Why do we crave ‘comfort food’ when chronically stressed? studies show

Stress was found to turn off the brain’s natural response to satiety, which is to stop eating, and thus, encourage continued continued eating, in a new study that may explain what happens when we overeat in the long run. Why do we crave high-calorie ‘comfort foods’ when we’re under stress? The study found that this occurred in the brain’s lateral habenula, which when activated normally dampens reward signals and, thus, prevents a person from eating when they are satiated or full.

Herbert Herzog, senior author of the study and visiting scientist at Sydney’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research, said: “Our findings suggest that stress can override a natural brain response that reduces the pleasure derived from eating – which Meaning the brain is constantly being rewarded for eating.” , Australia.

The researchers also said that their study showed how chronic stress can promote weight gain and obesity and thus, highlights the need for a healthy diet during stressful times. Their work is published in the journal Neuron.

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While some people are seen to eat less during times of stress, others tend to eat more than usual and choose options high in calories, sugar and fat. Wanting to understand people’s different eating behaviors in response to stress, the researchers studied mouse models for the response of different brain regions to chronic stress under different diets.

“We found that the lateral habenula was activated in rats on a short-term, high-fat diet to keep the animals from overeating. However, when the rats were stressed over a long period of time, this part of the brain remained silent — blocking reward signals.” Staying allows “activating and encouraging pleasure to no longer respond to satiety regulatory cues,” explained first author Kenny Chee Kin Ip of the Garvan Institute.

“We found that mice stressed on a high-fat diet gained twice as much weight as mice on the same diet that were not stressed,” Ip said. The molecule at the center of the weight gain was NPY, which is produced naturally by the brain in response to stress, researchers found when they blocked NPY from activating brain cells in the lateral habenula of stressed rats on a high-fat diet. Gave.

Thus, the rats were found to consume less comfort food, resulting in weight loss. The researchers found, again in rats, that those stressed a high-fat diet consumed three times more sucralose (artificially sweetened water) than those stressed a high-fat diet alone, suggesting that stress reduced their appetite for sweet, palatable foods. Removed the craving for food. Eat

“Importantly, we did not see this preference for freshwater in stressed rats that were on a regular diet,” Herzog said. “In stressful situations, it is easy to use up a lot of energy and the feeling of reward can calm you down – this is when providing an energy boost through food is useful.

“But when experienced over a long period of time, stress appears to change the equation, driving overeating that is bad for the body in the long run.” This research emphasizes how stress can compromise healthy energy metabolism.

“It’s a reminder to avoid a stressful lifestyle, and importantly, if you’re dealing with chronic stress, try to eat a healthy diet and lay off the junk food,” Herzog said.