posted
(I thought of this while i was drinking my starbucks mocha frapochino) The main component to eating is taste, people eat alot, because they like the taste of food. So what would happen(this could already be on the market somewhere, but im not sure and im just putting a thought out) if some sort of pill could be used to get rid of taste. Not forever of course, but for 24 hours lets say, and this pill or medicine would hopefully have little side affects, only affects partaing to the loss of taste. I notice i eat only because i like the taste, and i'll keep eating because its good, but if there's no taste people will eat only to be full and satisfied. Also it would seem as though people who dont like the taste of healthy food (like me with salads and vegies) would eat more of it, because there's no taste to it. I dont know, it seems to work in my head, but there could be draw backs. Let me know what you think.
Posts: 262 | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
You'd have to get rid of smell as well. That right there is a lot of taste (as is texture.)
Our taste buds really are only capable of sensing a handful of flavors: sour, sweet, salty, bitter. We may be able to taste other things, but I don't know if anything has been proven. (I recently heard that tastebuds do detect fat, that fat is more than just texture. Dunno if that is true.)
Posts: 7050 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
Without a sense of taste or smell, you'd be in danger of ingesting something truly dangerous.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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quote:Originally posted by mr_porteiro_head: Without a sense of taste or smell, you'd be in danger of ingesting something truly dangerous.
That's a failing criteria I'm afraid, its too dangerous.
On the other hand I have heard that we CAN expect a line of pharmecueticals in the next few years which will alleviate the hormonal drives in obese people to overeat. A great deal of the eating that morbidly obese people do is driven by the overproduction of hormones which cause cravings; increased fat causes increased hormones, causes more hunger. But soon there will be a cure.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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This idea was already fictionalized, al beit it was used slightly different. In Kurt Vonneguts short story "Welcome To The Monkey House", overpopulation, not obesity, was the issue. A scientist had created a pill which numbed you completely from the waist down, thereby taking all pleasure out of sex. It was the 'ethical' way to address the problem, as it did nothing to disrupt the actual reproductive system. It just made people not want to have sex. He originally created it for monkeys, to help the behave 'appropriately' in the monkey house at the zoo (hence the name), but it was then used on humans to help control the overpopulation problem.
Posts: 2827 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:On the other hand I have heard that we CAN expect a line of pharmecueticals in the next few years which will alleviate the hormonal drives in obese people to overeat
Man, I'd be pretty freaking leery of taking a leptin blocker to treat your overeating. You have any idea how similar the protein tyrosine phosphatases in the body are? It's a bloody nightmare to try and make a specific one. For that matter, I'd thought most major pharmaceutical companies had abandoned the idea of making such a drug because it's too difficult, but I haven't really payed much attention for a year so.
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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quote:Man, I'd be pretty freaking leery of taking a leptin blocker to treat your overeating. You have any idea how similar the protein tyrosine phosphatases in the body are? It's a bloody nightmare to try and make a specific one. For that matter, I'd thought most major pharmaceutical companies had abandoned the idea of making such a drug because it's too difficult, but I haven't really payed much attention for a year so.
I'll just reverse the polarity of the deflector dish.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
Question: Why bother with all the fancy, expensive chemicals when all it takes is to a) not buy the chips b) pour the chips into a bowl instead of eating the whole packet or c) close the packet.
It's free! You don't have to fill your body with chemicals!
Okay, I can buy that a couple of people do have medical problems but I am fairly sure that most people who eat to much simply don't even tell themselves to stop.
quote:Like English food.
Sigh. Peoples, I don't know where this stereotype comes from of bad English food but it's simply not true. I don't even know what you mean by English food. Stews? Mushy Peas? Fish and Chips? English muffins? Certain breads? Apple Pie? Yorkshire Pudding? Roast meat? Cheddar? A whole ton of other cheeses? English Curry?
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I've not read that story, Dr. S, but wouldn't such a pill be problematic if someone had appendicitis or the like? I must play devil's advocate....
Posts: 7050 | Registered: Feb 2004
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quote:Man, I'd be pretty freaking leery of taking a leptin blocker to treat your overeating. You have any idea how similar the protein tyrosine phosphatases in the body are? It's a bloody nightmare to try and make a specific one. For that matter, I'd thought most major pharmaceutical companies had abandoned the idea of making such a drug because it's too difficult, but I haven't really payed much attention for a year so.
I'll just reverse the polarity of the deflector dish.
Porter, you crack me up.
Star Trek Technology References == teh Funny.
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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posted
I got your reference Strangelove. Vonnegut's short stories are great. They're much more focused than the majority of his novels.
As for the pill, I don't know who would choose to take it. Personally, I think lettuce is pretty tasteless and that's why I add dressing and croutons. I have no desire to take an enjoyable activity and make it into just a necessary bodily process. Posts: 1947 | Registered: Aug 2002
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Amphetamines! Just be careful that you don't start hallucinating or become neurotic and paranoid (as happened to me this winter :/)
Posts: 3060 | Registered: Nov 2003
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Believe it or not, we have apples in England. In fact we have pastry too! The English went and combined the two before Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
I'm not claiming that Apple Pie isn't an American traditional dish, only that it might as well be and English dish, too. It's the same food*.
Therefore, there is nothing wrong with English food.
*Actually, American apple pies almost always contain cinnamon, which is not so much a feature of an English apple pie. So I suppose you could could say something like, "as American as a cinnamon-laden Apple Pie", thus including not only, as that rather odd article suggests, multiculturalism, but also a homegrown sense of Good Ol' American Know-How.
EDIT: Broken link, also, I said "American Apple Pies almost exclusively contain cinnamon" which isn't true; they also contain apples.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
I was just reading, like yesterday or the day before about that! I was googling MSG for health reasons and came across the interesting little tidbit that the tongue seems to detect MSG as a separate flavor.
Posts: 7050 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
I like the bike powered tv and computer. I think alot of people would loose weight dramatically, haha.
Posts: 262 | Registered: Jan 2005
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Sigh. Peoples, I don't know where this stereotype comes from of bad English food but it's simply not true. I don't even know what you mean by English food. Stews? Mushy Peas? Fish and Chips? English muffins? Certain breads? Apple Pie? Yorkshire Pudding? Roast meat? Cheddar? A whole ton of other cheeses? English Curry?[/QUOTE]
English BREAKFAST! (the baked beans plus- version)
Posts: 262 | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
You know, I'm betting that some people who are "naturally" thin are such because they view eating, for whatever reason more as a means to an end and less as a pleasurable activity.
For example, my mother was a horrible cook, and I was very taste sensitive anyway. So eating wasn't pleasureable for me. I ate (and still do) because if I didn't my stomach hurt and I got weak and cranky, not because of the pleasures of tasting flavors.
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. Ask Mr. Vonnegut.
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