We all love junk food–but is indulging in a cookie or crisp changing your appetite? A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology alleges that eating junk food for just two weeks can cause your brain to become addicted, making it nearly impossible to eat a balanced diet.
Not surprisingly, it will also make you fat too, say researchers.
“These experiments sought to determine whether exposure to a cafeteria diet consisting of palatable high fat foods impacts upon the ability of rats to learn about food-associated cues and the sensory properties of ingested foods,” say researchers. “We observed that rats fed a cafeteria diet for 2 weeks showed impaired sensory-specific satiety following consumption of a high calorie solution.”
Led by researcher Margaret Morris, the Head of Pharmacology at the School of Medical Sciences in Australia, researchers used rats to see how junk food affected their ability to eat a balanced diet. So here’s what they did: In a controlled laboratory setting, they forced rats to consume a diet of high fat foods containing 150 percent more calories than their standard diet–something humans would commonly consume eating a junk food diet. By the end of the study, they found major differences in their eating patterns, namely their indifference when consuming food. They simply ate the junk food without giving it much thought, leading them to consume more calories–and causing them to gain weight.
But what troubled researchers was that even after they forced them to eat a healthy diet once again, these same rats still wanted to eat junk food products.
In essence, their brain was addicted to junk food.
“The interesting thing about this finding is that if the same thing happens in humans, eating junk food may change our responses to signals associated with food rewards,” says Morris. “It’s like you’ve just had ice cream for lunch, yet you still go and eat more when you hear the ice cream van come by.”
While rats are not identical to humans, they share certain similar physiological traits, making some of the findings applicable to humans. In turn, researchers say that the food rats consumed is comparable to eating a diet of pies, cookies, and cake for weeks–something that not all Americans do, but many indulge in secretly. This may explain why so many Americans find it hard to stick with a healthy diet.
“A range of animal and human data demonstrates that excessive consumption of palatable food leads to neuroadaptive responses in brain circuits underlying reward,” say researchers. “Thus, exposure to obesogenic diets may impact upon neurocircuitry involved in motivated control of behavior.”
What This Means For You
While the study doesn’t provide conclusive evidence, the evidence is still compelling–and should serve as a warning to watch what you eat. To make sure you stick with a healthy diet, avoid junk food when possible–instead, replace them with healthier alternatives, such as sweetened yogurt or fruit dipped in raw honey.
Readers: How often do you eat junk food?
Sources:
Study: Eating Junk Food Can Make it Impossible to Eat a Balanced Diet – FrontiersIn.org
Rats Who Eat Junk Food Are Unable to Eat a Balanced Diet – ScienceDaily.com
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