There once was a doctor in the 1800s who ran a famous test. It became known as Pavlov’s dog test. In case you’ve never heard of it, I’ll give you a brief description of it. Pavlov would ring a bell right before he would feed the dogs. After repeating this several times, he would ring the bell but not give the food. The dogs would salivate anyway. As humans we like to think we are more advanced than dogs. Sure, we have the thumbs and everything, but it kind of stops there. If anyone wants to write in and explain cognition to me, don’t bother, this is not what this blog is about. We as humans become Pavlov’s dogs on a daily basis. If you think you are immune to it, think again. The crackling of bacon frying in a pan can and will cause instant hunger pangs. The smell of cinnamon can instantly remind us of holiday food. Even if we’re not hungry, walking into a house full of cinnamon can make our stomach feel empty. Ever notice the candy at the store checkout? You think that’s an accident? The folks at Hershey’s and Mars pay top dollar for the counter space around checkout aisles. In some cases, they pay even more than the shelves inside the store. Believe me, that’s no accident. You ever notice most fast food restaurants have yellow in their signs? Studies have shown the color yellow makes you hungry. The mere sight of it from the freeway is enough to make us pull over and get a Whopper or Big Mac. The fast food companies are more brilliant than that. As a kid we used to chant “Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.” The actress who uttered “Where’s the beef?” in the commercial was actually dead before we started repeating the phrase. I could go on and on with this. There’s no end to what food does to most of our senses, whether we hear it, see it, smell it, or touch it. We have the uncontrollable urge to want it and need it. I told you that to tell you this. I ran into a friend of Serena’s a couple of weeks back named Patty. She’s a successful real estate agent in the Calabasas area. Patty had mentioned to me she’s a reader of the blog and that she had a perplexing situation. She noted she wasn’t particularly concerned about it. She just didn’t understand why she did it. Patty is a thin woman who is in great shape. She told me one of her favorite shows is Biggest Loser. She never misses an episode. If she’s busy, she records it on Tivo. Everytime she watches the show, she gets the urge to eat junk food. And not just a little junk food, a lot of it. Anything she can get her hands on. Once the show is over, the binge stops. Curious, I asked a few questions. Have you binged your entire life? She said no, it was completely new to her. I asked if she had ever been heavy. Again, the answer was no. I told her Biggest Loser is a seasonal show with no more than 18-20 episodes. Since there are 365 days a years, eating badly for less than 5 percent of the time. One of my favorite Vinnie-isms has always been, “What you eat between Christmas and New Years doesn’t make you fat, it’s what you eat between New Years and Christmas.”
