Ok, this is gonna sound strange, it even feels silly to ask it, but I am going to risk looking dumb, anyway. *deep breath*

The pan bread recipe with eggs and pork rinds. I make this with garlic and dried onion, and eat it for hamburger buns. It really tastes like a bread to me, and I feel (even though I logically *know* better) that I am eating something I shouldn't.

Now his is the question. Do mock foods "fool" your body? Is it at all possible?

I know I read a long time ago when someone says, "I gain weight just PASSING by a bakery!" there is some truth in this. A scientific study was done that proved you can actually gain weight from the sight and smell of delicious foods.

It had something to do with smelling the food and starting the cephalic response. Salivation occurs, which stimulates the pancreas to release insulin, using your available blood sugar and causing a deficit, (hence the weight gain) then setting up the hunger craving.

Even if you didn't eat something from the bakery, you set into motion a process which causes you to gain weight without eating a thing, because the liver releases glucagon stores into the blood stream. The study also said, If I recall correctly, that some people are very sensitive to food suggestions, and that any time the salivation process takes place, they can actually gain real weight from this process. (I can't find the study, but I recall seeing it on CNN many many months ago. I will keep looking.)

I know this applies to people that eat carbs and sugar, but I am wondering if there is some sort of metabolic correlation that takes place when we at mock foods? Are we fooling ourselves, mind and body, enough to where our bodies actually believe we are eating no-no's? Is this the real reason people "stall" when they eat mock danish or sugar alcohols? Does smelling food, especially sweets we are missing badly, set into motion a metabolic action that can affect low carbers as well? Do artificial sweeteners do the same thing? If protein can be turned into glucose, could it be some people that are sight/smell oversensitive to foods have this type of response? Can our bodies utilize protein sufficiently enough to produce, and store glucose?

Let me know what you think.

If you have dieted all of your life like I have you will find that anything is possible in this weight game.
I have found that the more recipes I try the more I think about food and am really tempted to over eat. I am lucky because I love meat, eggs, cheese, etc. All of the basics on Atkins. I don't miss bread and sweets (except for ice cream) at all.
I also cook for a living and sometimes when I come home at night I smell like a hamburger. I think it is correct when you say that you can gain just by walking by. I know that the grease from my cooking gets into my system and it will make me stop losing.
I have found that if I eat to live I am alot better off. I have always lived to eat. Don't know who said that originally but it is so true.
Sure wish I had the answers for you but that is just one of the big mysterious of life.
Take care and good luck.
Jan

I think that while we are on Atkins, at the lower carb levels, and sticking to the plan, counting carbs, it would be difficult to gain weight from smelling something. The body just does not have the glucose to turn the trick. The biggest problem we are likely to encounter from the "mock" foods is a pcychological reaction. Eating too much of them, or anything will defeat our purpose.

I try to eat natural foods as much as possible.

Good Luck!

Hi,

I know that a lot of people on the board don't like the idea of "mock foods" for a couple of different reasons. Some of them using different sweetners apparantley do sort of fool the body into expecting more sugar - I guess for those who are sugar sensitive. So that probably ties in with what you are saying. I guess it could start cravings. The pan bread recipe is at least something you made, lots of people seem to have real problems with the Atkins products causing them to stall - I guess all the fake ingredients and preservatives involved can cause some pretty bad reactions.

Funny you should bring this up, there is a recent thread about people sniffing MandM's on other people, kissing someone who has eaten chocolate etc I used to get someone to bite a chocolate and half and show me the filling so I could imagine the taste. The things we do..........

I love the idea of the mock foods. BUT I don;t touch them. YET.
I stick to the good old fashioned meat, eggs,cheese and veggies routine. When in doubt. throw it out.

You make an interesting point about fooling the body with the fake stuff. According to Atkins, the physical body will not be fooled into reacting to the fake sugar like it was real sugar. However, every "body" is different! Like why do some of us react so strongly to carbs and have cravings while others do not?

I think you just have to try things and see what does and doesn't work for you. I love trying new recipes that mimic things I miss. It help me stay on this WOE. I also think in order to do this plan for life we need to figure out a wide variety of foods that will work for each of us individually. Otherwise, I know I would be tempted to go off the plan. What? I can't ever have a pancake again because it is a "mock" pancake? Let's just quit calling stuff mock.