America
Why some women can't say no to junk food
Melbourne, April 6
Eating a healthy diet
during adolescence could reverse the junk-food cravings in males but not
females, reveals a fascinating research.
The study published in
the FASEB Journal also showed that intensity of junk food cravings
depends a lot on mother's diet during late pregnancy.
There are
two critical windows during the developmental pathway to adulthood when
exposure to junk food is most harmful, particularly for female
offspring, the researchers noted.
"Our research suggests that too
much junk food consumed late in pregnancy for humans has the potential
to be more harmful to the child than excess junk food early in the
pregnancy," said Jessica Gugusheff, post-doctoral researcher at
University of Adelaide in Australia.
"Importantly, it also
indicates that if excess junk food was consumed by the mother in those
early stages of pregnancy, there may be a chance to reduce those
negative effects on the baby by eating a healthy diet in late
pregnancy,†Gugusheff said.
The second critical window to turn away junk food cravings emerges during adolescence, according to the study.
"We
have found differences between males and females. Our experiments
showed that eating a healthy diet during adolescence could reverse the
junk-food preference in males but not females," said Gugusheff.
The
junk food preference is believed to result from a desensitisation of
the normal reward system (the opioid and dopamine signalling pathway)
fuelled by highly palatable high fat, high sugar diets.
Offspring with less sensitive reward systems need more fat and sugar to get the same "good feeling".
"This
brain area grows at its fastest during these critical windows and is
therefore most susceptible to alteration at these times," project leader
Beverly Mühlhäusler from University of Adelaide explained.