Da Kyung Lee
Mr. Youell
Science 9S
8/28/2014
Junk food makes rats
lose appetite for balanced diet
Through many interesting articles, I found a very
interesting article from Science Daily that made me curious with the title. The
title is Junk food makes rats lose appetite for balanced diet.
(Figure 1; the picture of Margaret Morris)
Margaret Morris is a professor who is a head of Pharmacology
from the school of Medical Sciences. She experimented young male rats
to connect each of two different sound cues with a particular flavor of sugar
water between cherry and grape. Then healthy rats lifted on a healthy food and
stopped reacting to cues to a flavor that they have recently overindulged. This
mechanism is happened common in animals and protects against overeating and
promotes a healthy balanced diet. After 2 weeks the rats still on a diet that
included daily access to cafeteria foods, pies, dumplings, cookies and cake
with 150% more calories. The rats gained 10% of weights and their behavior
changed dramatically. They became indifferent in their food choices and no
longer avoided the sound advertising the much familiar taste. This shows that they
had lost their natural preference. Like this change of the rats even took for some time to return to a healthy diet. As the result, the researchers think a
junk food is a food that changes in the reward circuit parts of the rats’ brain
as in the Orbitofrontal Cortex which is an area of the brain responsible for making decision. In addition, they also say this result might have implications
for people’s ability to limit their intake of certain kinds of foods because
the brain’s reward circuitry is similar in all mammals.
(Figure 2; the picture of the rat)
But it could be a problem if the same thing happens in
human. In general, people like to eat junk food because it’s fast to get and
easy to eat anywhere and delicious. Some of people are also eager to have it.
But, this doesn’t make us only fat. Eating junk food excessively can change
behavior, weaken self-control and lead to overeating and obesity. The World
Health Organization evaluates the population which is over 10% of the world’s
adult population is obese and at least 2.8 million people die in each year
because of being overweight or obesity. Overweight and obesity are in danger
for a number of chronic diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases
and cancer.
In my opinion, we are better to not eat junk food
excessively because it could make a problem in our health that we losing
appetite with healthy food. Moreover, we could die with gaining too much
weight. However, if you don’t eat the junk food all the times and keep having
regular diets, you will surely be fine.
Source (Science Daily); http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140827151744.htm
Additional Source(US Daily News); http://www.dailynewsen.com/science/junk-food-makes-rats-lose-appetite-for-balanced-diet-h2577920.html
As i was reading your blog i was sure that you knew very well what you were writing about and that you understood your topic. The topic is for sure very important especially today, because junk food became very famous and it is really bad for our health.
ReplyDeleteYour article-blog is really interesting, first of all the way you started your blog was fabulous: "Through many interesting articles, I found a very interesting article from Science Daily that made me curious with the title. The title is Junk food makes rats lose appetite for balanced diet. " This great beginning successfully caught my attention and made me want to read your article. I am proud that you totally understood the article you read, because this is showed from the way you explained the whole problem. Stating your opinion was a great idea as well! Also, giving us the links of the articles you read and choosing these pictures made your blog look even more beautiful! Great job- Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteEven though it was one of the more strange topics I liked it and thought you knew your topic very well which was shown in your use of scientific terminology and how you explained your topic.Overall very well done.
ReplyDeleteDarija, Brodie and Themis have all made very good points, though I would argue that this is a 'strange' topic. If there is truth in the study, then I think it is a story that most of us should really pay attention to as it could help us understand our dietary choices. Your article is well written, and your discussion of the wider implications of the effects of junk food is excellent. Professor Morris is from which school of medical sciences?
ReplyDeleteShe is from a school called UNSW in Australia!
ReplyDelete