Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Unhealthy food is like a drug
Unhealthy food is like a drug
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| Picture: www.healthassist.net |
Lead researcher from The Scripps Research Institute in Florida, Paul Kenny, explains, "Overconsumption of highly pleasurable foods triggers addiction-like neuroadaptive responses in brain reward circuits, driving the development of compulsive eating."
The study found that the addiction was so profound that the rats would continue to eat the unhealthy palatable food despite the fact that they would receive a negative response in the form of an electric shock. And even more, when the food was taken from the rats and they were offered a healthier salad diet, they simply refused and chose rather to starve themselves for up to two weeks.
Children, it seems, are on the short end of this conundrum, as ready-made and quick and easy food is hardly ever healthy and would, as I am sure you will agree, fall under the caffeteria-style umbrella.
The question is, are time-and-cash-strapped parents trading their childrens health for easier, quicker and cheaper ways in which to prepare food for their families? American Professor of Medicine, John Banzhaf seems to think so.
Two years ago, he started legal action against fast-food conglomerate MacDonalds, who he claims target young children by selling addictive food. He believes that suppliers of unhealthy fast-food will be targeted the same way in which tobacco companies were roughly a decade ago.
The good news? Now you know why your toddler wont eat anything but sausage and chips... and now you can make an informed choice on behalf of your children.
As weve said before, we dont always bring you popular subjects, but rather bring you knowledge in the hopes that when parents know better, they do better.
Source: Nature Neuroscience
Published online ahead of print, doi: 10.1038/nn.2519
�Dopamine D2 receptors in addiction-like reward dysfunction and compulsive eating in obese rats�
Authors: P.M. Johnson, P.J. Kenny
A full copy of the paper is freely available here.
http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/pdf/nn.2519.pdf
The Practica Team
parents who know better, do better
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