—like bacon,Ho Hos, cheesecake, and sausage—look
The next time a friend says he's addicted to bacon, you should know he probably isn't joking. The brains of rats fed only on junk food
similar to the brains of heroin-addicted rats, according to new a study. 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 [Science News].
from the Scripps Research Institute.
The findings suggest that drug addiction and overeating have similar biological mechanisms, according to the scientists
The work is not yet published, but was presented at the Society for Neuroscience’s annual meeting.
The rats fed on junk food displayed a hallmark of addiction. After just five days on the junk food diet, rats showed “profound reductions” in the sensitivity of their brains’ pleasure centers, suggesting that the animals quickly became habituated ...
