Posted on 03/13/2025 2:57:47 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
Researchers have found that a short-term, high-caloric diet impairs brain insulin responsiveness and increases liver fat in healthy weight men, with effects extending beyond the consumption period.
They also found disruptions in the brain's normal reward learning response, suggesting just five days of overeating could prime the brain for long-term unhealthy eating patterns.
Twenty-nine healthy male participants aged 19–27 years (BMI 19–25 kg/m²) were assigned to either a high-caloric diet (HCD) group (n=18) or a control group (n=11).
Participants in the HCD group increased their daily caloric intake by an average of 1,200 kcal during the intervention. Liver fat content significantly rose from 1.55% ± 2.2% at baseline to 2.54% ± 3.5% post-intervention.
Brain insulin responsiveness was assessed through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) combined with intranasal insulin administration. Additional measures included liver fat quantification via MR spectroscopy, body composition, oral glucose tolerance tests, and behavioral assessments.
Changes in brain insulin responsiveness correlated with liver fat accumulation and dietary fat intake. Persistent reductions in brain insulin responsiveness in cognitive regions were noted.
One of the more intriguing findings of the study was how a short-term HCD impacted reward learning. Reward learning relies on the brain's ability to associate certain behaviors with positive or negative outcomes, which plays an active role in food-related choices. Disruptions in this pathway have been widely observed in individuals with obesity, often resulting in altered eating behaviors and a heightened preference for calorie-dense foods.
After just five days of consuming calorie-rich, ultra-processed snacks, participants in the HCD group showed decreased reward sensitivity and increased punishment sensitivity. This suggests that participants found rewarding outcomes less motivating and gained a heightened reaction to punishments. Effects trended toward baseline after returning to a regular diet for one week but did not fully reverse.
These short-term changes resemble obesity-related patterns.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
We need to break our unhealthy habits, before they break us.
Is it calories, or sugar/cheap carbs?
Calories from non-carb or very low-carb foods shouldn’t be counted in the same “suspect” category, ITGHO.
5 days? So, what are you eating on vacation?
ITGHO?? Another cryptic acronym. Alright codebreakers out there. Anybody want to give this a shot?
The cat wouldn’t eat her dinner. I put a few small pieces of cat treat in her dish which she pounced on and ate, and then she ate her dinner in a mechanical sort of I-don’t-care-what-I’m-eating manner.
So why are cat treats like kittie crack? I think they identified some chemicals that trigger the ‘eating’ reflex, so that cat always eats the treats, and anything else put before her while the chemical is in her system.
That makes me wonder about some trash foods that sell well. A group of us working on a project took a coffee break. Someone put Oreos on the table, anyone who took one ended up eating more than intended and yet all said they didn’t care for Oreos or the taste was bland, chemical-like etc.
I think junk food makers may add chemicals similar to those for cats, in cat treats. Add something to flavorless processed foods that trigger the eating reflex, but this time trigger it in people.
Not all cats like certain cat treats, not all humans eat too many Oreos. Not a hard and fast rule, but I am suspicious.
Of the additives in foods, I’ve always been told ‘natural flavors’ harbor ingredients we would otherwise reject. What’s in there?
Because they seems to be slapping that label on food when they really mean "high calorie, low nutrition". And they are not the same thing.
In This Guy’s Humble Opinion
They seem to be trying to not indict high carb foods that almost instantaneously vanish into the bloodstream as glucose.
It is just weird that they keep using a term that is never defined.
In my opinion, if I can make it in my kitchen without specialized equipment, it does not fall under "ultra-processed". Other people think that it means something else. Someone told me fried chicken is "ultra-processed" but for some reason fried fish was not and baked chicken was not.
I just would like the terms to be standardized and make sense.
You do know that people lie?
And especially they lie to give their "good person" points a boost. And for some reason eating the "right foods" gives good person points.
People will proclaim the virtues of a vegan diet and go out and order a bacon cheese burger with extra bacon in private.
Along with being liars, they are also quite silly.
In the General/Chat forum, on a thread titled Five days of ultra-processed food: Study finds that's enough to alter insulin and reward functions in the brain, Harmless Teddy Bear wrote: yet all said they didn't care for Oreos or the taste was bland Harmless Teddy Bear wrote: You do know that people lie?
ransomnote: Dare I ask, "When was the last time you ate an oreo cookie?" I know I liked them as a child, but today's oreos taste like dust and grease, with no discernable chocolate or vanilla impact. I think they substituted the original food-like substances of 20 years ago for some minerals and petroleum products.
Harmless Teddy Bear wrote:And especially they lie to give their "good person" points a boost. And for some reason eating the "right foods" gives good person points.
People will proclaim the virtues of a vegan diet and go out and order a bacon cheese burger with extra bacon in private.
Along with being liars, they are also quite silly.
ransomnote: I was one of these people, and these ladies know each other all too well - any attempt at vanity posturing would be ridiculed.
When we reach December, and one specific lady will celebrate her birthday, and we will supply the cake, she loudly proclaims that she wants a "SAFEWAY CAKE with frosting made from crisco shortening! I know it's greasy. It's what I like and it's my birthday so I don't want to hear anyone complain about calories or nutrition!"
So truly, it was the board-like pasty quality of the dark oreo cookie (slabs) grasping a layer of white...crisco. But even Julie didn't like the Oreos....
And your friends just admitted to liking the taste of inexpensive food. So yes, they were pretending while secretly enjoying the taste.
Sometimes a cookie is just a cookie.
And your friends just admitted to liking the taste of inexpensive food. So yes, they were pretending while secretly enjoying the taste.
Uhm...no. We didn’t like the taste. One woman likes crisco frosting - the rest are told to be silent if they don’t. I’m going to go with my own observations and comments from friends I know rather than someone anonymous who believes I just can’t be right. My point is 2 posts back. I suspect chemicals added to cat treats have parallels in human food - chemicals added to cheap food to encourage ‘eating behavior’.
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