What are your opinions of this article provided by PRWeb? Can the brain be trained to like healthier foods? Please share your thoughts on this article written by Bel Marra Health.
Bel Marra Health, who offers high-quality, specially formulated vitamins and nutritional supplements, is reporting on research that suggests a new way to tackle food addiction.
As Bel Marra Health reports in its article (http://www.belmarrahealth.com/brain-function/harvards-scientific-trick-healthy-food-becomes-irresistible/), a new study has found a way to train the brain to like healthy foods that some find less than palatable.
The study, conducted by Harvard Medical School and Tufts University and published in the journal Nutrition & Diabetes, has revealed that unhealthy foods like donuts and chips can be made less appealing to the brain while healthier food can be made more appealing.
The brain is “plastic” when it comes to food addiction. Circuits in the brain’s reward center can be completely reversed. That can mean good things for your health, if the new information is used properly.
“We don’t start out in life loving French fries and hating, for example, whole wheat pasta,” says senior author Susan Roberts, who teaches at Tufts’ Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.
“This conditioning happens over time in response to eating – repeatedly – what is out there in the toxic food environment.”
Researchers looked at the brains of 13 overweight and obese men and women. Eight of the participants were enrolled in a six-month behavioral weight-loss program designed by Tufts University while the remaining participants were not. All participants underwent brain scans at the beginning and end of the program.
The researchers found those who followed the weight-loss program lost a significant amount of weight, 6 kg on average, while the others put on an average of 2 kg.
The first group also saw an increase in the activity of their brain’s reward center that was only activated as a response to seeing images of low-calorie healthy foods at the end of the program – and decreased activity in response to high-calorie foods.
Spokesperson for Bel Marra Health Dr. Victor Marchione says, “Food addiction is a very real concern. Make sure you notice the signs and take steps to make changes. Bad food habits can be hard to break the longer you hold onto them.”
A common sign you may be experiencing a food addiction is if you are using food to feel better, or as a reward for overcoming an emotional issue. Food addicts will need to break the cycle of “eating for reward” to overcome the addiction.
This study brings new hope to overweight individuals looking to break the cycle and establish good eating habits.
(SOURCE: Deckersbach T., et al., “Pilot randomized trial demonstrating reversal of obesity-related abnormalities in reward system responsivity to food cues with a behavioral intervention,” Sept. 2014; doi: 10.1038/nutd.2014.26.)
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