High fat food (junk food) is known to be an ultimate enemy of healthy people and those maintaining a fit figure. Though some have control over what they eat, others may find it difficult to escape the cravings. Many may think self-control is solely what to blame; however Science reveals that cravings for junk food can be linked to a person's genes.
Experts from the Imperial College London, after a study was conducted, learned that FTO and DRD2, two of a person's genetic variants are the sources of a person's uncontrollable appetite over non-nutritious foods. According to Dr.Ananya Mandal, MD, Dopamine is a neurotransmitter supply by the brain that brings out pleasure. This chemical breaks out whenever the brain detects favorable circumstances such as food. Researchers associate the increase desire to eat unhealthy food on these two substances as they change the dopamine level, making it higher than usual.
The study was tested on 45 Caucasian men. The participants were asked to abstain from eating overnight. Afterwards, photos of both high and low fat food where shown to them and they were asked to rate them depending on how tempting they are to them the most. A brain scanning technique, Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging or Fmri was used to detect the brain's reaction when pictures were shown. Results found that those participants who find high calorie food more appealing are those recognized possessing a variant near FTO gene-the gene that causes obesity.
The movement of the brain is different however when low calorie food pictures were displayed. Dr. Tony Gladstone, endocrinologist and who led the study said, "Interestingly, for the first time we also found that the activation in the part of the brain called the striatum was increased when those with the variant in the FTO looked at high-calorie foods, but this dependent on which variant the other gene DRD2 they possessed."
The study proves that people with FTO variant have greater chance of being obese since the dopamine influences them to crave more on junk food.
