垃圾食品会使人上瘾

 A diet of burgers, chips, sausages and cake will programme your brain into craving¹ even more foods that are high in sugar, salt and fat, according to new research.

Over the years these junk foods can become a substitute for happiness and will lead bingers to become addicted².

Dr Paul Kenny, a neuroscientist, carried out the research which shows how dangerous high fat and high sugar foods can be to our health .

“You lose control. It’s the hallmark of addiction³,” he said.

The researchers believe it is one of the first studies to suggest brains may react in the same way to junk food as they do to drugs.

“This is the most complete evidence to date that suggests obesity⁴ and drug addiction have common neuro-biological foundations,” said Paul Johnson, Dr Kenny’s work colleague.

Dr Kenny, who began his research at Guy’s Hospital, London, but now works at Florida’s Scripps Research Institute, divided rats into three groups for his research, due to be published in teh US soon.

One got normal amounts of healthy food to eat. Another lot was given restricted amounts of junk food and the third group was given unlimited⁵ amounts of junk, including cheesecake, fatty meat products, and cheap sponge cakes and chocolate snacks.

There were no adverse⁶ effects on the first two groups, but the rats who ate as much junk food as they wanted quickly became very fat and started bingeing.

When researchers electronically stimulated⁷ the part of the brain that feels pleasure, they found that the rats on unlimited junk food needed more and more stimulation⁸ to register the same level of pleasure as the animals on healthier diets.

新研究发现，食用肉加饼，香肠及蛋糕会使你的大脑渴望食用更多富含糖、盐及脂肪的食物。

几年来，垃圾食品成为快乐的代名词，食用大量这类食物使人上瘾。

神经学家保罗·肯尼进行的这项研究表明高脂肪及高糖食物对我们的健康是多么的危险。

他说：“你无法控制自己，这是上瘾的特点。”

研究者认为，这项研究将首次表明大脑对垃圾食品和毒品的反应一模一样。

肯尼博士的同僚保罗·约翰逊说：“这项研究将为证明肥胖及毒瘾具有相同的神经生物学基础提供充分的证据。”

肯尼博士开始在伦敦的盖伊医院进行研究，现在在佛罗里达斯里克普斯研究所工作。研究中他将老鼠分成三组，研究结果很快将在美国发表。

一组老鼠使用正常数量的健康食品，另外一组使用一定数量的垃圾食品，第三组使用无限数量的包括酪饼，肥肉食品，松糕及巧克力的垃圾食品。

前两组没有任何的反作用，而第三组使用大量垃圾食品的老鼠变得非常肥胖，并开始上瘾。

研究人员利用电子仪器刺激大脑感应快乐的部位，他们发现，食用不限量垃圾食品的老鼠要达到食用健康食品老鼠相同的快乐值，需要越来越多的刺激。

1 craving   

n.渴望,热望

参考例句：

• a craving for chocolate 非常想吃巧克力
• She skipped normal meals to satisfy her craving for chocolate and crisps. 她不吃正餐，以便满足自己吃巧克力和炸薯片的渴望。

2 addicted   

adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的

参考例句：

• He was addicted to heroin at the age of 17.他17岁的时候对海洛因上了瘾。
• She's become addicted to love stories.她迷上了爱情小说。

3 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

4 obesity   

n.肥胖，肥大

参考例句：

• One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
• Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。

5 unlimited   

adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的

参考例句：

• They flew over the unlimited reaches of the Arctic.他们飞过了茫茫无边的北极上空。
• There is no safety in unlimited technological hubris.在技术方面自以为是会很危险。

6 adverse   

adj.不利的；有害的；敌对的，不友好的

参考例句：

• He is adverse to going abroad.他反对出国。
• The improper use of medicine could lead to severe adverse reactions.用药不当会产生严重的不良反应。

7 stimulated   

a.刺激的

参考例句：

• The exhibition has stimulated interest in her work. 展览增进了人们对她作品的兴趣。
• The award has stimulated her into working still harder. 奖金促使她更加努力地工作。

8 stimulation   

n.刺激，激励，鼓舞

参考例句：

• The playgroup provides plenty of stimulation for the children.幼儿游戏组给孩子很多启发。
• You don't get any intellectual stimulation in this job.你不能从这份工作中获得任何智力启发。