Why We Can't Stop Eating Frosting From The Can

Monday, May 6, 2013 - 16:30 in Psychology & Sociology

There's a scientific reason she's going to eat all the frosting DreamstimeYour brain makes you unconsciously like caloric foods even if they're not delicious, study finds. You know when you're eating frosting straight out of the can and you're thinking, "I don't even really like this flavor," but you keep on eating? (It's a dark, but human, moment. We understand.) Well, now one study is offering an explanation for why. Compared to calorie-free foods, foods with calories in them hit the human brain with big effects, even if people don't appear to consciously like the flavors all that much. There appear to be two unrelated brain circuits that kick into gear when people consume things, Dana Small, a Yale University psychologist who studies people's responses to food and one of the scientists who performed this study, tells Popular Science. There's one that's related to consciously liking flavors. And then...

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