Consuming healthy food: A question of training
updated the 14 July 2015 à 18:34Are you dying for an apple rather than for chips? Or for fish rather than pizza? That seems strange, but according to a quite new study, we can reprogram our brains to become fans of food which beneficial for our health.
According to a new American study, it is possible to train our brain so it encourages us to consume healthy food.
In exactly 6 months, you might eat steamed fish with vegetables, not because you are on a diet but because you really want it. According to new researches published in the magazine Nutrition and Diabetes, having compulsions for healthy food rather than for hyper sweet and/or hyper fat food could be achieved by educating the brain. A change of behaviour would thus be possible, on the condition of managing to get rid of our old habit conditionings.
MORE HEALTHY FOOD, FEWER EXTRA KILOS
Choose your food, prepare your meals… It takes time and requires effort. To motivate us, the circuits of reward “ignite” in our brain and make us think about the pleasures of a good lunch or the dinner that awaits us. It is a dose of motivation to roll up our sleeves and cook. But for some people who suffer from being overweight or from obesity, these circuits do not work correctly anymore. That explains, partially, their compulsions for junk food, easily accessible and generally ready to be swallowed immediately (or after a few minutes in the microwave).
Researchers of the Harvard University thus wanted to know if it was possible to restore the good functioning of the circuits of reward. In other words, can we condition then re-condition our relation with food? To verify it, they worked with 13 overweight or obese people. They asked half of them to follow a healthier diet, as well as an innovative behavioural therapy. This aimed at facilitating the reduction in calorie intake by reducing the sensation of hunger and by breaking the existing association between junk food and the pleasure. In parallel, work was conducted to stimulate the sensation of reward during the consumption of healthy food. After 6 months, the participants got an MRI of their brains. The results were noticeable. When we showed them the photo of a healthy food, circuits associated with the reward were now reactivated. Conversely, the addiction to high calorie food was much less strong.
The authors specify that these results are a serious breakthrough to help to take care of weight problems, but also that other studies are necessary considering the small number of participants.
Maureen Diament
