To help find a link between the effects of drugs to fast food, scientists have started doing test on lab rats and fast food is hard wiring our brain for cravings. The latest study, published March 28 in "Nature Neuroscience," likened the effects of high-fat, high-calorie fast food to those of cocaine or heroin, in animals at least (Greviskes). The research is proving that the pleasure centers in rats brains were overstimulated from fast food almost like that of an addict’s cocaine binge. Over time, the rats pleasure centers had become overloaded that the rats actually had to keep eating fast food just to feel normal. In the experiment the researchers studied three different groups of lab rats for forty days. One group ate healthy the while the second group ate a limited amount of junk food. The third group was allowed to gorge on the high-fat, high-calorie fast foods which resulted in them becoming obese. During the experiment, one of the researchers discovered that the obese rats’ brains had started to change, not like a super hero. The rats’ brains adapted by decreasing their activity, but with a price. For the rats to stay happy and to not become depressed, they had to keep eating this high-fat food. The obese rats soon were not able to control their eating habits and were often eating despite the electric shocks. When the obese rats were put on a healthy diet, they refused to eat, starving themselves for two weeks (Greviskes). This research has proven that rats can get addicted to fast food and opens another question, can people get so addicted to fast food that they lose control over their eating habits much like these rats did?
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