Looking outside of the current repertoire of treatments might be important, as dieting alone has often proved to be an unsuccessful long-term strategy for people who struggle with overeating. The new study showed that after eating a diet full of sausage and sweets for 40 days—even though regular lab rat chow was available—the obese rats had little interest in reverting to the more healthful diet when the tasty stuff was taken away. In fact, after depriving the high-fat habituated rats of their human junk foods, the rats would refuse to eat their standard chow for an average of 14 days. "I was really shocked at the magnitude of the effect," Kenny says. "They basically don't eat anything. If that translates over to us as a species, that's a major problem."
Fighting foods
The sticky part about studying food addiction is that, unlike cocaine or alcohol, humans can't exactly drop it—cold turkey or not. "You can't really quit food," Avena says. And humans are hardwired, thanks to eons of evolutionary selection, to seek high-calorie foods to keep us going through lean times. But with subsistence hunting, gathering and farming now little more than a niche lifestyle choice in wealthy nations, a brain set up to reward super-rich calorie snacks is more of a hazard than a help.
"In one sense, we're all addicted to food," Kenny says. He points out, however, that many of the food items widely available today, say cheeseburgers and milk shakes, are like superfoods in terms of their calorie quantities. "This energy-dense stuff is very new to us as a species. It's probably corrupting brain circuitry," he says.
Unlike rats, however, most people know that many of these high-fat foods are not a wise choice, especially when consumed in large quantities. But many continue to eat in excess of basic energy requirements anyway, putting on unnecessary pounds and possibly reinforcing unhealthful behavior. So the researchers designed an experiment to try to draw a parallel with the rats, training them to expect an electric shock when they saw a certain light cue. Unlike their chow-fed counterparts, obese rats accustomed to the high-fat diet would keep right on gorging even when they knew a shock was coming.
Although the current work focused on high-fat foods, Kenny notes that the full neurochemical and behavioral changes might be due to "a combination of both sugar and fat." Avena and her colleagues have been working to parse out the various nutrients in potentially addictive food products and what impact they have on the brain. They found, for example, that animals binge-eating fats and animals binge-eating sugars experience different physiological effects. "They affect the brain in very different ways," Avena says.
The big one-two punch for defeating healthy eating might in fact be a combination of neural effects from both of these ingredients. And, indeed, the sweet spot for the lab rats in Kenny's study seemed to be the food item that contained high quantities of both fat and sugar: cheesecake. Sara Lee, to be precise, Kenny reports.
Subscription Center
See what we're tweeting about
26 Comments
Add CommentI see two significant factors that these studies have not addressed or corrected for:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1. Taste buds predispose mammals to choose tasty foods. No healthy tasty foods were offered. Bland rat chow?! Healthy tasty food may be a fairly recent development in food choices.
2. Food choices either acidify or alkalize the blood, as taught by Dr. Robert O. Young. Since animal proteins & sugars & high glycemic foods acidify the blood, and less commonly eaten green vegetables alkalize the blood, these macro chemical blood chemistry factors should be part of any study.
You're crazy if you think something written by Robert O. Young should be mentioned in any study.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNevermind your taste argument.
You're crazy if you think Robert O. Young , who doesn't seem to be a doctor by any account, should be a part of any study.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNevermind your taste argument.
Here is the link, that highlights the Robert O. Young scam.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.phmiracle-scam.com/
@ EdieFrederick if you are taking any of these products I recommend you stop before it kills you. Seriously!
My father is diabetic and he seems to eat for pleasure, he has sleep apnea and bad pessimistic/anger problems.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think he fits well into the category of "food addicts" his excesive intake of cheese, butter, sugar and sour cream is killing him.
Is there anyway i can help him? he dosent listen, he even says he hates his life but still dosent seem to have the will power to stop eating like those lab rats. Its causing problems in the family and shortening his life. All he does is sleep, eat and go to the restroom and he cant even breathe well. He even falls asleep while taking a crap for like 2 hours every day. His feet always hurt and his legs are purple and his skin is dry, he is in a very severe condition and he dosent seem to understand it. Im guessing the drug-like food in combination with his suffering and pessimism are making him lose his mind.
How can I stop this!?!?! I know many people out there have this problem!
Is there a scientist out there that will pay my father to use him for some kind of diet plan experiment? Its an emergency!
he dosent even want to do the bypass surgery or the stomach staple surgery its just sad.
Princeton Neuroscience Institute have been studying signs of sugar addiction in rats for years.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey found that rats displayed all of the 3 classic symptoms of addiction...to sugar
http://www.healthhabits.ca/2008/12/15/is-sugar-addictive/
In addition to the effect of brain chemicals, researchers have also been looking on the effect insulin plays on junk food addiction
http://www.healthhabits.ca/2008/11/13/why-do-i-crave-carbs/
Princeton Neuroscience Institute have been studying signs of sugar addiction in rats for years.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey found that rats displayed all of the 3 classic symptoms of addiction...to sugar
http://www.healthhabits.ca/2008/12/15/is-sugar-addictive/
In addition to the effect of brain chemicals, researchers have also been looking on the effect insulin plays on junk food addiction
http://www.healthhabits.ca/2008/11/13/why-do-i-crave-carbs/
Agree with Aaron. Sugars are not considered in the article and the terms "fattening" and "high-fat" are seemingly used interchangeably. The hormonal derangement from massive sugar intake and subsequent insulin response is probably a better predictor of this addictive behavior than fat composition alone.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis article is another sad display of fat phobic lipid hypothesis confirmation bias. Overeating does cause obesity. But you don't have to overeat carbohydrates to cause obesity. Just eat them in sufficient quantity to keep insulin levels high. Basic biochemistry. Dietary fats do not raise blood sugar levels or fat metabolism in the absence of enabling concomitant dietary carbohydrates. So what was the amount of carbohydrates in the rats diet? Fat consumption is mostly self limiting unless mixed with carbohydrates. When was the last time you consumed say two ounces of corn oil? Easy to do when it is in the form of bag of corn chips but not by itself. At least make your hypothesis agree with biochemistry and physiology.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis article is another sad display of fat phobic lipid hypothesis confirmation bias. Overeating does cause obesity. But you don't have to overeat carbohydrates to cause obesity. Just eat them in sufficient quantity to keep insulin levels high. Basic biochemistry. Dietary fats do not raise blood sugar levels or fat metabolism in the absence of enabling concomitant dietary carbohydrates. So what was the amount of carbohydrates in the rats diet? Fat consumption is mostly self limiting unless mixed with carbohydrates. When was the last time you consumed say two ounces of corn oil? Easy to do when it is in the form of bag of corn chips but not by itself. At least make your hypothesis agree with biochemistry and physiology.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWild salmon contains up to 40% fat, some of it saturated fat, yet the omega-3 fats in wild salmon are the healthiest form of fat found in nature.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn one study, eatting wild salmon actually causes the body to burn 25% more fat.
It's not the quanity of fat that is important, but the quality of the fat that's important, too.
Relating this study to anything clinically relevant regarding obesity is such a stretch I cannot even begin to see how they got here (oh wait, I do, there is food and through tremendous manipulation of environment eventually fat rats). How they can study multiple variables and claim anything valid out of this is mind boggling, but not surprising. The sugar industry depends on garbage science like this to further its agenda as a low fat and therefore healthy food and continue to blame fats as the culprit (even though fats and sugar were both variables in this study, look at the headline to see which was blamed for the bad results) . The sad thing is that SA has decided to present this as something of significance.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes! Thank you for mentioning the lipid hypothesis lie!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThank you for mentioning the lipid hypothesis lie. I am only just now learning how this lie has caused considerable harm to the health of people who fall for it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFat is not the problem, carbohydrates are. All of the credible scientific research in this area has shown that healthy fats (not the polyunsaturated poisons pushed by the food industry) are an essential component of a healthy human diet. We've been eating animal fats for 2&1/2 million years. What we have NOT been eating are refined carbohydrates and grains (a phenomenon peculiar to the last 10, years of human existence, a mere blink of the eye). Sugar (and most grain based carbohydrates are the culprit NOT FAT).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisShould have read 10,000 years... the period in which humans changed from hunter gatherers to agriculturalists.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat outraged me about this pathetically flawed study (leading me to suspect it was sponsored by the Corn, high fructose corn syrup, industry) was the inclusion of CHEESECAKE. The major portion of calories in cheesecake is from the SUGAR (Duhhhhhhh!)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt seems to me that obesity is the culprit no matter how you get there. If you lay on the couch and stuff yourself with celery I suppose you will develop obesity related problems. It is true that fat is often blamed because it has a higher calorie/gram. So, if you are trying to lose weight, reducing fat calories adds up faster. But, carbohydrates have a much higher glycemic index and are much more of a problem for diabetics. Maybe it is time we stop trying to analyze the behaviour causing obesity. A better strategy might be to stop supporting excuses for self destructive behaviour. Simple physics: use more calories than you eat=problem solved.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDo rats show addictive behaviour if given brussel sprout flavored lard?
jbairddo, I am largely in agreement with your sentiments, but don't know exactly what you mean by the "sugar industry," or why it would want to sponsor this.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisabyssalmystery: "Simple physics: use more calories than you eat=problem solved."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisabyssalmystery and a large number of well meaning people who are obviously not physicists seem to think this statement holds true for humans. You are in great need of understanding our physiology and biochemistry. The role of insulin in regulating blood sugar trumps this simple statement. The first and second laws of thermodynamics cannot be used here. We are not closed systems.
Ummmmmm, doughnuts
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJust great, first they eliminate normal healthy food and try to stuff us full of aspartame and high fructose corn syrup then when people get fat and unhealthy they want to develop a pill for it which will probably turn out to be worse than the disease.
Yes food is addictive, I've been on it myself for quite some time.
There’s an interesting post over at the Health Journal Club that makes the case that people should just not eat anything that wasn’t a food 100 years ago. Gets rid of the aspartame, bleached GM flour, high fructose corn syrup garbage they try to pass off as food these days. If interested you can read on it here,
http://healthjournalclub.blogspot.com/2010/01/100-year-diet.html
Let's give credit to David Kessler here in THE END OF OVEREATING. In this book we are presented with this very concentrated focus on the manipulation of our reward systems by the major corporations. However try and get through to the cynics and undereducated...trying to drive the analogy based upon the theme of a biological reward center is like telling them that dinosaurs ruled the earth. But once you recognize that your schemas for reward are in control, then some sort of action can be taken. I'm reminded here of the tick on Animal Planets most extreme dieters...Americans weighing in at 600 times their natural weight. Add the SUV to a 250lb. woman and you come pretty close.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswfcloud
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am aware that the situation is more complex than how I described it. However, how could you possibly disagree that if you control your caloric intake you can control your body weight? You don't need to be a physicist to comprehend that. By the way, I may not be a physicist but I am in the process of getting a degree in Physics and more importantly I am a type I diabetic. When you start weighing every gram of food you ingest and have to compensate with injections of insulin, you learn more about metabolism than your doctors ever will.
http://thedegree.net/?p=25&cpage=1#comment-219
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe best weight control is the most natural one: eating raw fruits and vegetables before anything cooked! I have lost over 20 kilograms over the past years , just by following the West Australian health initiative: "Eat 2 & 5", and written a book called " Colour Eating Without Heating", based on the same principle.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSee youthevity.com
Yes good point guys let's remember that fats and sugars may both cause obesity-see the Liver fed state vs fasting state (however fatty acids inhibit glycolisis),on the other hand fatty acid synthesis occurs in the cytosol,where they entry via citrate shuttle-then via carnitin right into the mitochondria..those details should be kept in mind in the study design ,I mean the study even though quite serious may be somhow biased..
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this