Your Junk Food Habits Can Be Traced Back To Your Diet As A child

Have you wondered why you simply cannot say no to junk food – the fries, the chips and the doughnuts – despite your best intentions? Researchers in France think that it may have to do with your eating habits as a child.

The Study

The study, which was published in the journal eNeuro, looked at levels of dopamine in the brains of male rats; dopamine is a neurotransmitter which causes pleasure.

The researchers found that rats who were raised on a high fat diet as babies tended to have more dopamine released when they consumed junk food as adults as compared to rats who had a healthy diet. The rats raised on an unhealthy diet also craved junk food more than rats raised on unhealthy diets.

When it comes to humans, the researchers said their findings would work the same way; children who were hed unhealthy diets would grow up to crave and eat more junk food.

Consuming large levels of junk food puts people at risk of a variety of lifestyle diseases including obesity, high blood pressure and heart problems.