Table of contents:
- Eating junk food can be addictive
- Your brain may mistake you for not eating enough when you eat junk food, so you will eat again
- We become sluggish and have a harder time thinking when addicted to junk food
The effects of eating junk food are almost always associated with obesity, high cholesterol, hypertension, and heart disease. What not many people realize is that fast food also eats away at brain health. This can be seen from the number of people who are addicted to junk food.
Eating junk food can be addictive
Junk food is a type of food that is high in sugar, fat, salt and oil. This combination, coupled with the smell of food and various other flavors, makes the food taste delicious to shake the tongue. Then, the nerves of the tongue immediately send a signal to stimulate the brain to produce high amounts of the happy hormone dopamine.
In addition, reported by the Huffington Post. Steven Witherly, a food scientist, argues that junk food addiction can also be affected by a combination of different sensations in one meal. For example, soft-textured cream cheese that is spread evenly on a slice of crunchy pizza, or a burger with thick meat filling and juicyplus some crispy lettuce.
This mixed combination then makes the brain interpret eating junk food as a pleasant experience. As a result, the brain produces more dopamine.
The happy effect of eating junk food will automatically make your body crave, so you feel the need to eat again. The more and more you get used to eating junk food, the stronger the addictive effect is, because the dopamine levels that accumulate in the body can interfere with brain function.
Your brain may mistake you for not eating enough when you eat junk food, so you will eat again
Still according to Witherly, junk food often involves ingredients that can be "lost" in an instant. For example, mayonnaise sauce or melted mozzarella cheese that melts easily on the tongue. When the tongue detects that there is no more food in the mouth, the taste buds will signal to the brain that you are not eating enough or are not eating.
The brain then thinks you are running low on calories so it reacts quickly by triggering the release of the hunger hormone ghrelin to prevent you from starving. As a result, you tend to overeat while eating fast food.
We become sluggish and have a harder time thinking when addicted to junk food
A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2011 showed that healthy individuals who ate junk food for five consecutive days had decreased cognitive brain function. It is characterized by a lack of focused attention, speed of action, poorer memory, and drastic mood swings.
In the brain, the high dopamine dopamine produced after eating junk food blocks the work of the hippocampus and causes inflammation. The hippocampus is a place for the formation and storage of long-term memory.
In addition, foods high in sugar and fat can decrease the function of brain synapses which are responsible for learning and memory abilities, and interfere with the activity of a brain peptide called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BNFD) which helps increase blood flow to the brain and prevents damage to brain cells.
