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Is fat addictive?
Or are carbs worse?
By Culinate staff
May 5, 2010
A few weeks ago, scientists announced that fat might not only be tasty, but addictive. The study, conducted on rats, concluded that “overconsumption of palatable food triggers addiction-like neuroadaptive responses in brain reward circuits and drives the development of compulsive eating.” Oddly, though, the scientist spokesperson for the study, Gene-Jack Wang, indicted not bacon double cheeseburgers but refined carbs:
“We purify our food,” he says. “Our ancestors ate whole grains, but we’re eating white bread. American Indians ate corn; we eat corn syrup.”
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1. by Ed Bruske on May 5, 2010 at 2:37 PM PDT
Ancestors? Grains have only been around for about 10,000 years, barely a minute on the human evolutionary clock. Humans evolved eating a diet much wilder than that--and certainly without all the starches, including grains. We are much more adapted to eating meat and fat than any kind of grain, refined or not. But yes: all of the recent science is confirming what your grandmother (or great-mother) would have told you: stay away from the sugar and starch. Have another slice of pot roast.
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