Why do we crave certain foods?
We know this to be true: The more junk food we eat, the more we crave. Because we get addicted to the combination of sugar, salt and fat. Also, junk food is typically highly processed. So it goes through our system like lightning – causing a blood sugar spike, followed by a crash – that makes us crave more junk to get our energy up again.
Well, we’re just finding out that cravings for healthy food work in a similar way. According to the Human Nutrition Research Center at Tufts University, when people followed a healthy eating plan, they actually started preferring healthier foods. Brain scans were done on study participants before the study – and again 6 months later. And the subjects on the healthy eating program showed reduced activity in the reward center of the brain when they were shown images of junk food… and they had increased brain reward activity when they saw healthy foods, like grilled chicken. The experts say, it’s a conditioned response and we can reverse our cravings by repeatedly exposing ourselves to better foods.