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Compulsive eating of rich food triggers some of the same addiction-like responses in the brain as heroin, a study on rats suggests.

When U.S. researchers offered rats high-calorie foods such as bacon, sausage, cake and chocolate on top of their healthier but less appetizing chow, the animals overconsumed calories, quickly gained weight and continued to overeat — even when they knew they’d receive an unpleasant electric shock.

Read more here: Junk-food addiction may change brain

PARIS (AFP) – The same molecular pathways that steer people into drug addiction also lie behind the craving to overeat, driving individuals into obesity, a new study suggests.

The research, based on lab animals, bolsters long-standing suspicions that addiction to pleasure stems from overstimulus of a key reward mechanism in the brain, its authors say.

Publishing online in the journal Nature Neuroscience, scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in Florida fed rats high-fat, high-calorie treats — bacon, sausage, cheesecake and so on — and watched the rodents bulk out dramatically.

Read more: Junkies and junk-food addicts share craving mechanism