Binging on junk food like burgers, hotdogs and chips can be addictive, and it might be as bad as drug addiction.

The famous tag line of a fast food brand goes, “No one can eat just one.” Researchers at Rockefeller University fear that this might just be true. They have discovered that food which has high fat and sugar content can cause the brain to release many pleasure chemicals, that are stimulated during drug use, there by leading to addiction. Therefore, regular consumption of most junk food items lead to an imbalance of chemicals, increasing the craving for such food.

Scientific Discoveries  

The same was confirmed by a study conducted by the Scripps Researcher Institute. The researchers tested these on lab rats and found out that while rats that was fed a healthy diet or fed a minimum quantity of junk food were healthier than the ones that were fed on junk food. These junk food rats, showed an increasing tendency to binge and thereby grew obese.

Researchers also found out that when they electronically stimulated the part of the lab rat's brain that feels pleasure, they discovered that the rats fed on junk food needed more stimulation to register the same level of pleasure as the animals on healthier diets.

The studies published online in Nature Neuroscience, mentions that the human brain might react to junk food the same way as it does to drugs like cocaine and heroin. A neuroscientist who led the research, Dr Paul Kenny, confirmed the addictive nature of junk food. “Obesity is a form of compulsive eating,” he said, “Therefore drug addiction, may be very useful for the treatment of obesity. The study explains what happens in the brain of these animals when they have easy access to high-calorie and high-fat food.”

Addiction of a Serious Kind

When the junk eating rats, were put on a healthier diet they refused to eat. Their preference had changed so much, that they'd rather starve than eat the healthy options served. This has proved that like addiction to drugs, junk food binging is hard to let go. They also tend to overeat and consume large quantities of high calorie food.

In his book The Food-Mood Solution, Jack Challem rightly says, "In some ways, you may have to view junk foods the way alcoholics anonymous views alcohol: one bite is too many, and a thousand is not enough."

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