How much junk food do you eat? You may want to cut back if you want to be more productive. A new study reveals that being overweight makes people tired and sedentary rather than the other way around.
In order to examine the effect of diet on activity, the scientists looked at rats. They found that rats fed a diet that was low in fat but high in simple sugars were not only more obese than rats that had a better diet, but were also less willing to work for a reward.
"The obese rats really showed impaired motivation," said Aaron Blaisdell, one of the researchers, in an interview with the LA Times. "It is as if the rat is thinking 'This is too much work.'"
The researchers gave the rats a task in which they were required to push a lever to receive a food or water reward. While the rats on the junk food diet had an impaired performance, the rats on the lean diet acted more often and more quickly, according to Medical Xpress.
"The biggest break a lean rat took was about 5 minutes during a 30-minute session," said Blaisdell in an interview with the LA Times. "In obese rats, the breaks were much longer-about 10 minutes for the longest breaks."
The findings reveal the importance of eating a healthy diet. Not only that, but it shows that junk food not only brings on obesity, but can also cause lethargy. This provides another incentive to eat whole grains, fruit and plenty of vegetables instead of munching on cookies and sweets.
The findings were published in the journal Physiology and Behavior.
