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I came across an article today that was about a study done on cravings and food pictures.
Now, this all seems like complete common sense to me, but researchers discovered by looking at brain scans that simply showing test subjects pictures of yummy foods (think: gooey chocolate cakes) engaged the same parts of the brain associated with appetite and pleasure. Just looking at a photo was enough to ignite cravings and spark appetite!
That part seemed obvious to me - that looking at yummy pictures can make you feel like you a) are suddenly hungry and b) are suddenly hungry for what you're looking at! In my time here at Diet.com, I've looked at a LOT of pictures of food, so I can definitely attest to this phenomenon.
The more interesting part of the study was that these bodily reactions are similar to those found in cocaine addicts, when they were presented with pictures of needles or their drug of choice. The cocaine addicts' brain regions lit up in the same manner as the people looking at pictures of super yummy foods!
That's a bit scary, isn't it?! More evidence that sugar and fat can become addictive, just like drugs.
Read the full article here!
What do you think about this study? Do you find that looking at pictures of food can trigger cravings?