(Aria Bendix/ NBC News) — Food preferences aren’t always something we’re born with. A study published Wednesday in the journal Cell Metabolism suggests that eating fatty or sugary snacks alters our brain activity and creates lasting preferences for these less healthy items.
For the study, researchers at Yale University and the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Germany gave one group of participants a high-fat, high-sugar yogurt twice daily for eight weeks, while another got a low-fat, low-sugar version. Aside from that, both groups continued their normal eating habits.
At the end, the groups rated puddings with varying fat concentrations and apple juices with a range of sugar levels. The group that ate the high-fat, high-sugar yogurt said they did not like low-fat pudding and did not want low-sugar apple juice as much as they had at the start.
Next, the participants underwent MRI scans while drinking milkshakes. The scans showed that the treat increased brain activity in the group that had eaten the high-fat, high-sugar yogurt, but not in the other. (…)