JUNK FOODS CAN LEAD TO ADDICTION

NEW STUDY SUGGESTS JUNK FOOD IS
“AS ADDICTIVE AS HEROIN AND SMOKING”

LONDON (CBS) - Fatty foods are addictive and trigger responses in the brain similar to cocaine and heroin, according to a Nature Neuroscience study. Neuroscientists from the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida, fed rats a high-fat diet and then measured their responsiveness to reward. “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,” said co-author Dr Paul Kenny. The reward circuits in the brains of addicts often have dulled responses, leading them to seek more addictive substances to get their fix. Rats given greater access to the tasty foods developed binge- and compulsive-like eating behaviour and gained more weight. They also needed more stimulation to reach a certain reward threshold over time.

“The study shows evidence that drug addiction and obesity are based on the same underlying neurobiological mechanisms,” says Kenny. “The animals completely lost control over their eating behaviour, the primary hallmark of addiction.” Even when the rats were conditioned to associate a light signal with a shock to the foot, the obese rats would continue to eat despite seeing the light. Skinny rats fed standard lab chow pellets stopped eating when they saw the light. This finding helps us to understand why individuals who often express a desire to limit activities with well-known negative health impacts still struggle to control those behaviours. “This is very similar to what you’d see in humans who overindulge,” Kenny says. “It seemed that it was okay, from what we could tell, to enjoy snack foods, but if you repeatedly overindulge, that’s where the problem comes in.”


Rats eat what makes them feel good and slowly become addicts to that behaviour; once the addiction has been established, they are willing to subject themselves to extremely uncomfortable situations in order to have access to that food again. Unfortunately, people exhibit similar behaviours.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Vedic culture strongly promotes vegetarianism. The vegetarian diet has been followed since antiquity by those who have chosen the path of yoga, goodness, and purification. ... No more junk food. Only buy pure organic ingredients and prepare nice food with love to offer to God and be purified by eating sanctified food, free of Karmic reactions.No more use of artificial colors, chemical flavoring, preservatives, and the thousands of other illness producing horrors that the drug and food control agency has not yet prohibited due to their ignorance.

Śrīla Bhakti Aloka Paramadvaiti Mahārāja :
“Ecology and Meditation”
“Body Mind and Soul in Harmony with Nature”
“The Body - We are what we eat”
http://www.vrindavan.org/English/about/VaishnavaEcology.html