WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Children who eat more ultraprocessed foods may have stronger brain responses when they see pictures of tasty foods, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open.
The research involved 46 children aged 7 to 10 who were part of the long-term BrainChild study, which examines the risk of diabetes and obesity. All the children had a healthy weight at the beginning of the study.
Researchers took MRI scans of the children's brains while they viewed pictures of appealing foods, including cookies and french fries. They also collected information about their diets, body mass index, body fat percentage and waist size.
After one year, the researchers measured the children's BMI, body fat percentage and waist circumference again.
The results showed that children who ate more ultraprocessed foods had stronger activity in the dorsal striatum, a brain region linked to reward and motivation, when looking at food images. Greater activity in this region was also associated with increases in BMI and body fat percentage over the following year.
The researchers also found that accounting for differences in brain responses to food images reduced the link between ultraprocessed food consumption and BMI by 31%. The link with body fat percentage decreased by 44%. This suggests that the brain's response to food cues may partly explain the relationship between ultraprocessed food consumption and weight gain.
However, the study cannot prove that ultraprocessed foods directly cause changes in brain activity or lead to weight gain because it only observed existing patterns.
To explore this connection further, researchers plan to conduct an intervention study in which children who regularly eat ultraprocessed foods are encouraged to switch to less processed foods. Researchers would then examine whether their brain responses to food images change and whether these changes are associated with lower weight gain over time.
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