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microrobert
09-04-2014, 09:29 AM
Can you train your brain to like broccoli?

Craving kale? Drooling over daikon sprouts? Hankering for hemp? Sounds crazy, but what if we could train our brains to prefer healthy foods over junk food?

A new study by scientists at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University and at Massachusetts General Hospital shows that eating a low calorie, high fiber diet combined with behavior change education, can, over time, actually increase your desire for healthy foods and lessen the hold fatty, sugary foods have on your brain.

Simple carbohydrates and processed sugary foods like French fries, donuts, and chocolate cake trigger "feel good" neurotransmitters: serotonin and dopamine. "Eating a candy bar lights up the same areas of the brain as cocaine and heroine, making food addiction a real struggle for some," Kristen Kirkpatrick, Manager of Wellness Nutrition Services at the Cleveland Nutrition Center, told CBS News.

"It's much easier to push away a plate of broccoli than it is to decline a plate of French fries," she says.

The new study, published in the journal Nutrition & Diabetes, is the first of its kind to suggest that it is possible to reverse the addictive power of these unhealthy foods while also increasing our preference for healthy foods.
Wanting high calorie junk foods is a learned behavior, claims senior and co-corresponding author Susan B. Roberts, Ph.D.

"This conditioning happens over time in response to eating - repeatedly! - what is out there in the toxic food environment," Roberts, the director of the Energy Metabolism Laboratory at the USDA HNRCA, as well as a professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University and adjunct professor of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine, said in a news release.

Scientists have suspected that once unhealthy food (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/high-fat-diet-may-affect-sense-of-smell/) addiction circuits are established, they can last a lifetime.

To find out whether the brain can be re-trained to support healthy food choices, Roberts and colleagues studied the reward system in thirteen overweight and obese men and women, eight of whom were participants in a new weight-loss program designed by Tufts University researchers, and five who were in a control group and were not enrolled in the program.

Participants in the weight-loss program swapped things like calorie dense French fries and sugar-laden cereal for more nutritious counterparts: sweet potatoes and high fiber cereal. Additionally, they took an educational program developed by Roberts from scientific principles of building up associative conditioning between food tastes and brain addiction centers. The training taught them to devalue cravings for high calorie foods (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/junk-food-makes-you-lazy-not-just-fat-study-suggests/) and enhance their preference for more satisfying foods with higher protein and fiber.

The results were impressive. After a six-month period, MRI brain scans revealed changes in the areas of the brain reward center associated with learning and addiction. The researchers say this area showed increased sensitivity to healthy, lower-calorie foods, indicating an increased reward and enjoyment of healthier food cues. The area also showed decreased sensitivity to the unhealthy higher-calorie foods.

So, what does this mean for the rest of us? If, for a six month period, we stop eating certain types of addictive foods that are high in processed sugar and simple carbohydrates, perhaps we could actually enjoy that kale smoothie we keep trying to gag down for breakfast.

The study was small and long-term effects of the diet are unknown. Roberts says, "There is much more research to be done here, involving many more participants, long-term follow-up and investigating more areas of the brain."

"We have not yet found the holy grail of weight loss," adds Kirkpatrick. She suggests many factors are involved in obesity including community, family support, and exercise; diet and education alone won't solve the problem.
"Beyond education and food preferences, we need to look at the support system around a person," she says.

Can you train your brain to like broccoli? - CBS News (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/can-you-train-your-brain-to-like-broccoli/)

Kale
09-04-2014, 04:09 PM
You rang?

Anyways of course it can. I don't like when people call all high calorie food "junk food"...calories are necessary for survival, things with a lot of calories are good (meat, nuts, grains, tubers).

Dictator
09-30-2014, 12:52 PM
You rang?

Anyways of course it can. I don't like when people call all high calorie food "junk food"...calories are necessary for survival, things with a lot of calories are good (meat, nuts, grains, tubers).

Junk food is a high calorie food that offers little to no nutritional value and makes you fat.

Virtuous
09-30-2014, 12:56 PM
Good luck at doing that with liver.

Linebacker
09-30-2014, 01:00 PM
I like Broccoli already so I don't need to.

Hubal
09-30-2014, 06:03 PM
Broccoli is overrated

Roy
09-30-2014, 06:09 PM
Junk food is a high calorie food that offers little to no nutritional value and makes you fat.

This. No one sane would call this kind of food ''junk'' despite it being calorious.

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/7076/morele1.jpg

Balmung
09-30-2014, 06:11 PM
Good luck at doing that with liver.

What I do with everything I don't like the taste of; Hotsauce or Ranch dressing. You'd be surprised at what ranch works great with.

cally
09-30-2014, 07:01 PM
Broccoli is delicious.

oh-nahhh
05-22-2015, 10:33 PM
http://i.imgur.com/gPpIpl.jpg

♥ Lily ♥
05-22-2015, 10:47 PM
I'm so used to eating healthy foods like spinach, broccoli, garlic, brown rice, tofu, steamed salmon and tuna, natural yoghurt, bio yoghurt, organic porridge oats, freshly squeezed carrot, berry and other fresh juices (never from concentrate), seeds, organic nuts, mineral water.... I never eat processed foods, never eat things with artificial crap in it, foods from aluminium tins (aluminium is linked to alzheimers), fizzy drinks, coffee, alcohol, etc... my diet is strict and it's been the same for years. I think I deserve an award for all the healthy foods I eat. For me it's a disciplined lifestyle choice because I care about staying slim and eating healthy foods. I must eat broccoli and spinach at least three times a week. I think all junk foods should be banned.

As for broccoli, I like it, especially the stems and cooked with garlic... it's rich in vitamin E. Healthy foods don't have to be boring. I never ever add salt or sugar to food nor have any kept in my home, (my mother taught me as a child that it's unnecessary to add either to foods, even though my blood pressure is lower than normal,) I avoid bad foods like bread and pasta and most cereals... I'm very fussy about the way foods are cooked, and I only allow myself a treat on occasions, such as once a month. I eat for nutrition not for taste and analyse everything I buy for its ingredients and nutritional value.

I shudder when I see people drinking a can of coke, or eating burgers and fries, or munching on biscuits, crisps and cakes, as it's self-destructive. I remember at my secondary school we were shown picture captions explaining that people wouldn't put junk products into the engine of their car, but yet people consume harmful foods....which shows that some people care more for looking after their cars (which can be replaced) than they care about looking after their own health and bodies.

I just don't understand why it's not illegal to sell such harmful things to people which will give them diabetes, obesity, brittle bones, dull skin and hair, having fillings put in their teeth and cavities from sugary drinks and coffee, poor brains, cancers, blood clots and heart disease... and no vitamins, antioxidants, minerals and nutritional value... and it's even worse seeing people giving such poisons to their growing children.

I have a rule of sitting up straight and maintaining good posture whilst eating to help with digestion, and I never drink water with meals (sometimes I'll sip water only if I have no juice to have with a meal.) I eat slowly and stop as soon as I'm full and throw the rest away. I take time to chew and I drink only sips of acidic fruit juice with meals to help the digestion and to avoid bloating (our digestive juices are acidic so drinking something slightly acidic helps to get the digestive juices working just before eating). People often eat too much as a result of eating too fast and they think they need to eat everything on their plate, even if they're already full.

I think a good way to put people off eating or drinking junk foods and junk drinks is to show them the amount of fat, sugars, oils and other junk in it. Then the next time they eat a cake, they'll be thinking of all the margarine in it... eugh... and train them to think of a bag of sugar next time they see a bottle of coke.

Diet 'sugar-free' coke is also harmful, and like many foods and drinks which claim to be 'sugar-free', it contains the dangerous artificial sweetener called aspartame in it which has a laxative effect which causes stomach problems and water and vitamin loss, and the artificial sweetener aspartame has been linked by researchers with cancer. (Beware of aspartame in sugar-free chewing gums, sugar-free jams, etc... always check the ingredients are natural sweeteners used in sugar-free products.)

If people are aware of all the hidden junk in foods, they'll be rightfully scared to eat it.

Kentucky Fried Cruelty (KFC - the place where they torture chickens to a slow and painful death instead of killing them humanely) is basically unfresh chicken which is saturated in a load of oil and salt. The KFC company (like Starbucks, Burger King, Pepsi, etc) doesn't care for selling people junk and they even advertise it to children; the company only cares about big profits for themselves whilst killing-off the population with premature deaths and cashing-in on it. And the Pepsi commercials even pay celebs a big cheque to appear in adverts and pretend they drink it themselves and they try to make it look cool to drink it as a way to sell their coke junk.

Also coke drinks contains caffeine which increases the blood pressure, makes people shake, zaps the calcium and B-vitamins from your teeth, bones, nails and hair, and caffeine is a diuretic which zaps the water from your body and skin. Pepsi/coke has no nutritional value at all, and it's even worse if the acidic fizzy is stored for months in aluminium metal cans, since aluminium is a metal that is linked to Alzheimers, (it's also best to avoid using aluminium cookware when cooking foods according to experts.)
See this video 'Your Cookware Could Be Making You Sick' for more info on that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6VsIPPLa8I

Organic fruits and vegetables and water = power foods for detoxing your system, and for healthy skin, hair, brain and body.

SupaThug
05-22-2015, 10:54 PM
I have always loved broccoli!

XvThomas_LysergicV
05-22-2015, 11:28 PM
I don't have to train myself to like broccoli. I already like it. Broccoli and melted cheese is good. I can eat pretty much any kind of vegetable,except for tomatoes. I've always hated tomatoes.

Prisoner Of Ice
05-22-2015, 11:37 PM
I like brocoli, but usually people who dislike things do so because they taste them better than most. That is why no brussel sprouts for me, or soy, or about a hundred other horrid things. HG genes let you know they are poison.

AwdiKei
05-22-2015, 11:53 PM
No, I already like it. Why do you ask?

Taiguaitiaoghyrmmumin
05-22-2015, 11:56 PM
not surprising. Ive trainned myself not to like soda. Didnt drink soda for many years and now it taste bad.