It's Not Eve's Fault That She Loves Junk

Men find it easier to lose weight. That is because women are not able to junk their love for junk food.

One interesting study published in the FASEB Journal explained that what your mother when she was pregnant with you affects what you eat.

During the developmental paths to adulthood, when junk food is distressing, particularly for female offspring, there are two points that are very important, according to huffingtonpost.

"Our research suggests that too much junk food consumed late in pregnancy for humans has the potential to be more harmful to the child than excess junk food early in the pregnancy," said Jessica Gugusheff, post-doctoral researcher at University of Adelaide in Australia.

"Importantly, it also indicates that if excess junk food was consumed by the mother in those early stages of pregnancy, there may be a chance to reduce those negative effects on the baby by eating a healthy diet in late pregnancy," Gugusheff said.

The second "critical window" to turn away the desire for junk food happens when the child is an adolescent, says the study.

"We have found differences between males and females. Our experiments showed that eating a healthy diet during adolescence could reverse the junk-food preference in males but not females," said Gugusheff.

Anyone with the will power to refuse junk foods easily can do so. However, many people do not have the will to leave the food easily, because if they are healthy, they would not stop worrying about stopping junk food consumption, according to boldsky.com. The salt and sugar content of these junk foods tend to turn on the brain's reward systems and force the body to eat more of it. During adolescence, eating good food can make men give up junk food preferences, but not women. That is due to the brain area expanding more in this time, and being prone to get altered.

The normal systems that encourage the yearning for such food, that is the opioid and dopamine that have been encouraged by digestible high fat and sugar diets are triggered off. But those children who show lower sensitivity for such reward systems require more fat and sugar in order to be filled with the "good feeling" sensations.

"This brain area grows at its fastest during these critical windows and is therefore most susceptible to alteration at these times," project leader Beverly Mühlhäusler from University of Adelaide explained.