Media release
From:
Hippocampal-dependent appetitive control is impaired by experimental exposure to a Western-style diet
Royal Society Open Science
In animals, a junk food diet rapidly impairs hippocampal function, a brain area that supports memory and also helps regulate appetite. When we see cake, chocolate or crisps, for example, we remember how nice they are to eat. When we are full the hippocampus normally supresses these memories, reducing our desire to eat. We found that lean healthy young people exposed to one week of a junk food diet developed impaired hippocampal function and relatively greater desire to eat junk food when full. Junk food may then act to undermine self-control by increasing desire.