The Scarcity Loop and How Our Brains Trick Us Into Overeating

What does the rise of obesity related illness have to do with our hunter-gatherer ancestors?

A lot, actually.

You see, our brains have been wired over centuries of evolution, from the time when resources were scarce and we had to work hard to get them. Since the 1950s though, convenience items became much more readily available, preying upon our natural inclinations to indulge.

Today, we live in a world of overabundance, and in a lot of ways, that’s actually a great thing! Humans in industrialized countries very rarely die of diseases of malnutrition such as rickets or scurvy. What we do die from though, is heart disease.

Today, an American dies of cardiovascular disease every 34 seconds. Heart health related deaths have risen more than 50% since 1990. That’s a staggering jump in such a short amount of time.

This rise in heart disease can be attributed to the quality of our food.

We learned to mass produce convenience foods processed from ingredients like corn, soy, and wheat. We learned how to fatten up our livestock, with a cut of steak having as much as 87% more fat than wild game. Even the chickens have quadrupled in size from 2.5 pounds to a whopping 9.5.

Why does all of this matter? Well, our brains have not evolved as quickly as abundance has become a societal norm.

What is the scarcity loop?

The scarcity loop was an important biological mechanism for our ancient ancestors. Before we began farming and domesticating animals, humans would walk between 9 and 14 miles on average everyday in the search for food. What we found was not guaranteed.

For example, our ancestors might have struck it lucky and come across a healthy heard of game animals or a grove of fruiting shrubs from which they could feast. More likely though, they might only find one malnourished deer with little meat to offer the tribe, or they might find that that fruit grove had already been picked over by the animals we shared resources with.

Because of this mismatch between unpredictable rewards and the gargantuan effort it took to get them, our brains needed to develop ways to keep us motivated to continue seeking resources. Our brains needed to reward even the near wins or close losses.

The way it did this is by creating the dopamine reward system. Dopamine is often associated with happiness, but a better way to look at it is through this lens of reward. Even if we had a near miss or a partial win, our brains supplied dopamine to keep us motivated to pick up and try again.

The way it works is that we see an opportunity, the reward is unpredictable, and the behavior is easily repeatable. While this was an essential process when it came to getting us motivated to continue hunting in a world of scarcity, in the world of abundance we now enjoy, this same process has begun to work against us.

Opportunity, reward, repeatability

The scarcity loop is intimately related to food acquisition, but could maybe better be explained through an activity that many of us are familiar with, gambling. Slot machines are a perfect example of the scarcity loop used to take advantage of our cognitive processes.

When we play a slot machine, we are immediately presented with an enticing opportunity— winning money! Money is a resource everyone could use more of. When you play though, the reward cycle is unpredictable. You might bet a dollar, push spin and lose $.10c, then win $.20c, then lose $.40, then win $.05c. Each spin is easy to repeat.

Even though you’ve ended up with less than you started, each time you win a little bit back, the reward center in your brain is activated, enticing you to repeat the behavior until you come out in the green.

Casinos and gambling researchers (yes, they exist!) have perfected these machines to deliver the ultimate reward cycle and keep us coming back again and again. But that’s not the only place you see this loop at work.

Online shopping, dating apps, social media, and even television streaming services are all examples of industries that have used this knowledge to hijack our brains and decision making abilities in order to get us to spend money or time.

How has it evolved over time?

Experts believe that our brains are hard wired to always seek scarcity loops, no matter what abundance is available to us. It’s just that innate in us to crave rewarding outcomes for our behaviors.

What this means is that while we live in a world where food, shelter, and medicine are readily available to the majority of us, we will seek the excitement of the scarcity loop elsewhere. This explains why we see so many people become addicted to gambling, shopping, drugs and alcohol, or even scrolling their social media feeds.

What does this have to do with diet?

One of the most insidious ways the scarcity loop has affected our health as a society is through food. We talked about the differences in health outcomes between our malnourished ancestors and populations who are now facing diseases of overconsumption like obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and more.

The reason is the shear abundance of highly palatable, easily snack-able, overly processed foods. In every case where you see the western diet encroach on more traditional tribal communities, even in the most remote places, heart disease and obesity begins to rise within those populations.

The problem is, our brains by default seek to eat as much of these fatty, palatable foods as they can, because they are still wired to fear scarcity.

Think about a bowl of potato chips compared to an endless supply of plain baked potatoes. Given the chance, you might consume 4-5 potatoes worth of the salty, oily, fried chips, where you might throw in the towel halfway through your second, less rewarding baked potato.

It’s all down to the loop.

The foods that are growing our waistlines and affecting our health are all highly rewarding and easily repeatable. Highly processed foods are even easier to eat, requiring less chewing, allowing us to inhale them at a faster rate.

So, how do you get out of the loop? The only way is to remove opportunity.

How to beat the scarcity loop

The diet industry is a thriving, multimillion dollar industry that profits on our inability to control ourselves around the abundant foods that cause us to pack on weight. This includes processed foods marketed to dieters using terms like low fat, low carb, keto, and more.

The problem with traditional dieting is that it relies on self control, something that is hard to exercise when you are working against your brain’s default functioning.

The scarcity loop works in our favor at first. When you are initially dieting, each time you step on the scale and see that number go down, you get a little dopamine reward that inspires you to keep going. But what happens when you reach your goals and that number plateaus?

Well, if you’re like most people, you become complacent, the reward center no longer motivating you, and you begin to fall back into old habits that do feed this reward cycle.

A little treat here and there becomes a regular occurrence because of the scarcity loop, your weight rebounds, and you end up back at square one.

The problem is, the opportunity is always around. Step into any grocery store in the United States and you will find thousands upon thousands of opportunities for a quick reward. You have to remove these as an option in your daily diet and reserve them only for the occasional treat.

You must start to think like the hunter-gatherers who did not have access to the abundance we do. Base your diet on whole, single ingredient foods like whole grains (rice, potatoes, corn), lean meats (poultry, lean red meat, fish), and fruits and vegetables. Resist the urge to deep fry and smother in butter, oil, or salty and sugary sauces.

It’s almost impossible to overeat on whole foods. In fact, researchers have actually found that when we eat whole foods, our bodies naturally find “just enough,” stopping when we reach a point of satiety. Think about how you almost always have room for dessert, but wouldn’t have that same reaction to an extra helping of plain rice or chicken.

The good news is, the less you eat these highly indulgent foods, the less you will crave them. Your brain will find other ways to seek rewarding activities that don’t hurt your waistline. You can continue to activate your reward seeking brain by setting non-diet related goals instead, like increasing the weight or reps you can lift in the gym or improving on your time running a mile.

Reading recommendation

I’m not saying to never eat a donut or enjoy a cheeseburger again. I’m just saying that these highly indulgent foods should be an exception, not the norm. As a general rule of thumb, most of the foods you enjoy should be a single ingredient, like those we described earlier, not a laundry list of additives.

At TeleHealthNP, we think that knowledge is power, and understanding how our brains react to the abundant and indulgent foods we encounter everyday can help you to exercise better control around what you choose to eat.

If you are interested in learning more, Michael Easter’s book, Scarcity Brain, informed most of this blog post and is a wealth of information about the scarcity loop and what it has to do not only with food but with all of the other addictive activities we encounter everyday.

Equip and empower yourself with the knowledge of how your brain works to help you overcome the bad habits that lead to decreased health and weight gain. Although it might feel like our brains might be working against us, you can still be in control of your own health through this understanding.