Neuroscientist explains restaurant tricks with bread and alcohol

A neuroscientist reveals how restaurants offer bread and alcohol before meals to encourage customers to eat more. Bread and drinks served before meals may be a strategy for restaurants. The expert explained how these foods release serotonin into the brain.

Most restaurant patrons expect to be given bread and drinks before their order is taken, and a neuroscientist says this is more likely to be done by restaurateurs for strategic reasons than for customer convenience, writes the Daily Mail.

Daniel Amen, an American neuroscientist, shared his theory that foods cooked before meals affect the brain and make it difficult for people to control their desires.

Both bread and alcohol release serotonin into the brain, making you feel happier and calmer.

This may seem counterintuitive, since these foods fill you up, writes the Daily Mail. But over time, the level of this chemical decreases and people seek that high – and they achieve it by filling their stomachs.

“When you go to a restaurant, the first thing they do is put bread on the table and ask if you want alcohol because they both cause your frontal lobes to fall out,” Amen claims in a social media post that received more than 1.6 million views.

“They both make you more likely to order more and spend more money at a restaurant,” the doctor added.

However, this is not some nefarious conspiracy hatched by restaurant owners, chefs and waiters, the Daily Mail emphasizes. It’s just neurobiology.

Amen explained that bread and alcohol cause decreased activity in the frontal lobes.

As the Daily Mail explains, the frontal lobe is the part of the human brain involved in all sorts of higher-order functions, such as planning, problem solving, motivation, judgment, social behavior and impulse control. As for bread, Amen explained that the effect has a lot to do with blood sugar levels.

“Bread is an investment on their part because bread raises your blood sugar, which then stimulates the production of serotonin in your brain and makes you happy,” he said.

And drinking alcohol has the same effect.

However, when serotonin levels become depleted, the frontal lobe declines and it becomes difficult for a person to control their emotions and impulses.

Another side effect that Amen didn’t mention is that eating bread can cause your blood sugar levels to spike and then drop quickly, making you feel hungrier and order more, notes the Daily Mail.

While many people think bread and booze put diners in a good mood, making them want more, Amen says foods cooked before eating also reduce depression: “Serotonin reduces frontal lobe function. And then alcohol, which also reduces activity in your frontal lobe, so you’ll lose more cash at the restaurant.”

In other words, all that bread and alcohol may cloud your judgment a bit, explains the Daily Mail.

To be clear, Amen is oversimplifying the role of serotonin in brain function.

Although we associate serotonin with good feelings, it is involved in all sorts of bodily functions without regard to mood – such as digestion. However, serotonin appears to play an important role in learning about the consequences of poor decisions and risk taking.

It may not work as simply as “serotonin levels go up, happiness goes up, spending goes up,” writes the Daily Mail. Either way, restaurant hospitality is big business. And part of this business is making the customer feel welcome so they spend money.