This study suggests that changes in brain chemistry are far tougher to undo than they are to avoid. Therfore, it is even more urgent that we educate kids early on the importance of proper eating and movement.

“These findings confirm what we and many others have suspected that overconsumption of highly pleasurable food triggers addiction-like neuroadaptive responses in brain reward circuitries, driving the development of compulsive eating,” said lead researcher Dr Paul Kenny, from The Scripps Research Institutein Florida. “Common mechanisms may therefore underlie obesity and drug addiction,” he added. “These data are, as far as we know, the strongest support for the idea that overeating of palatable food can become habitual in the same manner and through the same mechanisms as consumption of drugs of abuse”. Nature Neuroscience 10.1038/nn.2519 “Dopamine D2 receptors in addiction-like reward dysfunction and compulsive eating in obese rats”

Authors: P.M. Johnson, P.J. Kenny