There is now evidence that comparable dopaminergic responses are linked with food reward and that these mechanisms are also likely to play a role in excessive food consumption and obesity. It is well known that certain foods, particularly those rich in sugars and fat, are potently rewarding (Lenoir et al. 2007). High-calorie foods can promote over-eating (eating that is uncoupled from energetic needs) and trigger learned associations between the stimulus and the reward (conditioning). In evolutionary terms, this property of palatable foods used to be advantageous in environments where food sources were scarce and/or unreliable, because it ensured that food was eaten when available, enabling energy to be stored in the body (as fat) for future use. Unfortunately, in societies like ours, where food is plentiful and constantly available, this adaptation has become a liability.
particularly those rich in sugars and fat, are potently rewarding (Lenoir et al. 2007) ...... but Lenoir et al. 2007... is... Intense Sweetness Surpasses Cocaine Reward. Nothing about fat. His conclusion:
Our findings clearly demonstrate that intense sweetness can surpass cocaine reward, even in drug-sensitized and -addicted individuals. We speculate that the addictive potential of intense sweetness results from an inborn hypersensitivity to sweet tastants. In most mammals, including rats and humans, sweet receptors evolved in ancestral environments poor in sugars and are thus not adapted to high concentrations of sweet tastants. The supranormal stimulation of these receptors by sugar-rich diets, such as those now widely available in modern societies, would generate a supranormal reward signal in the brain, with the potential to override self-control mechanisms and thus to lead to addiction.
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