Study links overeating to restricting sugary food

Depriving yourself of sugary food can backfire, according to new research recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It can activate the brain’s stress system, causing anxiety and withdrawal-like symptoms, and leading to overeating the forbidden foods.

The research team at the Boston University School of Medicine and the Scripps Research Institute in California wanted to explore the role of negative reinforcement ” the idea that the stress of not having certain foods might drive dieters to overeat those foods once they become available.

The researchers found that rats given intermittent access to sugary food ate less of their normal food when the sweet food wasn’t available, and they overate the sweet food when it was available again. The findings suggest that intermittently eating sweet food changes the brain’s stress system so that you might feel stressed.