Monday, April 26, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
Is Junk Food Addictive?
"Junk food" is defined as food that is high in calories but very low in nutritional value. Junk food is usually made from high amounts of salt, sugar, fat and bleached flour in some combination. Examples of this kind of junk food are: candy, donuts, popcorn, sweet breakfast cereal, sodas, chips and french fries.
Other foods are considered to be junk food despite having some nutritional value because they are full of artificial ingredients such as colorings, flavorings, preservatives and something called textured vegetable protein. Examples of this kind of junk food are: some bacon, sausage, hot dogs, lunch meat, and frozen pizza.
Eating too much junk food can lead to obesity, diabetes and heart disease. So the question is, if we know it's bad for us, why do we eat so much of it?
The three simplest answers are a) because it tastes good, b) it's cheap and c) it's convenient. Now, a recently completed study has determined that there is a fourth reason: Junk food is addictive.
That is the conclusion drawn by the Scripps Research Institute of Jupiter, Florida. For their study, researchers used two groups of rats. One group (the control group) was fed a healthy, nutritionally balanced diet. The other was fed the worst food the researchers could find, including bacon, sausage, cheesecake, pound cake, Ding Dongs and frosting.
The first noticeable, but not surprising, result was that the junk food group gained weight and became less active compared to the control group. It was what happened after that that surprised the researchers.
First, the rats began to behave like human drug addicts; craving junk food, as addicts crave drugs, even when they knew it was going to hurt them. In the study, the rats continued to eat junk food even when they knew that they would get an electric shock when they did.
Later, when the junk food was replaced with a normal diet, the rats refused to eat at all.
"They actually voluntarily starved themselves,"said one researcher.
The research scientists believe that junk food stimulates a pleasure center of the brain called the D2 receptor. When stimulated, the D2 receptor releases a chemical called Dopamine into the bloodstream. Dopamine gives us a sensation of pleasure. In other words, eating junk food makes one feel good. But, as with drugs like heroin and cocaine, the pleasure center develops a tolerance to junk food. The only way to continue to get the feel good sensation is to eat more and more junk food.
To test this theory, the scientists inhibited the D2 receptors in healthy rats. Those rats became compulsive eaters.
So, if you find you can't resist that candy bar or those chips or that popcorn, this could be the reason why. Junk food makes you feel good.
For more information on Junk food, click on the "Junk Food Facts" link on the sidebar.
Other foods are considered to be junk food despite having some nutritional value because they are full of artificial ingredients such as colorings, flavorings, preservatives and something called textured vegetable protein. Examples of this kind of junk food are: some bacon, sausage, hot dogs, lunch meat, and frozen pizza.
Eating too much junk food can lead to obesity, diabetes and heart disease. So the question is, if we know it's bad for us, why do we eat so much of it?
The three simplest answers are a) because it tastes good, b) it's cheap and c) it's convenient. Now, a recently completed study has determined that there is a fourth reason: Junk food is addictive.
That is the conclusion drawn by the Scripps Research Institute of Jupiter, Florida. For their study, researchers used two groups of rats. One group (the control group) was fed a healthy, nutritionally balanced diet. The other was fed the worst food the researchers could find, including bacon, sausage, cheesecake, pound cake, Ding Dongs and frosting.
The first noticeable, but not surprising, result was that the junk food group gained weight and became less active compared to the control group. It was what happened after that that surprised the researchers.
First, the rats began to behave like human drug addicts; craving junk food, as addicts crave drugs, even when they knew it was going to hurt them. In the study, the rats continued to eat junk food even when they knew that they would get an electric shock when they did.
Later, when the junk food was replaced with a normal diet, the rats refused to eat at all.
"They actually voluntarily starved themselves,"said one researcher.
The research scientists believe that junk food stimulates a pleasure center of the brain called the D2 receptor. When stimulated, the D2 receptor releases a chemical called Dopamine into the bloodstream. Dopamine gives us a sensation of pleasure. In other words, eating junk food makes one feel good. But, as with drugs like heroin and cocaine, the pleasure center develops a tolerance to junk food. The only way to continue to get the feel good sensation is to eat more and more junk food.
To test this theory, the scientists inhibited the D2 receptors in healthy rats. Those rats became compulsive eaters.
So, if you find you can't resist that candy bar or those chips or that popcorn, this could be the reason why. Junk food makes you feel good.
For more information on Junk food, click on the "Junk Food Facts" link on the sidebar.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
