YOU ARE ADDICTED!

According to a recent study published in Nature Neuroscience, high fat, high calorie foods affect the brain in a way that is nearly identical to cocaine and heroin. When two researchers from florida’s Research Institute fed rats high-fat-content foods, including cheesecake, sweets and even bacon, every single one of the food activated a release of dopamine, just as the drugs do. Scarier still, over time the rats needed bigger and bigger quantities of junk food to get that same amount of dopamine, just as drug addicts need more and more of their drug of choice to maintain the same ‘high’. Researchers concluded that when the rats ate enough of these foods, and in big quantities, ‘it leads to compulsive eating habits that resemble drug addiction’ (klein, 2010). The most unsettling finding of all? When the researchers compared the brains of the rats hooked on heroin and cocaine, they found that the additive effects of the junk food actually lasted seven times longer. ‘While it took only two days for the depleted dopamine receptors in rats adicted to cocaine or heroin to return to baseline levels, it took two weeks for the obese rats to return to their normal dopamine levels,’ the study reported (Johnson and Kenny, 2010)

Food choices is important, one small can of sugary drinks can lead to long term addiction. Choose wisely.

This is taken from one small part of the book Brandwashed by Martin Lindstrom.