In this fan-favorite vlog, called “Once a Pickle, Always a Pickle,” we address an age-old question: If you give up sugar and flour and keep your lines Bright, does that mean you can never eat them again? Check out this “Best Of” vlog to find out the truth.

Does Neuroplasticity Mean We Can Heal From Food Addiction?

Today I have a great question from Maggie. She writes: “In a recent vlog, you spoke about the brain as a cucumber becoming pickled, and never able to return to being a cucumber. It’s the only thing I’ve ever heard you say that doesn’t make sense to me. What about neuroplasticity and the healing powers of Mother Nature? Dr. Dale Bredesen has research showing Alzheimer’s in remission mainly through diet. There are breakthroughs in treating ADHD, depression, autism, etc. Nobody is saying ‘Your brain is screwed up and nothing can be done.’ What part of the brain becomes hopelessly pickled?”

A Classic Study Shows Growth of Neurons and Synapses 

When neuroscientists discuss neuroplasticity, they primarily refer to the growth of new synapses between neurons and the strengthening or weakening of existing synapses, based on experience. 

For example, there’s a classic study of London taxi drivers, who need to take a test to ensure that they know their way around the city’s convoluted streets. People study for the test for a year or two. 

Researchers took a look at the part of the drivers’ brains that controls spatial organization before and after studying for the test. Afterwards, that part of the brain showed tremendous growth and increased complexity. The number and strength of neurons and synapses in that area had proliferated as a result of their studying.

Despite Neuroplasticity, Behaviors Don’t Go Away Completely

That’s typically what we mean by neuroplasticity. But these brain changes don’t ever go completely away. For example, look at Pavlov’s dog. That’s the experiment where he rang a bell every time he presented food to his dog. After a while, the dog started salivating when he heard the bell, not when he saw or smelled the food. 

You can make a response like that go extinct. Just give that bell to my six-year-old, Maya, and she’ll go around ringing it all the time. Pretty quickly, the dog will learn that the bell doesn’t mean food. It will stop salivating at the bell. The behavior is extinct.

Imagine that when you first taught the dog this behavior, it took 30 pairings of the bell and food for it to learn the connection. Now, Maya has made the behavior go extinct. Let’s say I then take back the bell, ring it, and give the dog food. It will take maybe two or three iterations before the dog goes back to its previously learned behavior. It will again salivate strongly when it hears the bell.

In other words, the first time it took 30 pairings. Afterwards, it took two. What that means is that the part of the brain that learned that association was still there. It still knew it. 

So yes, neuroplasticity happens, but underneath that, the behaviors are still there. With food addiction, a whole set of underlying response behaviors happens. Once that has happened to the brain, given the same set of conditions, it comes back almost immediately. 

Once the Brain Responds Addictively, There’s No Going Back

Another analogy is a dry river bed. It takes millennia for water to carve a deep river bed. If you divert that river to another path, you’ve got a dry river bed. Let a little water go through, and your river comes back. It doesn’t take much, after the river bed is formed, for it to come back. 

That’s exactly what happens in our brain. Once your brain has developed the characteristics that respond to food in an addictive manner, you can do Bright Line Eating and learn to respond to food normally, but if you have a taste of something that is not your food, you are back to full-blown food addiction very quickly. 

This is very different from reversing Alzheimer’s with diet. Alzheimer’s is a degenerative brain condition that is exacerbated by a bad diet. Reversing the diet will do things like balance out the Omega 3 and Omega 6 ratios, control inflammation, and help the brain not advance down this path.

That’s not the same thing as putting to sleep the behaviors of a previously learned response. 

I’m sorry that once the brain goes from cucumber to pickle, there’s no going back. Another example: A baby is born in France, and by the age of two, is fluent in French. She moves to America at age two and never hears another word of French. If she moves back to France at the age of 80, she will soon be fluent in French. Those synapses were dormant for 78 years, but never fully went away. 

Unfortunately, You Can’t Transform From a Pickle Back to a Cucumber

That’s why you can’t go from pickle back to cucumber. Some brains are more predisposed to becoming pickles than others. And if your brain is that type, for the rest of your life, forever and ever, you’re going to have to be more vigilant around food. No matter how easy Bright Line Eating feels, the old pain is waiting for you if you go back to those foods and those ways of eating. 

I wish it weren’t true. As a pickle, I wish I could be a cucumber again, but it’s just not how the brain works. 

Once a Pickle, Always a Pickle was originally published on March 21, 2018: https://www.brightlineeating.com/blog/once-a-pickle-always-a-pickle