High levels of fat and carbohydrate had been thought to send pleasing messages to the brain, leading people to gorge on calorie-packed snacks.
But that is only part of the reason for our eating to excess for pleasure rather than hunger – known to scientists as “hedonic hyperphagia” – experts believe.
There must be something else in the crisps that make them so desirable.
Dr Tobias Hoch and his team at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany scanned the brains of rats who were fed crisps, a powdery mixture of fat and carbohydrates, or chow pellets.
The rats were far keener on crisps, despite the fat and carbs mixture containing the same number of calories. “The effect of crisps on brain activity, as well as feeding behaviour, can only partially be explained by its fat and carbohydrate content,” Dr Hoch told a US conference in New Orleans. There must be something else in the crisps that make them so desirable.”
Pinpointing the molecular triggers in snacks that stimulate the brain’s reward centres could lead to new drugs to combat obesity, he said.