For years, the old colloquialism has been that the worse something is for your health, the more addicting you find it.  For example, recently I’ve been craving McDonald’s, and I’d joke with a friend that they had to lace the fries with something to get you to crave them so badly.  While McDonald’s food is drug free (as far as I know), the drug-like craving comparison is accurate, according to new research.  In a group of lab rats, it was discovered that overeating fatty foods triggered the same response in the brain as cocaine or heroin addiction.

The research noted that the overeating of fatty foods caused the same crash in dopamine levels that using cocaine and heroin does.  According to Scripps Research Institute professor Paul Kenny, “People know intuitively that there’s more to [overeating] than just willpower.  There’s a system in the brain that’s been turned on or over-activated, and that’s driving [overeating] at some subconscious level.”  That means that in order to get the same pleasure, you have to eat more food (or do more drugs).

Tags: fatty foods act like drugs, fatty foods are addictive, food cravings, addiction, unusual medical news, unusual health news, dopamine receptors, food addiction is like drug addiction, lab rats, Paul Kenny, Scripps Research Institute

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