Why Don't Our Brains Know Stuff We Know?

[Rival]

We know that eating too much sugar leads us to put on weight, become unhealthy and can kill us. We need sugar though and so have a desire for it.

However, it seems our brains don't understand this and always want cake over fish (for example). We will gorge ourselves on sugar since as far as our brain is concerned we might not find anymore and need the energy.

But... we know that we don't need to do this. We know that we don't need all this sugar now.

Both of these pieces of information our stored in our brains, presumably, so why doesn't our brain have access to what it apparently knows? Why don't we lessen the desire for sugar?

 

[Eddi]

Our brains think we're living in a state of nature, when we're not

I think that is the root of the problem

They haven't caught up

 

[Rival]

Our brains think we're living in a state of nature, when we're not

I think that is the root of the problem

They haven't caught up

But your brain also knows it's not, otherwise how are we having this conversation?

 

[JustGeorge]

But your brain also knows it's not, otherwise how are we having this conversation?

I'm admittedly ignorant on this subject, but don't different urges/instincts come from different areas of the brain?

 

[Eddi]

But your brain also knows it's not, otherwise how are we having this conversation?

The brain has both a conscious rational part and an unconscious animal part

One part of our brain knows about our reality but another part carries on as though we are hunter-gatherers and doesn't know any better

 

[Rival]

I'm admittedly ignorant on this subject, but don't different urges/instincts come from different areas of the brain?

Yes, it means the areas aren't talking to each other. There's no one 'brain'. If we could get it to connect, imagine...??

 

[Soandso]

Hmmm... It's an interesting prospect. Id vs. superego. Base instincts vs. higher knowledge. Sucks, but the only cure is to wrangle your Id up and cage it like the wild animal it is in situations like this. Discipline is rarely fun, but it is necessary

 

[Yerda]

People have drives, desires etc. Not brains.

We often desire things that are bad for us in part because we have been selected to want things with the largest fitness pay off. Those pay offs were determined by millions of years of adaptation and not so much in the short period we have had processed foods.

This is my evolutionary just-so explanantion. No idea if it is correct, too busy thinking about cake to think it through properly.

 

[Rival]

People have drives, desires etc. Not brains.

We often desire things that are bad for us in part because we have been selected to want things with the largest fitness pay off. Those pay offs were determined by millions of years of adaptation and not so much in the short period we have had processed foods.

This is my evolutionary just-so explanantion. No idea if it is correct, too busy thinking about cake to think it through properly.

Yes, but we know better so why don't our brains know better?

 

[Yerda]

Yes, but we know better so why don't our brains know better?

If you take the view that brains know things, then they know this. If the brain does the knowing, then they know what ever you know. I prefer not to think of brains as having properties that I reckon only apply to persons.

We can want things that can be harmful because we were selected to want things that make it more likely to reproduce. My guess is that our wants are heuristics, shortcuts, in the calculation that basically comes down to, will this action make it more or less likely that I'll have enough energy to live long enough to make the babies.

 

[Viker]

The hypothalamus controls hunger it is not part of the thinking process. Me thinks when we get a crave that the decrease in cortisol can cancel out our better judgement. So, there are parts of the brain that have nothing to do with thinking, judgement, etc

 

[Rival]

If you take the view that brains know things, then they know this. If the brain does the knowing, then they know what ever you know. I prefer not to think of brains as having properties that I reckon only apply to persons.

But then where is the information stored? What is doing the knowing and why can't it interact with the other side?

 

[ChristineM]

Yes, but we know better so why don't our brains know better?

They do know better, but our pleasure filters omit the stuff that's going to spoil our fun

 

[LuisDantas]

Awareness is not a very strong component of motivation. Whether it could be helped and how I am not entirely sure. Some form of training, probably.

 

[RestlessSoul]

We know that eating too much sugar leads us to put on weight, become unhealthy and can kill us. We need sugar though and so have a desire for it.

However, it seems our brains don't understand this and always want cake over fish (for example). We will gorge ourselves on sugar since as far as our brain is concerned we might not find anymore and need the energy.

But... we know that we don't need to do this. We know that we don't need all this sugar now.

Both of these pieces of information our stored in our brains, presumably, so why doesn't our brain have access to what it apparently knows? Why don't we lessen the desire for sugar?

Desire and hunger aren’t intellectual phenomena, they’re far visceral than that. We crave things that harm us, because they trigger a short lived pleasure response. And sugar is, for many people, a very addictive substance.

 

[icehorse]

The conscious part of our brain handles only about 5% of our actions. This is also the part of the brain that has linguistic capabiliies.

The other 95% controls most of what we do, and is not linguistic, so we cannot talk to it.

 

[Rival]

Desire and hunger aren’t intellectual phenomena, they’re far visceral than that. We crave things that harm us, because they trigger a short lived pleasure response. And sugar is, for many people, a very addictive substance.

But if we know that, why do we still binge?

 

[Viker]

But if we know that, why do we still binge?

Lack of self control/discipline. We can know better and still not care better.

 

[JustGeorge]

Lack of self control/discipline. We can know better and still not care better.

But doesn't that come from the brain, too?

 

[RestlessSoul]

But if we know that, why do we still binge?

Because once we have triggered the phenomenon of craving, we are often powerless to resist.