Recent U.S. research shows that eating junk food may be addictive

According to foreign media reports on the 29th, obese people often said that they also want to eat less, but can not refuse the temptation of food, in front of this temptation, they have almost no resistance. According to the latest study in the United States, this explanation for obese people may not be an excuses for themselves, and junk food addiction does seem to exist.

The discovery was made through rat studies. After the researchers provided rodents with high-calorie foods such as bacon, pound cakes, candy bars, and other junk food without limit, the rats gained weight rapidly. As the body gets fatter, eating becomes a kind of coercion. Even if the two feet suffer electric shock, they are not willing to let go of their paws and continue to enjoy the food. In contrast, mice that enjoy healthy foods do not add much weight and stop eating when they realize that eating too much can be shocked.

The researchers pointed out that even more surprising is that after taking away the junk food from junk rats and replacing them with healthy ones, these guys actually chose to go on a hunger strike. For up to two weeks, they refused to eat anything. Paul Kenny, an associate professor and research author of the Scripps Research Institute in Florida, said: "These mice have chosen to go on a hunger strike."

Researchers have not been able to determine whether the results of the study also apply to humans, but they pointed out that sausages, cheese cakes, and other processed foods may lead to changes in the brain reward system. The distortions caused by the reward system not only include weight gain, but also force people to consume more junk food. Research findings were published in the "Nature-Neuroscience" magazine published on March 28.

When analyzing the brains of obese mice, the researchers found a decrease in dopamine D2 receptors. According to previous studies, this receptor is associated with cocaine and heroin addiction. Kenny said: “A sign of drug addiction is the change in the working mechanism of the brain reward system.” After artificially suppressing the receptors in the brains of other mice, these mice also began to turn to junk food.

According to Pietro Kotner, assistant professor of medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine's Addiction Laboratory, some of the substances in the fat that accumulate will also alter the brain's reward threshold, creating a vicious circle - only eating more. To get satisfaction. Kotner said: "The only way to get back to normal is to diet for a long time, reduce weight and not eat junk food anymore." Previous research conducted by colleagues and colleagues showed that letting rats out of high-calorie foods may cause brain emergence and detoxification and abstinence. Similar changes in wine. (Yang Xiaowen)