This Week in the Mercury

The Creepiest Love Songs of All Time

Music

The Creepiest Love Songs of All Time

A Special Valentine's Day Playlist


Film Shorts

Film

Film Shorts

In Which We Hit It and Quit It



  |  

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Food Twinkies = Heroin?

Posted by Dave Bow on Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 2:53 PM

Last week sciencenews.org reported this really scary story about how junk food alters the pleasure sensors in rats' brains causing them to act the same as rats addicted to heroin. According to a study by the Scripps Research Institute:

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 to the food. As a result, the rats ate more food to get the same amount of pleasure. Just as heroin addicts require more and more of the drug to feel good, rats needed more and more of the junk food. “They lose control,” Kenny says. “This is the hallmark of addiction.”

If that's not gross enough, it continues:

To see how strong the drive to eat junk food was, the researchers exposed the rats to a foot shock when they ate the high-fat food. Rats that had not been constantly exposed to the junk food quickly stopped eating. But the foot shock didn’t faze rats accustomed to the junk food — they continued to eat, even though they knew the shock was coming.

Throw this on the pile of scientific studies that tell us upsetting things we already know but pretend we don't. Now I'm sad. Sad and hungry.

Just melt this on some tortilla chips and this little guys ready to chase the dragon.
  • Just melt this on some tortilla chips and this little guy's ready to chase the dragon.

Hat tip to grist.org

 

Comments (3) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment
1
This pairs nicely with this posting from the Oregonian:

http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.…

Apparently soda is for dummies!
Posted by Sean Breslin on October 28, 2009 at 3:08 PM · Report
2
Thank you for f*ing up my dbl. bacon cheeseburger. I think I need another one.
Posted by rabblevox on October 28, 2009 at 4:17 PM · Report
3
this means someone has the sad job of electrocuting rats while they eat twinkies.
Posted by s.mirk on October 29, 2009 at 10:07 AM · Report

Add a comment

Our Friends

Our Enemies

/images/adoftheweek.gif

ad of the day

The Handyman Pro - Your Honey-Do Specialist
Don’t let our name fool you. The Handyman Pro, LLC is a repair and remodel service provider with over 25-years experience. We cover all aspects of construction and repairs for residential and commercial clients.go


post an ad

All contents © Index Newspapers, LLC

115 SW Ash St. Suite 600
Portland, OR 97204

Contact Info | Privacy Policy | Production Guidelines | Terms of Use