JUNK food may seem like an addictive drug because it is. In rats, at least, too much fatty food raises the threshold for feelings of satisfaction, sparking a cycle of compulsive overeating.
In people, addictive drugs desensitise the brain by raising the threshold of “reward” activity that is needed to feel satisfied: more drug is needed to achieve the same effect. and colleagues at the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida, wondered if fatty foods might also cause desensitisation.
They used electrodes to measure the sensitivity of rats’ brains to reward activity. Some ate normal rat food while…
