The site is designed to complement my book, ‘A Conversation About Healthy Eating’.
About the site:
The blog section of the site contains several different kinds of posts:
- Answers to questions submitted by readers
- Further discussion of topics that are already covered in the book
- Discussion of topics that are relevant to healthy eating, but didn’t make it into the book
- Analysis of new research or policy developments related to healthy eating
- Examples of meals that are healthy, simple, and tasty
- Occasional discussion of other aspects of science and health not directly related to eating
About the author:
I am neuroscientist with an active research program dedicated to understanding how the brain processes sensory information. I lead a team of researchers who perform experimental studies to understand the brain circuits that underlie perception and behavior.
I received my undergraduate degree from MIT and my Ph.D. from Harvard. After finishing my studies, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Japan and Germany before becoming a Wellcome Trust fellow and professor at University College London, one of the world’s top neuroscience research universities. During my research career, I have led dozens of scientific studies and published numerous journal articles.
It may seem strange at first that healthy eating should be the domain of a neuroscientist. The science of healthy eating is truly integrative, with many different aspects ranging from molecular biology through cognitive psychology that are all equally important on a conceptual level; however, on a practical level, it is the neuroscience aspects that are most critical. As described in my upcoming book, ‘A conversation about healthy eating’, a detailed analysis of all of the relevant science yields, ironically, the simple conclusion that healthy eating requires little more than sticking to a mix of mostly unprocessed foods. Thus, the problem of healthy eating is really a neuroscience problem centered on one key question:
Based on what we know about the circuitry in the brain that controls eating decisions, how can we alter our local environment to eliminate the sensory cues that trigger unplanned snacking, overeating at planned meals, and the consumption of processed foods in general?