‘Obesity is a brain disease’: Western diet ‘makes you forget to stop eating’

July 12, 2016

After eating enough, our pleasant memories of food are meant to fade
But a new study has found diets high in sugar and fat stop that process
Participants in the study who eat healthier diets showed more restraint

Mia De Graaf For Dailymail.com

Published:
14:06 EST, 12 July 2016

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Updated:
15:17 EST, 12 July 2016

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Obesity is a brain disease made worse by an American diet, new research suggests.

When we are hungry, food memories are at the forefront of our mind.

After enough to eat, those thoughts are meant to fade away so that food is no longer the top priority.

However, a study by Macquarie University has found that natural brain process is hampered by the Western diet high in fats and sugars, and low in fruits and vegetables.

According to the research, sweet fatty junk food impairs memory inhibition abilities of the hippocampus in the brain.

It means even after eating plenty, the smell and sight of food still provokes pleasant memories and triggers cravings.

Western diets high in fats and sugars, and low in fruits, make people forget to stop eating, a study claims

Participants in the study also struggled to complete learning and memory tasks after eating junk food, corroborating the idea that such a diet has an acute affect on the brain.

The study supported by the Australian Research Council tested healthy young people.

Participants who habitually ate a Western-style diet struggled with learning and remembering things.

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Their peers who ate a healthier diet fared much better.

When it came to eating, the ones who typically eat a Western diet found it difficult to resist snacks or to stop eating even after a significant amount of food.

The participants who normally eat more vegetables, fruit and fiber showed more restraint when offered food after a meal.

Previous papers have reached this conclusion after testing animals.

But this study, presented at this week’s obesity conference in Portugal, is the first to test the link between food, memory and obesity in humans.

According to the study, sweet fatty junk food impairs memory inhibition abilities of the hippocampus (above)

Another study presented at the conference also drew links between obesity and the brain.

Psychologists from Michigan State University carried out tests that suggest obese people are more likely to overeat after seeing a tasty snack or an advert for junk food than their thinner counterparts.

Gaining weight changes the brain, they said, making a certain part more active – causing fatter people to gorge.

Lead author Dr Alexander Johnson, assistant professor of Psychology at Michigan State University, said: ‘In today’s society we are bombarded with signals to eat, from fast-food commercials to the smell of barbecue and burgers, and this likely drives overeating behaviours.

‘Our study suggests both a psychological and neurobiological account for why obese individuals may be particularly vulnerable to these signals.’

Are fat people less intelligent than thin? People who are overweight make wrong food choices as they have ‘less grey and white matter in the brain’

Fat people are less intelligent than people with a normal weight, a provocative study claims.

Overweight men and women have less grey and white matter in key areas of the brain.

They also have greater impulsivity and ‘altered reward processing’, the study said.

The researchers said that their findings could explain why overweight people make poor diet choices – they do not have the mental capacity to control themselves.

Nor are they able to stop themselves from making poor choices when the do eat something.

Overweight men and women have less grey and white matter in key areas of the brain, the study claims

The theory is likely to prove controversial as weight loss campaigners have emphasized that each individual has different reasons for their struggle with their body.

The research involved sophisticated brain images of 32 adults recruited from the city of Baltimore in Maryland, 16 men and 16 women

Anyone who had a history of brain damage, substance abuse or mental illness was excluded from the group.

Outlining the object of the study, the authors said: ‘It has been suggested that body composition itself might somehow affect the neural systems that underlie cognition, motivation, self-control and salience processing, which would in turn affect one’s ability to make better lifestyle choices, forgoing immediate and/or highly salient rewards for the sake of longer-term health and wellness goals’.