American researchers found burgers, chips and sausages programmed a human brain into craving even more sugar, salt and fat laden food.  Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in Florida found laboratory rats became addicted on a bad diet just like people who became dependent on cocaine and heroin.

They tested rats and the rats which ate as much junk food as they wanted quickly became very fat and started bingeing. When researchers electronically stimulated the part of the brain that feels pleasure, they found the rats on unlimited junk food needed even more stimulation to register the same level of pleasure as the animals on healthier diets.

"They always went for the worst types of food and as a result, they took in twice the calories as the control rats,” said Dr Kenny. "The change in their diet preference was so great that they basically starved themselves for two weeks after they were cut off from junk food." Read  more here.

The very same changes occur in the brains of rats that over consume cocaine or heroin, and are thought to play an important role in the development of compulsive drug use.

This is what Dr Kessler identified. He was a commissioner with the US Food and Drugs Administration. He claims that manufacturers have created combinations of fat, sugar and salt that are so tasty many people cannot stop eating them even when full.  He argues that manufacturers are seeking to trigger a "bliss point" when people eat certain products, leaving them hungry for more.

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Hedonic hyperphagia is overeating for reward or pleasure rather than need for calories. Eating because it is nice.

There are lots of foods we eat because they are nice, and they tend to be processed foods. And they tend to be developed by people in white coats, in the lab. So what is going on there then?

Well, Dr Kessler, who used to head up the US Food and Drugs Administration, says "The food industry has been able to figure out the bliss point, the optimal combinations of fat and salt, fat and sugar, fat, sugar and salt that you think tastes good". So industrially-developed food  is designed to get you to eat for pleasure.

And it is eating for pleasure - the crispy, salty, fatty crisps mmmm, the sweet and creamy (read fatty) chocolate aaah - that underlies our excess calorie intake.

And it really is addictive. After all, these industrial giants want you to buy more, and if you buy more, you eat more. (In the hand is in the mouth.)

The reward centres in the brain that regulate drug and other forms of addiction are the same as those brain areas that are stimulated by highly palatable foods (read fat, sugar, fat, salt). It is not surprising that genes associated with  addiction may also be linked with obesity. This assumption finds new support in a study published this month in PLoS Genetics by Nancy Heard-Costa from Boston University School of Medicine.

This research supports the notion that some individuals may be more susceptible to obesity because of an increased genetic predisposition to reward-seeking behaviours, that obviously include seeking out highly-palatable (addictive, fatty, salty, sugary) foods as well as other addictive behaviours.

Well, you might say, that is all very interesting. What does it mean for me? Well, it means this. Some of us eat for pleasure, and indeed take in most of our calories when we are eating for pleasure. This is my recommendation. If you are one of these people (and you will know this by checking your supermarket receipts, and if you are on the podgy side). Don't buy processed snack materials in the supermarket. If you do, you will buy them in large quantities and you will eat them in large quantities. Don't eat food out of sacks or buckets (crisps come in sacks).

If you must buy food to eat for fun (and hypnotherapy will help you stop) then buy them in small quantities from small shops.