Eat well to get double rewards from your brain: Study

Washington : A new research has revealed that a meal can trigger reward signals inside the brain twice; first when you eat the food and second when the food reaches to your stomach.

The study has been focused over the connection our brain develops with the digestive system to instigate food intake, helping in providing a clue to why we sometimes overeat the food we crave.

According to the study, published in the journal 'Cell Metabolism', the food can trigger a release of "feel good harmones" inside the brain.

"With the help of a new positron emission tomography (PET) technique we developed, we were not only able to find the two peaks of dopamine release, but we could also identify the specific brain regions that were associated with these releases. While the first release occurred in brain regions associated with reward and sensory perception, the post-ingestive release involved additional regions related to higher cognitive functions," said senior study author Marc Tittgemeyer.

For the research, 12 healthy people were provided with both the milkshake and a tasteless solution. With the PET data recorded, it has been claimed that the subjects' craving or desire for the milkshake was proportionally linked to the amount of dopamine released in particular brain areas at the first tasting. But the higher the craving, the less delayed post-ingestive dopamine was released.

"On one hand, dopamine release mirrors our subjective desire to consume a food item. On the other hand, our desire seems to suppress gut-induced dopamine release," said study co-author Heiko Backes.