Study Points to Maternal Diet’s Purported Role in Creating “Junk Food Junkies”
A recent animal study has concluded that exposing rats to a perinatal “junk-food” (JF) diet “results in early desensitization of the opioid system which may explain the increased preference for junk food in these offspring.” Jessica Gugusheff, et al., “A maternal ‘junk-food’ diet reduces sensitivity to the opioid antagonist naloxone in offspring postweaning,” The FASEB Journal, March 2013. Relying on previous research, University of Adelaide scientists apparently surmised that the offspring of dams fed a cafeteria diet would exhibit an increased preference for “palatable” foods thanks to “changes in the µ-opioid receptor expression within the mesolimbic reward pathway.”
After the offspring of JF dams were weaned, the study analyzed RNA isolated from the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and ventral tegmental area (VTA) of their brains, in addition to examining how they responded to injections of the opioid antagonist naloxone, which suppresses fat and sugar intake by blocking opioid signaling. According to the results, “exposure to a maternal cafeteria diet during pregnancy and lactation is associated with altered expression of the µ-opioid receptor expression in both the VTA and NAc at weaning in a region- and sex-specific manner, demonstrating for the first time that the effects of perinatal JF exposure on the opioid system are already present immediately following the exposure.” The study author’s also noted that when compared with a control group, naloxone treatment “was less effective at reducing the intake of the cafeteria diet in offspring exposed to the same diet during the perinatal period, consistent with a reduced sensitivity to opioids in these offspring.”
“This work has provided novel insights into a potential mechanism through which maternal JF consumption increases the preference for junk food in offspring,” concludes the study. “A better understanding of this mechanism is crucial if we are to develop possible strategies for intervention and becomes increasingly important in view of the rapidly rising rates of both childhood and adult obesity.”
“This study shows that addiction to junk food is true addiction,” added The FASEB Journal’s editor-in-chief, Gerald Weissmann, in a February 28, 2013, press release. “Junk food engages the same body chemistry as opium, morphine or heroin. Sad to say, junk food during pregnancy turns the kids into junk food junkies.”
