Scientists now think fast food and sweets are as addictive as heroin, because they set off hormonal changes in the body which make it hard to stop eating them. According to New Scientist magazine, “New and potentially explosive findings on the biological effects of fast food suggest that eating yourself into obesity isn’t simply down to a lack of self-control.” Researchers think eating lots of foods that are high in fat and sugar causes the same changes in the brain as drug addiction.
As people eat more high-calorie fast food and become obese, they become more resistant to the hormone leptin, which is linked to weight and appetite, as well as a brain peptide called galanin, that stimulates eating. “Their brain loses its ability to respond to these hormones as body fat increases,” says endocrinologist Michael Schwatz. Young rats that are fed a high fat diet early in life grew up to be obese adults?the same thing that’s happening to the young humans all around us.
You may feel good about staying off drugs, but if you eat a lot of sweets and can’t wait for your next fast food “fix,” your brain may be in the same state as the brain of a heroin addict. Psychologist John Hoebel says, “Highly palatable foods and highly potent sexual stimuli are the only stimuli capable of activating the dopamine system with anywhere near the potency of addictive drugs.”
Stay clean and get off the junk food by remembering that we?re all part of the dynamic power that floods the universe.
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