Children who consume more ultraprocessed foods may show stronger activity in brain reward networks when they see appetizing foods, according to research published in JAMA Network Open. In the study, those responses were also linked to increases in body fat one year later.
The findings do not establish that ultraprocessed foods directly cause later changes in body fat. They do, however, point to a possible pathway that researchers say deserves closer attention: children’s exposure to highly palatable foods may be associated with how strongly their developing brains respond to food cues.
The work focused on a period when food preferences and habits are still forming. That makes the result notable because it connects dietary information, brain imaging and later body-composition data in the same group of children rather than examining each factor separately.
What the researchers studied
The research involved 46 children between the ages of 7 and 10 who were participating in the long-term BrainChild study of diabetes and obesity risk. All began the study at a healthy weight, allowing the investigators to examine potential early risks associated with ultraprocessed-food consumption.
At the start of the study, the team collected dietary information, body-mass-index data and measurements of body composition. The children also underwent magnetic resonance imaging while viewing photographs of highly appetizing foods, including cookies and french fries.
That design allowed the researchers to compare reported food intake with activity in the brain’s reward network during exposure to visual food cues. They then related those initial brain responses to changes in body fat recorded a year later.
The reported pattern was that greater consumption of ultraprocessed foods was associated with stronger reward-network responses to appetizing food images. Those stronger responses, in turn, were linked with increases in body fat at follow-up.
Why ultraprocessed foods are under scrutiny
Ultraprocessed foods are manufactured products designed to be convenient, shelf-stable and highly palatable. Examples identified in the report include breakfast cereals, packaged bread and instant soups. They often contain ingredients such as artificial sweeteners and colors that people do not typically use when preparing food at home.
In the United States, children obtain about 67% of their daily calories from ultraprocessed foods on average, according to the report. That level of exposure makes the question of how these foods interact with developing preferences and food-related brain responses especially important.
Previous studies have associated ultraprocessed-food consumption with weight gain, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. But researchers have had less clarity about the role of the brain’s reward network in those risks. The new study was designed to help address that gap by measuring neural reactions directly rather than relying only on dietary or health outcomes.
Food images are useful in this context because seeing appetizing food can activate reward-related processes even before a person eats. The study’s use of MRI while children viewed such images gives researchers a way to investigate whether diet is associated with differences in the response to those cues.
Developing brains, developing habits
Dr. Kathleen A. Page, the study’s senior author and a professor of medicine and pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, described childhood as an important period because brains are still developing, habits are forming and food preferences are being established.
That developmental setting matters for interpreting the results. The researchers were not studying children who had already entered the research at a higher weight. Instead, the group started at a healthy weight, enabling the team to look at an earlier point in the relationship among diet, food-cue response and subsequent body composition.
The research suggests that the brain may become more sensitive to food cues when children consume more ultraprocessed foods. It does not identify a single food, ingredient or behavior as the cause of a child’s later body-fat change. Nor does the study itself offer a prediction for any individual child.
Its contribution is narrower and potentially valuable: it identifies an observed association that can guide additional research into how food environments, dietary patterns and reward processing may interact during childhood.
What the findings mean—and what they do not
The study offers evidence of a relationship, not proof of a direct cause-and-effect chain. The reported results show that higher ultraprocessed-food intake, stronger neural responses to appetizing images and later increases in body fat occurred together in this group. Other research will be needed to test the mechanisms involved and to determine how broadly the finding applies.
Even so, the results add a brain-based dimension to a public-health issue already under close examination. If future work confirms that frequent exposure to ultraprocessed foods changes sensitivity to food cues, interventions could focus not only on what children eat but also on the environments in which food preferences are made.
For now, the study reinforces the importance of examining childhood diet early. With ultraprocessed foods accounting for a large share of children’s calories in the United States, understanding their relationship to developing reward systems may help researchers identify opportunities to reduce health risks before they become entrenched.
This article is based on reporting by Medical Xpress. Read the original article.
Originally published on medicalxpress.com
