Food for Thought

Yesterday evening I went to a great lecture at the Champalimaud Foundation, where a brilliant team of neuroscientists organises regular events for a lay audience. They never fail do be illuminating, and I always leave feeling inspired to think more, and in a different way, about our brains and about the world - after all, one of the great advantages of studying basic sciences (as one of the speakers mentioned yesterday) is their power as a source of analogies. 

Yesterday's event was on food and on our complex relationship with it, which is based on our biology (we need food to survive, and our organisms are wired, due to natural selection, to keep the right balance of nutrients), but goes far beyond it, including psychological, social, economical and cultural factors. There were three amazing speakers (after the introduction): 

• Carlos Ribeiro, a researcher at the Chamapliamud Neuroscience Program who studies how neuronal systems respond to metabolic needs to ensure survival and reproduction; 
• Paulo Morais, a chef who takes inspiration from Japanese food;
• Stephen Simpson, a researcher at the University of Sydney whose work on modelling nutrition has deep implications in a wide variety of areas (such as ecology and human health). 

One of the things which, in my opinion, make these events so extraordinary is the fact that there always are several speakers from different areas: it really helps you get a wide perspective on the topic, and get to new ideas by connecting the different perspectives presented. 

Carlos Ribeiro spoke of his work: using fruit flies, his lab group studies the mechanisms that determine what animals choose to eat. It turns out that fruit flies - and it was suggested that we may extrapolate these results - choose according to their nutrient requirements at the moment: if they are on a protein-rich diet, they will choose carbohydrates (in humans, this would be the "there's always space for dessert"effect); on the other hand, if they lack protein, they will choose to eat food that contains it. This suggests that flies have a protein-detection gene. Another interesting aspect they are studying is the relation between mating and food choices in female flies: mated flies tend to choose protein-rich food and virgins prefer carbohydrates (insert cheap pun here if you want...). Much the same way, this suggest there is a "mating-gene". Based on these observations, they use genetics to identify how flies make these choices and what parts of their brains are involved. He spoke with passion and clarity, giving the audience insight on how research is done (both on the methods used and on motivation and way of thinking).

Paulo Morais spoke of his career as a culinary chef. I really liked getting to know the variety of factors which affect his decisions while cooking - it really is an art! His presentation showed how food is about much more than satiety and taste. 

Stephen Simpson told a tale of cannibalism, ageing, obesity and death - it sounds like a gory horror film, but it was a gripping exploration of revolutionary research in nutrition, very persuading and engaging, clearly thought-out and based on solid evidence. Continuing with the initial theme Carlos Ribeiro had introduced (namely, protein vs carbohydrates), he introduced his thesis - the proportion of protein is a/the determining factor in a diet (diet = what we eat, not some absurd attempt at weight loss by, say, eating only onions), much more so than counting calories. When we don't get enough protein, we over-eat carbohydrates and fat because our organism is searching for protein, which is our only source of nitrogen (and therefore essential), thus storing up fat. He showed a lot of evidence in favour of this conclusion, in different species of animals and also in humans, and explained the way the experimental studies were set up. He also exposed connections between protein intake and fertility and lifespan.

In my opinion, the only thing that was lacking was the presence of someone ho approached food from the perspective of economics and social science, because it is obvious our relation with food is an example of relations with consumer goods in a capitalist society, and both hunger and obesity are caused by economical circumstances. On the other hand, the event would have been by far too long!

Afterwards, there was delicious - and free! - pita bread, chocolate and drinks. It was truly an inspiring evening, and it left me with a lot of food for thought. The next Ar event - on mind tricks/magicians - is on the 5th of July, and I will definitely be there!

If you want to read more about this topic, I recommend checking the following links:

Appetisers for Food for Thought

Sweets for Dessert after Food for Thought

Why Our Food is Making Us Fat