In Food Cravings, Sugar Trumps Fat

This NYT article, by Anahad O'Connor, considers the relative 'reward' properties of sugar and fat.

Researchers completed a study where they tracked brain activity of 100 high school students as they drank chocolate-flavored milkshakes that were identical in calories but either high in sugar and low in fat, or vice versa. While both kinds of shakes lit up pleasure centers in the brain, those that were high in sugar did so far more effectively, firing up a food-reward network that plays a role in compulsive eating.

While Dr Nicole Avena points out:

“The obesity epidemic and the problems with overeating don’t have too much to do with people overeating fruits and healthy foods. They have a lot to do with people overeating excess sugars and fats,” said Nicole Avena, a faculty member at the New York Obesity Research Center at Columbia University, who was not involved in the new study.

Dr. Avena said that people “can have all the willpower in the world. But if the brain reward system is being activated in a way that causes them to have a battle against their willpower, then it can be very difficult for them to control their intake.”

More in the NYT.

Milkshake anyone?