Friends often ask, only eat a little sweets, small snacks every day, and the calories do not exceed the standard, should be no problem, right?
Sorry, bad news.
The Yale team found that high-sugar, high-fat foods can subtly reshape the brain and modify the reward mechanism, even if they are eaten in small amounts every day, the brain will be more inclined to choose these foods in the future.
Image source: References
We all know that habit formation is all about persistence, doing the same thing every day in a row, and it will form a habit after a period of time. This is the law of the brain.
You think that controlling yourself every day and eating only a small number of snacks is "self-discipline". In fact, for the brain, this is cultivating the "habit" of consuming high-calorie foods.
you
: Restraint and eat only a little snack every day.
🧠 Brain : Stick to it and eat a little snack every day.
And for scientists, it's called:
Image source: Do it yourself
A little bit a day is enough to change the brain
The researchers recruited a group of volunteers around the age of 25 with a normal BMI and physical indicators.
At the beginning of the experiment, the volunteers had a similar preference for "high-sugar and high-fat foods", with no strong liking or dislike.
The volunteers were then randomly divided into two groups, both of whom were on a normal diet, with the only difference being the "extra meals" that the scientists gave them.
Image source: Do it yourself
Except for the difference in sugar and fat content, the calories of yogurt were the same in both groups. Eat 1 capsule 2 times a day.
Eight weeks later, it was time to find out.
Researchers tested the volunteers' response to high-sugar, high-fat foods using an fMRI machine that scans brain activity.
The test process and the results are very interesting, something like this:
Researcher: Do you want to drink milkshakes~ (shake it)
Brains in the high-sugar and high-fat group:
What? Milkshake? He just said milkshake?
*.。 (๑･∀･๑)*.。
(The brain area in question is aroused, sparkling)
Image source: Zhan Kuhailuo
Brains in the low-fat and low-sugar group:
👌 Yes
(No waves)
Image source: Zhan Kuhailuo
After drinking the shake, the brains of the high-sugar and high-fat group:
Delicious and satisfying ๑ ̄◡ ̄๑
(The brain area in question is aroused, sparkling)
Image source: Zhan Kuhailuo
Brains in the low-fat and low-sugar group:
I should have asked for a pineapple flavor just now.
(No waves)
Image source: Zhan Kuhailuo
In conclusion, the group of people who ate a little high-sugar and high-fat yogurt every day had a much stronger brain response to high-fat and high-sugar foods.
This is especially evident in the activation and remodeling of the dopaminergic system in the brain responsible for motivation and reward.
Not only that, but the volunteers also disliked eating low-fat foods, indicating that the brain's preference for fat has also changed.
The results are still amazing, a small amount of sweets every day, in a short period of time, reconnect the brain's neural circuits, adjust the reward mechanism.
synapses hand in hand,
Sugar and oil walk together for a lifetime.
Image source: giphy.com
It's too easy to develop a "sugar and oil brain"!
This is similar to the mechanism of drug addiction. Habitual exposure to high-sugar and high-fat foods will first cause the nerves to develop adaptive behaviors, and then become more dissatisfied, increasing the risk of overeating and weight gain, and then leading to obesity.
Although there was no significant change in the weight, blood sugar, cholesterol and other indicators of the two groups of volunteers, according to the researchers' estimates, the volunteers' preference for sugar and oil could not be returned for a while after the experiment......
The researchers explain:
New connections are formed in the brain, and they don't disappear so quickly.
After all, the whole point of learning is that once you've learned something, you don't forget it that quickly.
A lot of people do it every day unintentionally
Cultivating the "Sugar and Oil Brain"
In fact, many people unintentionally:
Image source: Do it yourself
It's no wonder that this kind of food is so common and readily available in the modern environment.
On Tuesday, a colleague fed a Swiss roll. On Wednesdays, a cup of seasonal coffee, two pumps of syrup and a cream top. Thursday, Crazy Thursday, v I 50. On Friday, the group next door celebrated and rubbed a small cake.
Although I eat light food diligently every day, I feel that I am quite restrained in my diet, but I didn't expect to lose in these small snacks intentionally or unintentionally.
That's not all, the box of salad dressing that we usually pour when we eat light food, and the few pieces of braised pork in the set meal are all sugar and oil traps, which make us "exposed, exposed, exposed" more often.
In fact, if you just come a little bit every day, don't exceed the calorie standard, and it won't bring too much trouble to the body.
The problem is that the brain is getting greedy. Slowly you will find out:
It's harder to walk past supermarket snack shelves without squinting, it takes more willpower to say no to sweets, and it's likely to fail, and if you don't get a sweet tooth for a day, you don't feel satisfied.
Once it is refined into a sugar and oil brain, it is difficult to control it again.
It's not all bad news, though. After all, we have found another reason for the failure of weight loss.
In other words, you're one step closer to losing weight
。
Here's what we can do:
Image source: Do it yourself
Lengthen the time interval between exposure to high-sugar and high-oil foods to avoid frequent strengthening of this nerve circuit and blocking the brain's glyco-oiling pathway.
But foods high in sugar and fat ...... What should I do if I want to eat?
Keeping your mouth shut and setting up a cheat day might be a good idea to try.
This article is reviewed by experts
bibliography
[1] Edwin Thanarajah S, DiFeliceantonio AG, Albus K, Kuzmanovic B, Rigoux L, Iglesias S, Hanßen R, Schlamann M, Cornely OA, Brüning JC, Tittgemeyer M, Small DM. Habitual daily intake of a sweet and fatty snack modulates reward processing in humans. Cell Metab. 2023 Mar 15:S1550-4131(23)00051-7.
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