How Many Days Of Junk Food Alter Your Brain? (According To Studies)

Junk food directly and obviously affects your body’s health . This is something we all know. But beyond the obvious, have you ever wondered how these changes can be seen in your brain ? A new study on the subject will leave you shocked and very reluctant to open that bag of chips.

The scientific journal Nature Metabolism, together with the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), the Helmholtz Research Institute in Munich, and the University Hospital of Tübingen, published an article demonstrating, through various investigations, that junk food addiction originates in the brain and can develop very quickly.

How long does it take to develop an addiction to junk food?

Junk food addiction can develop in the brain in as little as five days, the aforementioned study stated. Specifically, this is due to the altered insulin sensitivity caused by these types of foods , which is so intense that brain patterns are altered in just five days of eating junk foods such as snacks, sweets, soft drinks, and other ultra-processed products.

That is, in just five days of eating junk food, the brain of a healthy person can experience such a marked transformation in its brain patterns that they could be compared to those of a person with health disorders such as metabolic syndrome, in which the recognition of insulin levels that are too high for the body is affected, causing that person to consume much more sugar than they should, without their body being able to process it. And in this type of condition, muscle, fat, and liver cells do not respond well to insulin and cannot easily absorb glucose from the blood. As a result, the pancreas produces more insulin to help glucose enter the cells, and all of this causes important and serious consequences.

Knowing this, the fact that it only takes five days of junk food for the brain to develop patterns similar to those of a person with metabolic syndrome reminds us of the importance of maintaining a healthy diet daily. After all, the brain‘s reward systems, which are altered by these types of foods, are fundamental in creating habits, cravings, and interests in food choices.

The key study

This information was obtained from a study involving 29 volunteers, all men and of normal weight, who were divided into two groups. The first group was instructed to continue with their normal diet, while the second added 1,500 kcal in the form of ultra-processed, high-calorie foods for five days.

After those five days of increased calories and ultra-processed foods, researchers analyzed both groups using an MRI of the brain. In this study, the second group showed a significant increase in liver fat content and also an alteration in the area of ​​the brain that controls insulin sensitivity, which was very striking to the researchers.

As a follow-up, both groups were asked to return to their normal diet, but after seven days they underwent another similar test, which showed that members of the second group continued to show significantly lower insulin sensitivity in their brains, an effect that, according to the study authors, had previously only been observed in morbidly obese people.

“Our results show for the first time that even short-term consumption of highly processed and unhealthy foods causes severe changes in the brains of healthy individuals, and that this can be considered the starting point for obesity and type 2 diabetes. We hypothesize that the brain‘s insulin response adapts to short-term dietary changes before any weight gain occurs, promoting the development of obesity and other subsequent diseases,” concluded Stephanie Kullmann, lead author of the study.