Advertisement

This Is Your Brain On Cheesecake

19:36
Download Audio
Resume
Cheesecake. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
Cheesecake. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

Your brain on cheesecake may not look much different from your brain on an addictive drug. That’s the theme of episode three of “Food, We Need To Talk.”

You probably know from experience that some foods are addictive, but you may not realize just how insidious they can be. Co-hosts Dr. Eddie Phillips and Juna Gjata discuss a particularly disturbing experiment with mice fed the equivalent of junk food, and the sizzling sweet “blondie” that is seared into Juna’s brain.

We also hear from author and journalist Michael Pollan, who explains his argument that some of the things marketed as food may not deserve that name.

"So, for instance, the combination of salt, fat and sugar in the same food, that doesn't happen that often in nature," he says. "When it happens, we just can't stop eating it. So it's designed to be addictive. They use terms in the industry like crave-ability. They're manipulating us to eat more than we should."

Follow "Food, We Need To Talk" on Instagram here

Related:

Headshot of Carey Goldberg

Carey Goldberg Editor, CommonHealth
Carey Goldberg is the editor of WBUR's CommonHealth section.

More…

Advertisement

More from Food, We Need To Talk

Listen Live
Close