Food flavorists tweaking our taste buds

A leading researcher says we eat food that’s bad for us because it’s been hijacked by flavorists who’ve discovered how to put together certain combinations of fat, sugar and salt to create intense cravings.

The foods “actually work on the heroin or morphine centers of your brain and they can be totally addictive if you are not careful,” Dr. Daniel Amen tells CBS News.

According to Amen, food cravings can activate the same part of the brain as love and longing.

“So people begin to long for things like chocolate or blueberry muffins. And just because it’s a blueberry muffin – we know blueberries are good for the brain – blueberry muffins are not good for the brain. People lie to themselves all the time,” he says.

“This all sounds kind of depressing,” says KIRO co-host Bill Radke. “Food cravings happen in the same part of the brain as longing for your grandchildren. So a craving isn’t just you being a pig. Your brain is longing for those brownies in a way that you yearn for a loved one.”

To battle these cravings, Amen tells CBS some keys include getting at least seven hours of sleep to avoid making bad food decisions; starting the day with a breakfast with protein to help balance your blood sugar through the day; and avoiding sugar and artificial sweeteners.

“That’s one of my doctor’s assistant’s suggestions, starting with even if it’s just a scoop of peanut butter in the morning. It’s better off than not for you,” says KIRO co-host Tom Tangney.

Amen says women are more likely to go for sweet foods based on a study of 10,000 men and women.

“Female brains are just much busier, much more active, so they are going after sweets more than men because we find that raises the chemical called serotonin that begins to calm things down in their brains.”

Amen says the best way to fight cravings is to stop eating the foods that trigger them, but he acknowledges that’s not always easy.

“Sometimes (cravings disappear) very fast, in as little as three or four days,” he says. “If you start, you know, getting rid of the bad food in your diet, your taste buds begin to come back and you stop craving or thinking about food.”