Foods Combining Fats & Carbohydrates Are More Beneficial than Foods Containing Fats & Carbs

A research suggests that the reward center of the brain values foods that are high in both fat and carbohydrates i.e. more than those containing only fats and carbs. A study of 206 adults suggests that these kinds of foods take over our body's inborn signals governing food consumption.

However, a senior author Dana Small director of Yale University's Modern Diet and Physiology Research Center said that the biological process that regulates the organization of foods with their nutritional value have evolved to carefully define the value of a food so that organisms can make adaptive decisions.

She adds that foods containing fats and carbohydrates show the signal to their potential caloric loads to the brain via different mechanisms. She also confirms about the accuracy of estimating calories their study, when both nutrients are combined, the brain seems to overestimate the energetic value of the food.

Small also said that generally foods high in fat and carbohydrate are very rare and tend to have fiber, which slows metabolism, therefore, by contrast, it is very frequent for processed foods to have high fat and high carbohydrate loads.

Scientists consider that our past experience with the nutritive properties of carbohydrates releases dopamine in the brain by means of an unknown metabolic signal. These kinds of signals seem to assist in regulating our habit of eating i.e. what and how much we eat.

The researchers conceive that the synchronized activation of fat and carbohydrate signaling pathways develops an effect that human physiology has not evolved to handle. As a result of which rodents given access to fat alone or carbohydrate alone regulate their total daily caloric intake and body weight. But if they are given unlimited access to fat and carbohydrates, they rapidly gain weight.