Junk food 'is as addictive as heroin and cigarettes'

Junk food may be as addictive as heroin and tobacco, a study has shown.
Obesity researchers found fatty and sugary snacks trigger the same 'pleasure centres' in the brain that drive people into drug addiction - making them binge on unhealthy food.
The findings could partly explain the soaring obesity rates in Britain and the success of fast food outlets.

Experts studied rats fed on cheesecake, bacon and sausages. Soon after the experiments began the animals began to bulk up and show signs of addiction.
'It presents the most thorough and compelling evidence that drug addiction and obesity are based on the same underlying neurobiological mechanisms,' Professor Paul Kenny said.


In the study, the animals completely lost control over their eating behaviour and continued to over-eat even when they anticipated receiving electric shocks, highlighting just how motivated they were to consume the palatable food.'
During the trial the animals were rewarded with a pleasurable electrical stimulation.
The rats could control how much of the stimulation they got by running on a wheel. Animals living on junk food ran far more - suggesting they needed more brain stimulation to feel good, the researchers found.
The scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida, also gave rats electric shocks on their feet when they ate high-fat food.
Rats on a normal diet quickly learned to avoid the unhealthy food. But those used to junk food refused to let the shock get in their way of their high calorie food.

'They always went for the worst types of food,' said Professor Kenny, who published his findings in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
'When we removed the junk food and tried to put them on a nutritious diet they simply refused to eat.'
The researchers found junk food altered the chemical balance in the brain's 'reward circuits' - the parts of the brain that handle the feel-good chemical dopamine.
Identical changes happen in the brains of rats given cocaine or heroin and are thought to play a key role in drug addiction.
Britons are the world's biggest junk food addicts. At the same time, the average adult eats just over three portions of fruit and vegetables a day - the recommended number is five.
We will also get through 22,000 ready meals, sandwiches and sweet snacks in a lifetime - just under one a day.

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Healtiest breakfast set

Good for you: This high fat breakfast of sausage, bacon, eggs and beans could actually help prevent metabolic syndrome, according to a new study.


Bacon, sausages, eggs, beans, mushrooms, tomatoes, black pudding... if that's what you had for breakfast, scientists say you've chosen the healthiest way to start your day.

No, seriously. Hot on the heels of yesterday's chocolate-is-good-for-you findings, researchers say a full English breakfast is better for the heart, waistline and blood pressure than carbohydrate-rich cereals, breads and pastries.

It is thought that a fried breakfast sets up the metabolism for the rest of the day, making it easier to burn off other meals and snacks.
Cereal, however, appears mainly to prime the body to break down only carbohydrates, the International Journal of Obesity reports.

The U.S. researchers advocate a big, fatty breakfast for optimum health, followed by a smaller lunch and a light evening meal.

Indeed, the old saying - 'eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper' - may be the key to a healthy body and mind.

Their study looked at the effects of eating different types of food - and of eating them at different times in the day.

Mice fed a high fat meal after waking remained healthy, but those given a carb-rich breakfast, followed by a fatty dinner, did not fare as well.

They put on weight and had trouble processing sugar, raising their risk of diabetes.

Blood tests also flagged up other problems that raised their risk of heart disease and strokes.

Dr Martin Young, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said: 'The first meal you have appears to programme your metabolism for the rest of the day.

Enlarge 'This study suggests that if you ate a carbohydrate-rich breakfast it would promote carbohydrate utilisation throughout the rest of the day, whereas if you have a fat-rich breakfast, you (can) transfer your energy utilisation between carbohydrate and fat.'

Co-researcher Professor Molly Bray added: 'Studies have looked at the type and quantity of food intake, but nobody has undertaken the question of whether the timing of what you eat and when you eat it influences body weight.'

With most people eating a wide variety of foods throughout the day, the findings have a clear implication for the human diet.

Professor Bray added: 'Our study seems to show that if you really want to be able to efficiently respond to mixed meals across a day, a meal in higher fat content in the morning is a good thing.'

The research is not the first to confirm the importance of a big breakfast.

A South American study found that women who ate half of their daily calories first thing lost more weight in the long-term than those who ate a small breakfast.

In contrast to the U.S. study, it said eating carbs for breakfast was beneficial, with a sweet treat, such as chocolate, cutting sugar cravings later in the day.


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Drinking Cola reduce sperm count

Men who drink around a litre of cola every day could be harming their sperm, according to a new Danish study.
On average, these men's sperm counts were almost 30 per cent lower than in men who didn't drink cola.

While most of the sperm counts would still be considered normal by the World Health Organization, men with fewer sperm generally have a higher risk of being infertile.
The link is unlikely to be due to caffeine, the researchers say, because coffee did not have the same effect, even though its caffeine content is higher. Instead, other ingredients in the beverage or an unhealthy lifestyle could be involved.
Kold Jensen, who led the new research, said only a few studies have looked at caffeine's impact on reproductive health in men. The participants have generally been a very select group, such as infertile men, and the results have been conflicting.

Because Danish youth has been upping their consumption of caffeine-containing soft drinks over the last decades, the researchers decided to study how this might affect their reproductive health.
More than 2,500 young men were included in their study. Those who didn't drink cola had better sperm quality - averaging 50 million sperm per millilitre semen - and tended to have a healthier lifestyle.
In contrast, the 93 men who drank more than one litre a day had only 35 million sperm per millilitre. However, they also ate more fast foods, and less fruit and vegetables.

When looking at caffeine from other sources, such as coffee and tea, the decrease in sperm quality was much less pronounced.
It is still not clear if the cola or the unhealthy lifestyle, or both, is to blame and the scientists said further research was needed.
The study was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.


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