The Original Self Podcast

Episode 16 The Engineered Plate: How Hyper-Palatable Foods Are Designed to Defeat You

33 min · 15. kesä 2026
jakson Episode 16 The Engineered Plate: How Hyper-Palatable Foods Are Designed to Defeat You kansikuva

Kuvaus

Have you ever told yourself you would stop after a few chips, one cookie, or one episode — and then couldn't? Have you spent years believing the problem was your willpower, your discipline, or your relationship with food? You are not broken. You were never supposed to easily resist what the food industry spent decades and billions of dollars engineering you to crave. In Episode 16 of The Original Self Podcast, psychology-informed life coach Evet DeCota dismantles the myth of weak willpower and reveals the real science behind why stopping is so hard. Drawing on her own academic research into stress, impulsivity, and hyper-palatable food consumption, Evet takes you inside the neuroscience of craving, the psychology of self-blame, and what it actually means to find your way back to a body you can trust. This is not a diet episode. There are no food lists, no protocols, and no miracle plans. This is an honest, psychology-informed conversation about how the modern food environment was built to work against you — and what awareness can do that willpower alone never could. What you will learn in this episode: — Why willpower is real but finite — and why it was never designed to compete against a system built with decades of neuroscience to override it — The history of how food became an industry and how the Bliss Point changed everything we eat — What the homeostatic and hedonic pathways are and why hyper-palatable foods hijack one to silence the other — How dopamine drives anticipation and craving before you take a single bite — and why the smell of food, a crinkle of a bag, or even a commercial can trigger it — What sensory-specific satiety is and exactly how ultra-processed foods are engineered to circumvent it — Roy Baumeister's research on decision fatigue and why you are not the same person at ten o'clock at night that you were when you set your intention that morning — Why intelligent, disciplined, high-functioning people struggle just as much around food — and what that tells us about the system, not the person — Evet's own academic research on stress, impulsivity, and hyper-palatable food consumption — and the finding that surprised her most — Why quitting cigarettes was possible but food is different — and what that distinction reveals about the nature of food addiction — The real costs of hyper-palatable food consumption beyond weight — including cognitive load, body distrust, and the shame that accumulates quietly for years — What the shift from self-blame to curiosity looks like — and why that shift is where the real awareness work begins — What public policy conversations around ultra-processed food regulation are starting to look like globally Research and experts referenced in this episode: Howard Moskowitz — the Bliss Point and multivariate palatability research Roy Baumeister — self-regulation, ego depletion, and decision fatigue research Harvard Nutrition Department — dopamine, anticipation, and reward research Evet DeCota — original thesis research on stress, impulsivity, and hyper-palatable food consumption, Dominican University of California If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Leave a review — it helps more people find this conversation. And if you are ready to explore your own growth with support, visit decotalifecoaching.com [http://decotalifecoaching.com] to learn more about working with Evet one-on-one. Subscribe to The Original Self Podcast for weekly episodes on resilience, identity, mindset, and the courage to become who you actually are.

Kommentit

0

Ole ensimmäinen kommentoija

Rekisteröidy nyt ja liity The Original Self Podcast-yhteisöön!

Aloita maksutta

14 vrk ilmainen kokeilu

Kokeilun jälkeen 7,99 € / kuukausi. · Peru milloin tahansa

  • Podimon podcastit
  • 20 kuunteluaikaa / kuukausi
  • Lataa offline-käyttöön

Kaikki jaksot

22 jaksot

jakson Coming Home: Learning to Trust Yourself Again kansikuva

Coming Home: Learning to Trust Yourself Again

Evet DeCota is the owner of DeCota Life Coaching and a psychology-informed life coach exploring resilience, mindset, and the courage to become your authentic self. Between the salon chair and the coaching session, she's spent years watching people move through life in patterns they rarely notice. This is it, the final episode of A Psychology of Food. Eight episodes ago, this series opened with a question: what happened to us around food? Episode 22 turns that question around and asks it the other way. Who were you before you were taught how to be around food? This episode is about the practice of finding out, and about learning to trust the answer. In this episode, you'll learn: ● The practical difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger, and where each one tends to register in the body ● Why undereating during the day can produce something that feels exactly like emotional hunger by evening, and why that isn't a willpower problem ● What interoceptive awareness is, and why researchers Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch describe it as something close to a superpower ● Kristin Neff's three components of self-compassion, and why self-compassion is the actual condition that makes listening to your body possible ● Why comfort eating was never the enemy this series was describing, and where the real concern actually lies ● Evet's own closing reflection, including her experience with a GLP-1 medication, what it did and didn't do, and what coming home to herself has looked like This episode marks the final chapter of A Psychology of Food, an eight-episode series exploring the systems, biology, and psychology that shape our relationship with food. Thank you for listening to the whole arc. Contact Evet / DeCota Life Coaching Website: decotalifecoaching.com [http://decotalifecoaching.com] Email: decotalifecoaching@gmail.com [decotalifecoaching@gmail.com] Phone: 415-548-1964

Eilen19 min
jakson Episode 21-Food Addiction and The Science Behind Diet Culture Guilt kansikuva

Episode 21-Food Addiction and The Science Behind Diet Culture Guilt

Is it addiction, or is it something else wearing the same symptoms? Episode 21 opens the final section of A Psychology of Food, The Self, by taking on the food addiction debate directly, then following the thread into the binge-restrict cycle and the cheat day culture that keeps it spinning. What you'll learn in this episode: ● The 2025 research proposing "Ultra-Processed Food Use Disorder" as a diagnosis, what the Yale Food Addiction Scale actually measures, and why researchers are still divided on the question ● Why food doesn't fit the abstinence model every other addiction framework is built on, and what that means for anyone who has felt like they don't fit the label ● The four stages of the binge-restrict cycle: restriction, craving, bingeing, and guilt, and why each stage sets up the next ● The forbidden fruit effect, including a story from Geneen Roth's Kindness and Calories about a mother, a pillowcase, and a bag of M&Ms ● Why cheat days often function as restriction with a due date, and what the research says about the alternative ● Evet's own history with sugar and hyper-palatable food, including thirteen years as a smoker who quit for good, and years of nutritionists, food therapy, and food retreats ● The shift from blame to curiosity that carries through the rest of the series, and a preview of the final episode This episode closes with a preview of Episode 22, Coming Home: Learning to Trust Yourself Again, the final episode of the series. If you'd like to learn more about working with Evet, you can find her at decotalifecoaching.com [http://decotalifecoaching.com], email decotalifecoaching@gmail.com [decotalifecoaching@gmail.com], or call 415-548-1964.

13. heinä 202630 min
jakson Episode 20- Menopause, Metabolism, & the 8 PM Problem kansikuva

Episode 20- Menopause, Metabolism, & the 8 PM Problem

Episode 20 turns to one of the most misunderstood stages of a woman's life: menopause and the very real metabolic and neurological shifts that come with it. Evet DeCota walks through why the strategies that worked in your twenties and thirties stop working the same way at midlife, and why that has nothing to do with discipline or effort. Key takeaways: ● Estrogen decline during perimenopause and menopause weakens a natural appetite brake, shifting the balance between leptin (fullness) and ghrelin (hunger) toward increased cravings. ● Visceral fat redistribution toward the abdomen after menopause is a documented, estrogen-linked shift, not a reflection of effort. ● Appetite hormone changes continue for 18 to 30 months after the menopause transition itself, meaning the body keeps recalibrating well past menopause. ● The 8 PM problem is driven by evening cortisol that fails to decline on schedule, compounded by hot flashes and disrupted sleep that independently raise next-day hunger. ● PCOS, recently renamed PMOS (polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome), does not resolve at menopause. Reproductive symptoms often ease, but insulin resistance, the metabolic core of the condition, typically persists or worsens. ● Evet shares her own PMOS story, including a hysterectomy recommendation at seventeen, decades on birth control, and later conversations with her doctors about HRT and GLP-1 medication. ● Research from neuroscientist Lisa Mosconi shows the brain's glucose metabolism drops measurably during perimenopause, offering a possible explanation for menopausal brain fog and for why nearly two-thirds of Alzheimer's patients are women. ● Mediterranean and MIND-style eating patterns have the strongest evidence base for supporting cognition through midlife, while ultra-processed foods and refined sugar are linked to worse brain fog. This episode is part of A Psychology of Food, a nine-episode series exploring the systems, biology, and stories that shape our relationship with food. Episode 21, Food Addiction, Food Shame, and the Cheat Day Lie, continues the series next. Contact Evet / DeCota Life Coaching Website: decotalifecoaching.com [http://decotalifecoaching.com] Email: decotalifecoaching@gmail.com [decotalifecoaching@gmail.com] Phone: 415-548-1964

10. heinä 202630 min
jakson Episode 19- Born into It: Where Your Relationship with Food Really Began kansikuva

Episode 19- Born into It: Where Your Relationship with Food Really Began

When most people think about their relationship with food, they point to their first diet, a painful comment about their body, or years of struggling with emotional eating. But what if the story began much earlier? In this episode of The Original Self Podcast, we explore the science behind how our relationship with food begins long before conscious choice. From prenatal flavor exposure and epigenetics to the infant microbiome and childhood food rituals, we examine how biology, environment, and family traditions quietly shape the way we eat. You'll learn how the body adapts before birth, why the gut and brain begin communicating in infancy, how Saturday morning cereal became more than breakfast, and why many of our lifelong eating patterns developed long before we understood nutrition. Most importantly, this episode isn't about blame. It's about replacing shame with understanding. The body is remarkably adaptive, and the same biology that helped shape our early experiences remains capable of change throughout life. In this episode, you'll discover: • How food preferences begin before birth • What epigenetics teaches us about inheritance and environment • Why the infant microbiome matters for lifelong health • How childhood rituals and family traditions become emotional maps • The psychology behind classical conditioning and food memories • Why understanding your beginning doesn't determine your future • How neuroplasticity, the microbiome, and lifestyle continue to support change throughout adulthood Contact: decotalifecoaching@gmail.com [decotalifecoaching@gmail.com] www.decotalifecoaching.com [http://www.decotalifecoaching.com] Listen wherever you enjoy podcasts. Research & References Featured in This Episode: • Dr. Julie Mennella (Monell Chemical Senses Center) • The Dutch Hunger Winter Studies (1944–1945) • Dr. Rachel Yehuda (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai) • Dr. Martin Blaser (Rutgers University) • Dr. Jack Gilbert (University of California San Diego) • Cornell University Food and Brand Lab • Human milk biology research Further Reading: • The Omnivore's Dilemma – Michael Pollan • The Hungry Brain – Stephan Guyenet • Metabolical – Dr. Robert Lustig • The Psychobiotic Revolution – Scott Anderson, John Cryan & Ted Dinan • Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers – Dr. Robert Sapolsky Educational Disclaimer: The information presented in this episode is intended for educational purposes only and should not replace medical advice from your physician or another qualified healthcare professional.

4. heinä 202628 min
jakson Episode 18- The Neuroscience of Why You Eat: Stress, Dopamine & Why Willpower Is Often the Wrong Explanation kansikuva

Episode 18- The Neuroscience of Why You Eat: Stress, Dopamine & Why Willpower Is Often the Wrong Explanation

Have you ever reached for food and only realized what you were doing after the fact — as if the decision had already been made without you? You're not imagining it. In this episode of The Original Self Podcast, psychology-informed life coach Evet DeCota explains why that experience is neurologically real, and why willpower is often the wrong explanation for what's happening. Drawing on her graduate research on stress, impulsivity, and hyper-palatable food consumption, Evet breaks down the brain systems that drive eating behavior — and why they so often override our best intentions. In this episode, you'll learn: • Why the decision to eat often happens before conscious awareness catches up — and what that tells us about how the brain actually works • The difference between the Wanting System and the Liking System (and why you can keep eating long after the enjoyment is gone) • How stress and cortisol specifically direct appetite toward calorie-dense foods — and why this is a survival mechanism, not a character flaw • Why some people lose their appetite under stress while others reach for food — and the neurological reason behind both responses • How the gut-brain axis shapes cravings through the microbiome, serotonin, and hunger hormones like ghrelin and leptin • What happens to the prefrontal cortex under stress — and why the brain simultaneously hits the accelerator and weakens the brakes • A simple awareness practice, backed by UCLA research, that interrupts automatic eating patterns without requiring willpower or restriction This episode is part of the ongoing series A Psychology of Food — a multi-episode arc exploring the systems, biology, and history that shaped your relationship with food, long before you had the language to question any of it. If you've ever asked yourself, 'What is wrong with me?' around food, this episode offers a different question — and a more honest answer. To learn more about working with Evet, visit decotalifecoaching.com [http://decotalifecoaching.com]

26. kesä 202623 min