Fatty Foods can be Addictive

An article about Fatty Foods published in Health.com immediately caught my attention. Apparently, foods that are high in fat and calorie impact the brain just like how prohibited drugs does.

Based on the article, a new study has been conducted on rats and results show that pigging on foods that are high in fat and calorie lead to uncontrollable eating habits that can be compared to drug addiction.

Doing drugs targets the pleasure centers of the brain and overloads them at some point. When these so called pleasure centers overload, it crashes and the pleasure level goes down; additional doses are needed to bring the pleasure level up. The scenario is also the same with fatty foods. There will be a time when the pleasure center of the brain will reach its peak and overload. When this happens, it is more likely that more fatty and high calorie food will be consumed to bring the pleasure level up again – this reaction is uncontrollable and will power alone may not be enough.

It was stated that the rats who feasted on fatty food gained a lot of weight and there were changes in their behavior. It seemed that they developed a high amount of tolerance on fatty foods and eating more is needed for them to be satisfied. Another thing that is quite surprising is the focus that these rats developed. The article notes that pain and punishments were ignored by the rats and consuming the food seems to be their main priority.

Interesting article, isn’t it? The result of this study could probably explain the main cause of obesity. Can this be the reason why most of us prefer fatty foods rather than healthy ones?

In your opinion, how can we enjoy eating our traditional fatty foods without over indulging?