Western diets rich in fat and sugar promote excess calorie intake and weight gain; however, the underlying mechanisms are unclear. To close this gap, researchers from Germany, Switzerland and the United States performed a randomized, controlled study with normal-weight participants exposed to a high-fat/high-sugar snack or a low-fat/low-sugar snack for 8 weeks in addition to their regular diet.
All organisms must procure energy to survive. Consequently, many strategies have evolved to optimize the detection, acquisition, use, and storage of energy sources.
For example, environmental signals become associated with nutritional outcomes and are then subsequently employed by organisms as sensory feedforward cues that anticipate future consumption and restoration of energy balance.
A previously neutral sign of your favorite pastry shop, for instance, becomes associated with donut consumption — the sign (or cue) is imbued with the power to shape future complex behaviors to acquire another donut, even in the absence of hunger.
The fundamental link between the sensory feedback and the energetic properties of food has important implications for understanding the processes by which the modern food environment promotes obesity.
First, there is extensive evidence that sensory association learning, and the consequent power of a cue to control behavior (i.e., food cue reactivity), varies considerably across individuals and is associated with risk for weight gain.
Second, many modern processed foods are high in energy density and frequently contain both fat and sugar, which interact to potentiate reinforcement beyond the energetic value.
Modern processed foods are therefore potent reinforcers and, as with drugs of abuse, animal models have shown that their frequent consumption rewires brain circuits, even in offspring born to mothers consuming a high-fat diet during lactation.
“Our tendency to eat high-fat and high-sugar foods, the so-called Western diet, could be…
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