Junk Food Turns Rats into Addicts

December 2, 2009 on 2:56 pm | In Andropause, Boomer Health Issues, Brain plasticity, Diet and Aging, Menopause, obesity research, Weight gain | 2 Comments

When exposed to foods like bacon, cheesecake and ho-ho’s, rats elicit the same behavior as that caused by heroin addiction.

According to a recent article in Science News, pleasure centers in the brains of rats addicted to high-fat, high-calorie diets became less responsive as the binging wore on, making the rats consume more and more food.

“This is the most complete evidence to date that suggests obesity and drug addiction have common neurobiological underpinnings,” says study coauthor Paul Johnson of the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida.

This parallels my own experience with a serious sugar addiction.  Once I stopped consuming it completely for a few months, my addiction was cured.  Everything tastes too sweet to me now and I’m rarely hungry.

2 Comments

  1. [...] In this book, the author takes a personal journey into what about our foods today make them absolutely irresistible to the point of obesity, including recent brain research into why rats cannot resist junk food. [...]

    Pingback by The End of Overeating – A book review « Medical Research on Aging — January 18, 2010 #

  2. [...] less sugar and other sweets, I rarely feel as hungry as I used to.   I have come to see eating high sugar foods as extremely addicting, and probably toxic.  All of the diet advice in this article is excellent and absolutely true!  I [...]

    Pingback by What is the connection between sugar and cancer? « Healthy Aging: Body, Mind & Spirit — May 22, 2010 #

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