competitive, and so she's made a game out of filing. She competes to see how fast she can get this particular set of filing done, whether she can beat what she did last time. And in a weird way, she now actually starts to look forward to filing. It's like a Zen moment in her day

because she gets to compete with herself. Now, again, that is a bit of mental gymnastics, but there are at least three or four things you can do first before you throw in the towel and say, boy, this job is just draining the life out of me. Since I host a podcast, it's pretty common for me to be asked to recommend a podcast. And I tell people, if you like something you should know, you're going to like The Jordan Harbinger Show. Every episode is a conversation with a fascinating guest. Of course, a lot of podcasts are conversations with guests, but Jordan does it better than most.

Recently, he had a fascinating conversation with a British woman who was recruited and radicalized by ISIS and went to prison for three years. She now works to raise awareness on this issue. It's a great conversation. And he spoke with Dr. Sarah Hill about how taking birth control not only prevents pregnancy, it can influence a woman's partner preferences, career choices, and overall behavior due to the hormonal changes it causes. Apple named The Jordan Harbinger Show one of the best podcasts a few years back, and in a nutshell, the show is aimed at making you a better, more informed, critical thinker. Check out The Jordan Harbinger Show. There's so much for you in this podcast. The Jordan Harbinger Show on Apple Podcasts,

Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Jennifer, a co-founder of the Go Kid Go Network. At Go Kid Go, putting kids first is at the heart of every show that we produce. That's why we're so excited to introduce a brand new show to our network called The Search for the Silver Lightning, a fantasy adventure series about a spirited young girl named Isla who time travels to the mythical land of Camelot. During her journey, Isla meets new friends, including King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table,

and learns valuable life lessons with every quest, sword fight, and dragon ride. Positive and uplifting stories remind us all about the importance of kindness, friendship, honesty, and positivity. Join me and an all-star cast of actors, including Liam Neeson, Emily Blunt, Kristen Bell, Chris Hemsworth, among many others, in welcoming the Search for the Silver Lining podcast to the Go Kid Go Network by listening today. Look for the Search for the Silver Lining on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm speaking with Marcus Buckingham. He is a business consultant and author of several books, and the one in particular that we're talking about today

is called The One Thing You Need to Know. So, Marcus, you just said a moment ago that people might think, but boy, this job is draining the life out of me. Maybe I ought to throw in the towel. But work is hard. I mean, a lot of jobs are draining, and that's not a reason to throw in the towel. And the fear is that maybe people will hear what you say and say, well, this job's just too hard.

Oh, no, well, I think the fear right now is that we're telling people to do the wrong things. The fear is that you're telling people that the secret does lie in persevering and fixing their weaknesses. We've just got so many people fixated on that. Of course, this isn't to say that you shouldn't experiment. I think the best advice to someone would be, hey, look, experiment, try new roles, try out new activities. Fabulous. But as you do that, your chief

responsibility is to keep your senses finely tuned to which things start to grade on you. And the moment you do, cut them out. I mean, the bottom line is the longer you put up with things on your job you don't like to do, the less successful you'll be. If you have no appetite for it, if you've got something that frustrates you, grates you, whatever bores you, you'll never be great because greatness requires such sustained practice. And lacking the yearning component, you won't practice. So you'll plateau. A big part of the equation in the American work ethic is that you have to work hard. And I could imagine someone listening to you thinking,

well, he's saying just do what's easy and then you don't have to work hard. But is that what you're saying? Well, I think people should work hard. They should be persistent. They should really challenge themselves. But you're going to get the biggest bang for your buck from those things, from working hard in your area of strength. No one ever said success was easy. It's just you're going to get the greatest return by pushing and pushing and pushing yourself in an area where you've got some natural talent, some natural appetite. It's not, yeah, it's not as if success is a cakewalk. But right now we're being persistent

and we're being perseverant and resilient in the wrong areas where we get sort of little, I mean, if you take something like public speaking, some people might be actually quite competent at public speaking, but hate it. Well, if I get you to really work and work and work at that, I might make you sort of hate it. Well, if I get you to really work and work and work at that, I might make you sort of hate it a little less than you did before.

But I'm not going to teach you to love it, in which case I'm really going to get very small increments of growth from all of my training and investment in you. If you're really going to excel, you need to see exponential growth in yourself or in someone you're managing. And that means, yeah, work hard. Yeah, be persistent.

But target it better. Target it toward those things where you've got an appetite for it. In business, though, when you're good at something, very often you get promoted out of that. You get, if you're a good salesperson, you'll become the sales manager. And now you're not selling, you're managing, and that's not what you want to do. I know. It's a disaster, really.

It's called the Peter Principle. I don't know whether you remember that, but it was a book by Lawrence Peter in 1969 called The Peter Principle, where simply that you get promoted out of your level of incompetence. I mean, sorry, you get promoted to your level of incompetence. It's kind of a tragedy in business today that the most creative way we've figured out

to reward someone who's good at a job is to promote them out of it. And clearly that's good for some people. I mean, some really great salespeople make fantastic sales managers. But weirdly enough,

the talents needed to sell don't necessarily correlate with the talents needed to manage. It's just that the talents needed to sell don't necessarily correlate with the talents needed to manage. Just like the talents needed to be a great basketball player aren't necessarily the same as ones that take to be a great coach. So the fact that we do promote great salespeople into mediocre managers doesn't make it right. It makes it something we should try and fix. But you're right. Unfortunately, the way that we've got our company set up, the way that we dangle prestige and respect in front of people in the form of money or title or nice offices or whatever,

we really are telling them, either subliminally or explicitly, you've got to run up this ladder as fast as you can. And it's a shame. I mean, I think it's one of the reasons why so many Americans are in jobs that don't fit them. It's because they've been promoted out of the jobs that did fit them. Talk for a minute about the difference between managing and leading. Well, the job of a manager is to turn one person's talent into performance, isn't it? I mean, it's a multiplying job.

And if you think about it that way, the one thing you need to know to manage well is find out what's unique about each person and capitalize on it. Your job is to capitalize on the unique strengths or the unique triggers or the unique styles of learning of that person and use them to best effect. The job of a leader is really very different. The job of a leader is not to turn one talent performance. The job of a leader is to rally everybody to a better future. And so if that's the job of a leader, the one thing you need to know to lead is in fact the exact opposite of the one thing you need to know to manage. Managers find out what's unique and capitalize on it. Great leaders find

what's universal to us all and capitalize on it. After all, if I'm going to rally all of you to a better future, somehow I've got to cut through differences of race, sex, age, experience, personality type. I've got to cut through all of those and tap into those very, very few things that all of us share. Now, you can do both. You can manage well and lead well. But boy, if you're going to do both well, you better know how to change gears. The role of the manager, it's all about fine shadings of uniqueness and how to use them. For the leader, it's all about clarity. It's all about clarity. Because if you think about it, the one thing that we all share, the most powerful thing we all share, is a fear of the unknown.

And so the challenge of leadership is how do you turn people's legitimate fear of the future into confidence? Well, the best way to do that isn't by being passionate. It's not by being consistent. It's by being clear. Clarity seems to be the best antidote for anxiety. So if you want to manage well, you'll be brilliant at identifying these fine shadings of uniqueness. If you want to lead well, you will be brilliantly, deliberately clear in terms of things like who do we serve, or what is our core strength, or what is our core score. So they're very different skill sets. And do you find that people who can do one well can or cannot do the other well?

I find there's no correlation. I mean, if you're a good manager, it doesn't mean you're going to be a bad manager, I mean a bad leader. But it doesn't mean you're going to be a good one either. One finds that the correlation of talents, I mean, if you were going to say, what are the two talents you need to manage? They would be an instinct for coaching, which means somehow an ability to get a kick out of helping someone else do well, and an ability to individualize, an ability to see just through observation the subtle differences between two people in the same job. But if you wanted to say, what are the two talents you need to lead?

They would be optimism, just an irrational ability to see a better future, even in the face of terrible current situations, just to go, you know what, things can be better. And secondly, an ego. After all, the future requires not only someone with the optimism to see it, but also someone with the self-assurance to believe that they are the ones to make it come true. So it's not as though optimism and ego are inversely correlated with an ability to coach and ability to individualize. It's just they're not correlated at all. So someone could have all four of those talents, but having two of them doesn't mean you have the other two. Well, I always have this sense of relief after I listen to you, because your message is so clear that rather than struggle through all the

things that you don't like, just cut them out. And that that is a better way to find success than to keep hammering away at things that you don't like and that you're not especially good at. And you say it so well and so clear, it's always good to talk to you. Marcus Buckingham has been my guest. His book is one of several he's written called The One Thing You Need to Know, and his website is marcusbuckingham.com. There's a link to his book in the show notes. Thanks, Marcus. People who listen to Something You Should Know are curious about the world,

looking to hear new ideas and perspectives. So I want to tell you about a podcast that is full of new ideas and perspectives, and one I've started listening to called Intelligence Squared. It's the podcast where great minds meet. Listen in for some great talks on science, tech, politics, creativity, wellness, and a lot more. A couple of recent examples, Mustafa Suleiman, the CEO of Microsoft AI, discussing the future of technology. That's pretty cool.

And writer, podcaster, and filmmaker John Ronson, discussing the rise of conspiracies and culture wars. Intelligence Squared is the kind of podcast that gets you thinking a little more openly about the important conversations going on today. Being curious, you're probably just the type of person Intelligence Squared is meant for. Check out Intelligence Squared wherever you get your podcasts.

Do you love Disney? Then you are going to love our hit podcast, Disney Countdown. I'm Megan, the Magical Millennial. And I'm the Dapper Danielle. On every episode of our fun and family-friendly show, we count down our top 10 lists of all things Disney. There is nothing we don't cover.

We are famous for rabbit holes, Disney-themed games, and fun facts you didn't know you needed, but you definitely need in your life. So if you're looking for a healthy dose of Disney magic, check out Disney Countdown wherever you get your podcasts. It does seem a bit odd that so many people struggle with body weight today than they did a few generations ago. And on earlier episodes of this podcast, we've talked about why that is. Some people blame

the food industry for making us overweight, while others say it has more to do with personal responsibility and knowing how to eat right. But I've always suspected there's more to it than that, or maybe something else entirely that's going on. That the instinct to eat is powerful because it is so essential, and since you have such a strong instinct to eat, when you then surround yourself with high-calorie food, it's hard to resist. Someone who is on the same wavelength and has some solid research to back this up is Stephan Guyenet. He has a PhD in neuroscience, and's author of the book, The Hungry Brain, Outsmarting the Instincts That Make Us Overeat. Hi, Stefan, welcome. Thanks, Mike. Good to be here. So, the instinct that makes us overeat, why is it such a problem now, it seems, than it was a few generations ago?

Yeah, this is a really interesting and perplexing question because nobody wants to overeat, and yet we do it anyway. And so what is it that causes our behavior to betray our best intentions? And the answer is that the brain contains several different ancient survival circuits that were essential for the survival and reproduction of our ancestors. Those are circuits that helped us find food and helped us find food that was calorie dense enough to support our rigorous lifestyles many, many years ago, thousands of years ago. But today, those very same brain circuits in the environment that we currently live in essentially drive us to overcome over consume food and not move our bodies enough and we tend to eat too many calories and accumulate

fat but my parents generation didn't do that well i would say that um some of them did. Not as many. I think not as many. That's correct. Yeah. So if you look back at the statistics, if you look all the way back to the late 1800s, what you find is that only about one in 17 people were obese. And today, the number is 38% of adults in the United States. And there's been kind of a gradual increase in fatness over time, but that's been particularly pronounced since about 1980 or the late 1970s. And the reason is that our environment has changed quite dramatically over that time period. So if you look at, there's many aspects of the environment. So the brain responds to the cues that it's exposed to in your surroundings. The brain is very reactive to cues in your surroundings. Things like calorie dense, seductive foods in your personal environment, things like convenience. So foods that are more convenient to eat will tend

to be eaten more than foods that are less convenient. And so if we look at how the American diet has changed over time in the American food environment, what you can see is that the brain is wired to look for specific food properties, things like high concentrations of fat and sugar and starch and salt. And what you can see is that added fats in the U.S. diet have increased over time, added sugar has increased over time, and just processed food in general has increased dramatically over time. So basically, Americans have outsourced their food preparation to professionals. So we used to prepare all of our own food. In the late 1800s, about 93% of our food expenditures was on food to be eaten and prepared at home, whereas today it's about 50-50.

So half of our expenditures are in restaurants, and half is on food to be eaten at home. But even that half is one of the reasons why this generation is heavier than one or two generations ago. So we just adapt to the environment. I mean, if it's there, we eat it, basically. Yeah, that's absolutely true. So if you look at differences in body weight today in the modern world, in the modern United States, what you're going to find is that about 70% of the differences in body weight between individuals is accounted for by genetic differences. And so basically, the interpretation of this is that we're all kind of living in this fattening environment. We're all swimming in this sea of fattening foods, but those of us who are genetically susceptible to that environment are the ones that are going

to gain weight, whereas the ones that are not susceptible are not going to gain weight. And the susceptibility is what makes some people susceptible and others not? Yeah, that's a really interesting question. And we actually have more to learn about this. But from what we understand currently, it has to do mostly with how the brain is constructed. And so if you look at the genes that determine someone's susceptibility to gaining weight versus not gaining weight, they're mostly genes that specify how the brain is put together, and particularly specific circuits in appetite-regulating parts of the brain,

such as the hypothalamus and the brainstem, that we have very good evidence play an important role in eating and body weight. So is the answer as simple as, don't bring that into your house and you won't eat it? I think that's a big part of the answer. So like I was saying earlier, the brain is very reactive to the cues that surround us. So we have these instinctive brain circuits that are very strongly influencing our eating behavior, despite our best intentions to eat less, to eat healthy food, and to be lean. And these instinctive brain circuits, their activity is very strongly influenced by immediate cues in your personal surroundings. And so if you have seductive calorie-dense foods in your kitchen, such as potato chips or soda or cookies hanging around where you have that visual cue or the smell cue that's plugging into those instinctive circuits, it's going to

trigger your motivation to eat those foods. If those foods are not around and you're not experiencing those cues, it's not going to trigger your motivation to eat them. And so, yes, I think controlling your food environment is a very, very important part of guiding those instinctive brain circuits in the right direction to where they're supporting your goals rather than undermining your goals. Now, we often hear people demonize, you know, it's all because of sugar, it's all because the food industry, it's all because this is a big conspiracy to get people to eat more junk. And where do you come down on that? I mean, is this a personal responsibility issue? Is this a societal issue? What is it? Yeah, so the food industry clearly has played a role in it. But I think one thing that's important to understand clearly is that the food industry is responding to consumer demand.

So basically, the food industry is giving us what we want. And so those instinctive preferences of the human brain are exactly what has created the consumer demand that the food industry has responded to. So is the food industry responsible? Yes, certainly. I mean, they produce this food that definitely causes us to overeat. There's no question about that. But I mean, is there any other possible outcome in a competitive free market economy, I think the answer to that is no. Why doesn't it work when people have attempted, companies have attempted to make healthy food convenient? Somehow it doesn't seem to stick. The problem is that that's not consistent with the innate drives of the human brain.

The human brain doesn't want healthy food, and so when you try to sell it to people, they don't buy it. That's the problem. I mean, like, McDonald's has had healthy food on its menu for a long time now. You can get fruit, you can get salads at McDonald's. People just don't buy it. So, as you say, an effective strategy is if you don't bring in those fattening foods into your home,

you can't eat them because they're not there. But that only helps you when you're home. What about all the temptations when you're out at fast food restaurants and you're tempted? Well, I don't think you can eliminate temptation completely, but I think you can manage temptation. For example, if you eat foods that are more filling per unit calorie. So the way the brain works when you sit down to a meal is that you eat the food, that food goes down into your digestive tract. Your digestive tract contains all kinds of sensors that determine the composition of that food and send that information back to your brain. So they're measuring the volume of the food, the amount of fat, the amount of protein.

All those signals go up to your brain, part of your brain called the brainstem, where they get integrated into a signal that is your fullness signal, your satiety signal. And that is the thing that most of us listen to that determines when to end a meal. So most people, most of us have a very intuitive relationship with food. We eat when we're hungry or when we're tempted, and then we stop when we feel full. And so that fullness signal is very important. And it turns out that certain types of food deliver more fullness per calorie than other types of food. These are simple, unrefined foods like fruits and beans and meats, oatmeal, yogurt, things like that, as opposed to things like baked goods, cookies, and candy, things like that that are calorie dense and refined tend to provide very little fullness per calorie. So you have to eat

a lot more calories before you hit that fullness signal. Do you think, is there evidence to support the idea that at least the temptation lessens over time the more you do this, that if you eat healthy, you tend to want that more, or is it always going to be a fight? The temptation does lessen over time. And so, for example, if you really, really like ice cream and you eat it often, you're going to have a much stronger motivational drive to eat ice cream on a regular basis than if you only eat it very occasionally. Your brain kind of forgets, or more accurately, overwrites over time that motivational state that occurs in response to the ice cream queue. Well, that's good news. Then at least if you make the attempt, things would get easier.

And I think we all have a sense of that. We know people who eat healthy and they don't seem to be particularly crying every day because they can't have a candy bar. They don't seem to want one anymore. Yeah, that's correct. And I think there's another factor here to keep in mind. And that is that if you believe that a food is really, really unhealthy and really, really damaging to eat, that may actually start to attenuate your actual instinctive drive to eat that food, because that's one of the things that's plugging in. That belief is one of the things that's plugging into your motivational systems that determine how strong of an impulse you're going to experience to eat that food. But there aren't too many people on the planet who think that soda is healthy, but they know it's not, but people drink an awful lot of it. Yeah, you're absolutely right. And I think that underscores the fact that those cognitive beliefs about food are not really the main thing that's determining our drives and

our behavior. And furthermore, if you look at the primary sources of calories in the United States diet, these were reported in the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The number one source of calories in the U.S. diet, I kid you not, is grain-based desserts, which includes things like brownies and cake and cookies and that sort of thing. So obviously, nobody thinks that a diet composed of cake and pizza and soda is healthy, yet we do it anyway due to these motivational drives that are hardwired into our brains. But if you have a strong enough cognitive aversion to something, I think it can modify that. So, for example, one of the things you see in the vegetarian and vegan communities is you see a lot of talk about deaths and parasites and really like revolting things associated with meat. And this is, it's basically what they're trying to do is cultivate a kind of visceral disgust against meat that makes it easier for them to adhere to their chosen dietary pattern.

So it's not that you can't modify it at all, but I do think that those instinctive drives are very powerful. And for most people, those are going to be the dominant force in their food choices. So let's boil this down into some practical steps that people can use in their life to help fight that urge to overeat. One of them, as I mentioned, and this is one that I really like to focus on because I think it's really important and cannot be overstated, is controlling your food environment. The brain is very responsive to the cues in your environment. And if you give it cues that support your healthy goals, you will tend to go in that direction. If you give it cues that undermine your goals, you will also tend to go in that direction. So for example, if you walk into my kitchen, the only visible food is things like fresh fruit and nuts, so nuts in shells.

So you have to do a little bit of work to access that food, and it's not food that's overly tempting. And so that small effort barrier and the fact that it's not overly seductive really helps me control my calorie intake in a way where it's matching my true needs instead of going beyond my true needs. So the other thing I mentioned that I think bears repeating is eating food that is more filling per unit calorie. Foods that are simple, unrefined, and have a lower calorie density. So calorie density is the number of calories per unit volume. And what that means is foods that tend to be richer in water and fiber tend to have a lower

calorie density. So those are the types of foods that will help you feel fuller on fewer calories. And those are things like fruits and vegetables and... Yeah. I mean, pretty much most whole foods. I would say baked goods are a common thing that tends to be calorie dense, especially anything made with white flour is great to avoid. Added fats of any kind, so oils and butter and those types of things, those are also something you probably don't want to eat too much of, even though fat itself is not necessarily fattening. But if you're eating it in a very calorie-dense palatable form, then it will be fattening.

So if you're eating fat in the context of yogurt and in the context of meats and in the context of avocados, those are things that can allow you to eat fat and to have a satisfying meal without necessarily overdoing it on the calorie density. And then beyond that, there are other things that you can do to kind of maintain these circuits in the brain that regulate appetite and body weight in a way that helps them to support your goals. And those are things like getting enough restorative sleep and managing your stress and getting regular physical activity. Well, when you think about it, so much of what you've said really falls into the category of common sense in the sense that if you don't have the foods to eat, you can't eat them. And so and somehow life goes on and you'll survive, but you won't be adding all those extra calories to your diet. Yep. Stephan Guillenet has been my guest. He is a neuroscientist and he's author of the book, The Hungry Brain, Outsmarting the Instincts That Make Us Overeat. And there's

a link to his book in the show notes. Thank you, Stephan. All right. Thank you very much. This episode of the podcast is being released the morning of the day after Halloween. And if you have kids in the house, there's a good chance you have a lot of Halloween candy in the house. Because as any good trick-or-treater will tell you, the fun of Halloween is to see how much candy you can get. The problem is that once you have it, you're likely going to eat it, maybe even binge on it. The good news is that when you go wild on Halloween candy, your body will likely be very forgiving, according to David Metz, MD and professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Your body may not be happy, but it will forgive you. First of all, you probably won't gain much weight, if any, if you went nuts on Halloween.

It's when you binge repeatedly that you start to see the pounds add on. It's more about how it makes you feel that can be a problem. That uncomfortable sensation you get from eating a lot of candy isn't just caused by your expanding stomach. It's also because the sugar is affecting your hormones and your body is trying to deal with that blood sugar spike you just dealt it. And there really is nothing you can do about that except wait. If there is still candy in your house and you'd rather get rid of it

so you don't eat it, you can take it to work, but you can also donate it to the troops. Operation Gratitude's Halloween Candy Program will ship your candy to troops overseas. You can just google Operation Gratitude or the website is operationgratitude.com and that is something you should know please give our sponsors a try if they're offering something that sounds appealing to you all of the websites links and promo codes are in the show notes for each episode i'm mike caruthers thanks for listening today to something you should know welcome to the small town of Chinook, where faith runs deep and secrets run deeper. In this new thriller, religion and crime collide when a gruesome murder rocks the isolated Montana community. Everyone is quick to point their fingers at a drug-addicted teenager, but local deputy Ruth Vogel isn't convinced.

She suspects connections to a powerful religious group. Enter federal agent V.B. Loro, who has been investigating a local church for possible criminal activity. The pair form an unlikely partnership to catch the killer, unearthing secrets that leave Ruth torn between her duty to the law, her religious convictions, and her very own family. But something more sinister than murder is afoot, and someone is watching Ruth. Chinook, starring Kelly Marie Tran and Sanaa Lathan. Listen to Chinook wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, this is Rob Benedict. And I am Richard Spate. We were both on a little show you might know

called Supernatural. It had a pretty good run, 15 seasons, 327 episodes. And though we have seen, of course, every episode many times, we figured, hey, now that we're wrapped, let's watch it all again. And we can't do that alone. So we're inviting the cast and crew that made the show along for the ride. We've got writers, producers, composers, directors, and we'll, of of course have some actors on as well, including some certain guys that played some certain pretty iconic brothers.

It was kind of a little bit of a left field choice in the best way possible. The note from Kripke was, he's great, we love him, but we're looking for like a really intelligent Duchovny type. With 15 seasons to explore, it's going to be the road trip of several lifetimes, so please join us and subscribe to Supernatural then and now.