Junk food can hook bingers like heroin
October 29 2009 | Times of India Bangalore
London: A diet of junk food is almost as addictive as taking a drug like heroin, warn scientists.
London: A diet of junk food is almost as addictive as taking a drug like heroin, warn scientists.
Researchers found that regularly eating doughnuts, burgers and chocolate cakes can become a substitute for happiness. And as years pass, a diet rich in these junk foods can lead bingers to effectively become hooked just like a drug addict, reports the Daily Express.
To reach the conclusion, Paul Kenny, a neuroscientist, carried out tests on rats.
The research shows how dangerous high fat and high sugar foods can be. You lose control. Its the hallmark of addiction, he said.
The researchers believe it is one of the first studies to suggest brains may react in the same way to junk food as they do to drugs.
This is the most complete evidence to date that suggests obesity and drug addiction have common neuro-biological foundations, said Paul Johnson, Kennys colleague.
Kenny, who began his research at Guys Hospital, London , but now works at Floridas Scripps Research Institute , divided rats into three groups for his research, due to be published in the US soon.
One got normal amounts of healthy food to eat. Another lot was given restricted amounts of junk food and the third group was given unlimited amounts of junk, including cheesecake, fatty meat products, and cheap sponge cakes and chocolate snacks.
There were no adverse effects on the first two groups, but the rats who ate as much junk food as they wanted quickly became very fat and started bingeing.
When researchers electronically stimulated the part of the brain that feels pleasure , they found that the rats on unlimited junk food needed more and more stimulation to register the same level of pleasure as the animals on healthier diets. AGENCIES
The research shows how dangerous high fat and high sugar foods can be. You lose control. Its the hallmark of addiction, he said.
The researchers believe it is one of the first studies to suggest brains may react in the same way to junk food as they do to drugs.
This is the most complete evidence to date that suggests obesity and drug addiction have common neuro-biological foundations, said Paul Johnson, Kennys colleague.
Kenny, who began his research at Guys Hospital, London , but now works at Floridas Scripps Research Institute , divided rats into three groups for his research, due to be published in the US soon.
One got normal amounts of healthy food to eat. Another lot was given restricted amounts of junk food and the third group was given unlimited amounts of junk, including cheesecake, fatty meat products, and cheap sponge cakes and chocolate snacks.
There were no adverse effects on the first two groups, but the rats who ate as much junk food as they wanted quickly became very fat and started bingeing.
When researchers electronically stimulated the part of the brain that feels pleasure , they found that the rats on unlimited junk food needed more and more stimulation to register the same level of pleasure as the animals on healthier diets. AGENCIES
0 comments:
Post a Comment