Seeing a milkshake can activate the same areas of the brain that light up when an addict sees cocaine, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
The study helps explain why it can be so hard for some people to maintain a healthy weight, and why it has been so difficult for drugmakers and health experts to find obesity treatments that work. "If certain foods are addictive, this may partially explain the difficulty people experience in achieving sustainable weight loss," Ashley Gearhardt of Yale University in Connecticut and colleagues wrote in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
Gearhardt's team wanted to see what happens in the brain when young women are tempted by a tasty treat. They used a type of brain imaging known as functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, to study brain activity in 48 young women who were offered a chocolate milkshake or a tasteless solution. The team found that seeing the milkshake triggered brain activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and the medial orbitofrontal cortex -- brain areas that have been implicated in an addict's urge to use drugs.
"Ubiquitous food advertising and the availability of inexpensive palatable foods may make it extremely difficult to adhere to healthier food choices because the omnipresent food cues trigger the reward system," they wrote. The study suggests that advertising might also play a role in the nation's obesity problem.
The study helps explain why it can be so hard for some people to maintain a healthy weight, and why it has been so difficult for drugmakers and health experts to find obesity treatments that work. "If certain foods are addictive, this may partially explain the difficulty people experience in achieving sustainable weight loss," Ashley Gearhardt of Yale University in Connecticut and colleagues wrote in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
Gearhardt's team wanted to see what happens in the brain when young women are tempted by a tasty treat. They used a type of brain imaging known as functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, to study brain activity in 48 young women who were offered a chocolate milkshake or a tasteless solution. The team found that seeing the milkshake triggered brain activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and the medial orbitofrontal cortex -- brain areas that have been implicated in an addict's urge to use drugs.
"Ubiquitous food advertising and the availability of inexpensive palatable foods may make it extremely difficult to adhere to healthier food choices because the omnipresent food cues trigger the reward system," they wrote. The study suggests that advertising might also play a role in the nation's obesity problem.
 |
| Note the calories mentioned against every item in the Menu |
 |
| Calories mentioned against every dish after the description! |
President Barack Obama's new healthcare law requires that restaurants add calorie counts to their menus. If every nation's health care law would follow the same, it would create so much of awareness among people to make better food choices when they eat out. When they see the calories marked in Menu, they can decide what and how much they want to eat. Awareness is the key!
For the detailed article visit the source below :
For the detailed article visit the source below :
No comments:
Post a Comment