Scientists have explained people's craving for junk food

Scientists have tried to answer the question of why people tend to eat unhealthy food. Thus, researchers have found that eating foods with chemical additives – flavorings, preservatives and taste enhancers – has no connection with the feeling of hunger. The culprit is the hormonal substance and neurotransmitter dopamine, which is a biochemical precursor of norepinephrine.

As numerous experiments have shown, 99% of women have a tendency to eat “forbidden” food, while for men this figure is equal to 70%.

Most of us eat the desired product if we feel an internal need for it. And there is logic in this: the desire to eat something specific stimulates the production of the hormone dopamine and activates opioid receptors located in the brain. This forces a person to eat a harmful product under any circumstances.

In a certain sense, the craving for "harmful things" can be called an addiction. For example, an inveterate coffee lover simply cannot start work without first drinking several cups of the coveted drink. The same thing happens with food products: a person gets used to a certain combination of tastes, to the aroma of food, etc. Such an addiction has not yet been fully studied by scientists, but most likely it can be caused by a number of physical, psychological and other factors:

• Deficiency of glucose, sodium and some microelements in the body.
• Association of food intake with pleasure, good mood, harmony, and a feeling of complete satisfaction.
• Frequent consumption of a harmful product, which leads to the production of a specific set of enzymes. Later, these enzymes begin to be produced independently, “demanding” the supply of familiar food.
• Reduced levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that is responsible for appetite control, among other things. Women may notice a drop in serotonin levels before the first days of a new menstrual cycle.
• Frequent stressful situations, depressive states – all these factors become the cause of an unhealthy craving for “bad” foods.

Experts have proven that dopamine programs the human brain to perform the same action in order to achieve the desired. That is why it is so difficult for us to resist the temptation of tasty, albeit unhealthy, food. Scientists compare unhealthy food products with narcotic substances that increase the production of dopamine. When consuming a forbidden product, the body receives a powerful release of the hormone, which, in turn, sends response signals to certain areas of the brain to search for the next dose of the drug - in this case, a food product.

Professor Anthony Sclafani has been studying the reasons for people's "love" for "bad" food for three decades. As a result of numerous experiments, the scientist came to the following conclusion: the longer we consume certain foods, the harder it is for us to give them up.

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