Food for Thought

Your homeostatic pathways have several ways to deal with calorie surplus. Yes, they can store body fat, but they can also make you move, fidget or raise your body temperature. They can even cause you to excrete up to 10% of your ingested calories.

What if they also burn some excess energy by “thinking harder"? The reverse is true anecdotally: people report a quieter mind after prolonged fasting. If surplus calories could lead to “more thinking”, could that also lead to more creativity and more neuroticism? If so, America is the case study, having experienced the most sustained calorie surplus in history and also (arguably) the most innovative century.

And if so, is it worth it? American neuroticism has been great for the world, but it has a tendency to bite the hand that feeds it.