You don’t have to have watched any of Jamie Oliver’s new series on comfort foods (think: burgers dripping in cheese, lobster mac ’n’ cheese, marshmallows with, um… loads of sugar, no cheese) to know that rich, gloopy, fatty, lip-smackingly, tasty foods are really enjoyable to eat.
However, nutritionists have said that if you just wean yourself off unhealthy food for like, six months, you could totally retrain your brain to enjoy a healthy meal instead.
‘We don't start out in life loving French fries and hating, for example, wholewheat pasta,’ wrote Susan B Roberts, co-corresponding author of a study published in the Nutrition & Diabetes journal.
‘This conditioning happens over time in response to eating – repeatedly! – what is out there in the toxic food environment.’
So, yeah, we know the world is awash with cheap deep-fried meal deals, crunchy comfort snacks and butter, but how did the scientists learn you can train yourself away from their pull?
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Well, the study got a group of obese people to volunteer themselves for a six-month weight-loss programme. At points during the testing, their reactions to different foods were tested using MRI scans. The scans would focus on the parts of the brain that deal with learning and addiction.
Researchers found that after the diet, the participants’ brains were more likely to respond to healthier food cues (smells, sights, etc) and showed a ‘decreased sensitivity to the unhealthy, higher-calorie foods.’
Sai Krupa, a co-author of the report added: ‘...the combined effects of which are probably critical for sustainable weight control. To the best of our knowledge this is the first demonstration of this important twist.’
Whether the results come because people see the positive effects healthy food has on their body so squirm away in disgust at the whiff of a passing pizza, or because they end up liking the taste of healthy food because it’s what they’re now used to is uncertain.
Another co-author, Dr Thilo Deckersbach, was very keen on this as an important alternative to something like gastric bypass surgery, which he says, ‘takes away food enjoyment generally rather than making healthier foods more appealing.’The only problem? Staying off fatty, squelchy, tasty but unhealthy foods for six months in the first place.
Researchers agreed that ‘behaviour change education’ is among the factors that could help reverse food addiction. In a world of deep fried butter, ice cream sandwiches and fried chicken skin snacks, we think that people learning to change their eating habits might be the hardest thing to swallow.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.