Refusal to eat that you like can cause withdrawal
Scientists have found that refusal from favorite food can cause experimental animals to “withdrawal”, similar to that which occurs in drug addicts during abstinence. This is a severe mental and physical condition in which a person becomes irritable, restless, his immunity weakens, and in case of severe “withdrawal”, even a lethal outcome is possible. It was this discovery that gave the researchers the opportunity to conclude that sometimes a person is unable to refuse harmful, but beloved food on his own and he needs medical intervention.
It has long been known that certain foods can make people unhealthy, but Pietro Kottnoe and his colleagues at Boston University were the first to prove that in addition to the positive emotions that junk food causes, the brain also has a feedback mechanism that causes a feeling of excruciating anxiety when refusing a favorite treat.
The experiment was carried out on rats. The animals were divided into two groups: one group received an unlimited amount of healthy food, and the second from time to time received chocolate instead of the usual food. Rats, which were given a sweet treat, quickly violated their diet, ate 20% more than the “healthy” group, and after a while they began to show nervous tension – fear of light, open spaces. But as soon as chocolate food became available to them, a good mood returned to them.
According to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.