In the US – and here in Blighty – it’s not exactly hard to get your hands on junk food. Wellness experts assert that this is the reason why obesity in the US has skyrocketed over recent years, but does easy accessibility of cheap junk food automatically mean that your wellbeing is at risk to weight gain? According to a new study, presented at the annual conference of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behaviour (SSIB), Zurich, many people still lie in the healthy weight range in spite of the fact this food is accessible to everyone.
The researchers at the University of Queensland (UQ) set out to determine why some of us are more susceptible than others to the allure of junk food, and its subsequent weight gain. UQ School of Psychology lecturer Dr Natalie Loxton and UQ student Samantha Byrne noted that while we’re all subject to the same TV advertisements, this has no effect in some of us while others’ mouths start watering just at the sight of a big yellow M. Loxton and Byrne discovered that reward sensitivity plays the most important role, as junk food adverts trigger a response in reward-sensitive individuals.
The researchers showed 75 men and women a 30-minute film, in which there were also adverts for junk food, healthy food, or no food. After this, the participants rated the pleasantness of food images and their desire to eat. In a press release, Loxton commented, ‘We tested whether reward-sensitive individuals would experience greater pleasure and urge to eat after watching TV commercials featuring junk food, compared with those featuring healthy food or no food. As hypothesized, reward sensitivity was associated with an increase in urge to eat in the junk food condition. There was no association in the healthy food condition and a reduced desire to eat in the no food condition.’
The study results also revealed that while the liking towards junk food was associated with reward sensitivity, this was only the case in women. However, the researchers didn’t find an association between reward sensitivity and liking towards healthy food or non-food images. Loxton concluded by saying that the results indicate the role of high reward sensitivity in individuals responsible for wanting food in response to appetitive food cues.
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