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New Research: Junk Food Is As Addictive As Crack?
A new article published on the CNN Health website shows that unhealthy foods can be dangerously addictive.
According to the article:
“A new study in rats suggests that high-fat, high-calorie foods affect the brain in much the same way as cocaine and heroin. When rats consume these foods in great enough quantities, it leads to compulsive eating habits that resemble drug addiction,” the study found
Doing drugs such as cocaine and eating too much junk food both gradually overload the so-called pleasure centers in the brain, according to Paul J. Kenny, Ph.D., an associate professor of molecular therapeutics at the Scripps Research Institute, in Jupiter, Florida. Eventually the pleasure centers “crash,” and achieving the same pleasure–or even just feeling normal–requires increasing amounts of the drug or food, says Kenny, the lead author of the study.
“People know intuitively that there’s more to [overeating] than just willpower,” he says. “There’s a system in the brain that’s been turned on or over-activated, and that’s driving [overeating] at some subconscious level.”
This research just confirms what many of us have suspected for a long time.
Eating junk food is so harmful for you in so many ways physically, and this research shows that the damage is now psychological too.
So the next time you’re about to tuck into to that tasty morsel of junk food, make sure you think twice, you could be getting addicted.
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Yudi Kerbel, CPT
Life FX Hunt Valley
Thursday, April 8, 2010
New Studies Show That To Get Toned And Slim, Women Need To Lift Heavy And Hard
Everyone knows the conventional wisdom – to get lean and toned you need to lift light weights for high reps, right?
Not so, according to a recent article in the NY Times:
“For people who lift weights to tone up and slim down, experts say, a regimen that includes a combination of challenging weights and fewer repetitions can help significantly. In a 2002 study, for example, scientists looked at what happened when women performed various resistance exercises at different weights and repetitions (85 percent of their maximum ability for 8 reps, versus 45 percent for 15). Subjects lifting more weight fewer times burned more energy and had a greater metabolic boost after exercise.”"
In other words, lifting heavier weights revs up your metabolism and burns more calories than lifting lighter weights.
So if you’re currently avoiding the heavy weights out of fear that you might ‘bulk up’ and ‘get big’, you need to do exactly the opposite of what you’re doing now.
The Bottom Line:
If you want to tone up, train heavy and train hard. Light weights and high reps have their place in a training program, but most people turn to them way too often to really see the results that they want.
If you can’t seem to shift that weight and you’ve only been training with high reps, give those heavier weights and low reps a try.
And if you’re not sure about the best way to get started training with low reps, make sure to stop in to one of our fitness center locations and ask for your free consultation with a certified personal trainer. Our trainers are all experts in fat loss training and can help you tone up, slim down and get in killer shape super quick!
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Yudi Kerbel, CPT
Life FX Hunt Valley Certified Personal Trainer
