September 8, 2014
Brain trained food addictions can be reversed!
Susan Roberts, PhD is the director of the Energy metabolism laboratory at Tufts University. She piloted a small randomized trial of 13 obese adults to a reward system of food cues with a behavioral intervention versus a control group. Her group analyzed the brains at the food addiction centers via functional MRI.
After the behavioral modification and reward system therapy was completed, they found that food craving areas of the brain no longer enhanced to high calorie foods when shown by flash card. The intervention group also lost significantly more weight.
This is the first albeit small study of its kind to show that our brains are plastic when it comes to perceived hardwired food addictions. Positive rewards for healthy eating will change neural circuitry over time to favor less addiction.
I think about the reduced addiction feelings many people get when they remove gluten from their diet. After a few weeks, they stop craving the gluten high calorie foods. I assume that the reward that stimulates this event is a sense of wellbeing and reduced brain fog.
I know that I personally never was addicted to sweets, yet when I stopped eating them altogether, I felt even less desire to eat it on occasion.
As the brains neural pathways rewire, we learn to live in a new way that is healthier.
This research is provocative for obesity and food craving sufferers. Knowledge that you can change is way better than a belief that you are stuck with addictions and cravings for life.
|