Doughnuts

Doughnuts are particularly difficult to resist - and now we know why. A study of how our brains respond to food has found that treats that are high in both carbs and fats trigger a super-charged amount of activity in our brain's reward center. Dana Small at Yale University and colleagues scanned the brain activity of hungry volunteers as they were shown images of foods that were either high in carbohydrates, such as candy, high in fat, such as cheese, or high in both, such as doughnuts. After the scans, the volunteers were asked to bid money in a competitive auction for the food they wanted to have for a snack. Compared to food containing just carbs or fat, the team found that foods high in both of these together provoked far more activity in the brain's striatum - a region involved in reward that releases the feel-good chemical dopamine. The volunteers were also willing to pay more for the snacks that were high in both carbs and fat, despite all the food items having the same calorific value.