Harmful food has a very negative effect on our emotional well-being.

As researchers at the University of California found out, rats fed food with a high concentration of simple sugars (sifted flour) not only had more weight, but less wanted to perform tasks, even for the award, writes The Los Angeles Times. Thus, malnutrition reduced the motivation of animals. Scientists used 32 female rats. 50% of them gave us useful food with complex carbohydrates. The rest ate harmful foods rich in simple carbohydrates. In general, both rations did not differ in the amount of fat, protein and carbohydrates. But for two months the group, which ate simple sugars, began to gain weight.

After 3 months the difference was already obvious. And six months later, scientists decided to test how the diet affected the motivation of animals. All animals were taught to press the lever to get sweet water. Once the animals have learned this information, the experts have complicated the task for them. At first it was required to press just once, and then - three, six and so on. In another experiment, the number of clicks increased fivefold (1, 5, 10, and so on). Both groups of animals were eventually tired. Sometimes they took breaks between push-ups, and sometimes even left. However, obese rodents did long breaks and twice rejected the task. The longest break in slender rodents lasted about 5 minutes during a 30-minute exercise to extract water. And for obese - 10 minutes. Similar results were also in the experiment with ordinary water and animals, thirsty.

Interestingly, both groups had about the same level of energy. That is, obese animals are not tired more than slender. Just diet changed the chemical composition of their brain, thereby reducing motivation. It was found that simple sugars disrupt the dopamine system, forcing to abandon complex tasks faster than usual. Apparently, something similar happens in the human brain.

nedug. en.