Junk Food Addictive?

A new study suggests that bingeing on high calorie foods could be as addictive as drug use, causing compulsive eating habits and eventual obesity.


Published in Nature Neuroscience, the study revealed that unhealthy eating could have its roots in subconscious behaviour. Researchers in the US found that animals who had unrestricted access to high calorie foods would over-consume the junk food, triggering addiction like responses in the brain and turning the subjects into compulsive eaters.

The authors report that those animals who binged on junk food and became overweight had decreased levels of a dopamine receptor (a reward hormone), similar to that seen in humans who suffer from drug addictions.

The study suggests that those struggling with unhealthy eating habits could be the victims of subconscious impulses, addictions which hinder their attempts at weight loss. Hypnotherapy and other therapy techniques that help address subconscious impulses and reinforce desirable behaviour could be the most effective if this is the case.

"Obesity may be a form of compulsive eating. Other treatments in development for other forms of compulsion could then be very useful for the treatment of obesity" researcher Paul Kenny said in a telephone interview with Reuters press association. "What we're seeing in our animals is very similar to what you'd see in humans who overindulge. It seemed that it was okay, from what we could tell, to enjoy snack foods, but if you repeatedly overindulge, that's where the problem comes in."


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♥Fit~NOW~Girl♥