Path from junk food to poor decisions drawn by Western University researchers

The London Free Press

In a paper published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health this month, researchers found that too many calorie-dense foods can lead to changes in the part of the brain that controls self-regulation, decision-making and reward-seeking. Adolescence, the researchers found, is a time of “dual susceptibility,” when teens are still developing their ability to make decisions, which leads to a lack of self-control when it comes to junk food. And all that junk food may lead to changes in the brain’s prefrontal cortex, the last area to develop, Reichfelt referred to the prefrontal cortex as “the manager of the brain” because it controls behaviour. Read more here