Craving Fatty Foods

A recent study at the University of California, Irvine may shed light on how deeply humans are attached to fatty foods.

In the study, reports The New York Times, rats that were given diets high in fat had an immediate reaction in their gut: They began producing chemicals similar to those produced by marijuana use, creating for the rats a further craving for additional fatty foods. When the rats were injected with a drug that blocked absorption of the marijuana-related chemicals, however, the animals lost their interest in fatty foods.

The experiment — which also found that rats didn’t have such a chemically triggered craving for sugar or protein — suggests that people, too, have a strong biological attraction to fatty foods. A similar chemical reaction in humans may affect how easily we can moderate our desire for, and consumption of, fatty foods.

We don’t know whether humans have exactly the same reaction to fat, but the experiment does encourage thinking about how people may be susceptible to eating certain kinds of food and why they might feel deprived by giving it up. The experiment also makes one wonder about the degree to which people might have different biologically based cravings for fatty foods. It’s very easy to judge other people on the basis of willpower, telling yourself that you can restrain your eating, so why can’t they? It’s equally easy to beat yourself up for finding it hard to change eating habits. Perhaps further research along the lines of this experiment will encourage a little less judgment of people’s character based on their weight and their eating habits.