(Denis Thompson/ HealthDay News) — Fast food and processed foods trigger deep-seated instincts in the human brain that likely promote overeating, a new study suggests.
These modern foods, high in both fat and carbohydrates, produce a higher “reward” signal than foods containing either mostly fat or mostly carbs, the researchers report.
As a result, these foods hijack your body’s signals that govern food consumption, explained senior researcher Dana Small, director of Yale University’s Modern Diet and Physiology Research Center.
“These foods that have both fat and carbohydrate are tricking this ancient mechanism, so the response is larger than it should be for the amount of energy that’s actually there,” Small said. “They’re more reinforcing than they should be.” (…)