When it comes to potato chips, cookies or chocolate, it’s extremely difficult to stop eating after just having one. Researchers Paul M. Johnson and Paul J. Kenny of the Scripps Research Institute in Florida have recently shed light on this matter. Their findings suggest compulsive eating triggers some of the same addiction-like responses in the brain as heroin and cocaine.
For the study, published online in Nature Neuroscience, Kenny and colleagues headed to the grocery store. “We basically bought all of the stuff that people really like Ding-Dongs, cheesecake, bacon, sausage, the stuff that you enjoy, but you really shouldn’t eat too often,” he said.
Scientists found that rats with unlimited access to sweets and processed meat quickly became addicted. They constantly munched on the junk food through the day, becoming substantially overweight and turning into compulsive over-eaters.
Initially, each time the rats ate junk food, their brain chemistry was altered. Examinations showed elevated levels of a receptor called the D2 dopamine receptor. The D2 receptor responds to dopamine, the brain chemical that is released by pleasurable experiences.
The more junk food the rats ate, the more they overloaded the brain’s reward center. Kenny says the same thing happens in those who become addicted to drugs. The reward pathways in the brain become so over-stimulated that the system essentially turns on itself in an effort to maintain basic functionality.
“The body adapts remarkably well to change and that’s the problem,” said Kenny. “When the animal over-stimulates its brain pleasure centers with highly palatable food, the systems adapt by decreasing their activity. However, now the animal requires constant stimulation from palatable food to avoid entering a persistent state of negative reward.”
The researchers found that the levels of the D2 dopamine receptors were significantly reduced in the brains of the obese animals, similar to what happens in human drug addicts. As the pleasure centers in the brains became less responsive, the rats ate even more compulsively, in an effort to get “their fix.”
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